16 February 2026

Happy Presidents’ Day! States celebrate George Washington alone, Washington and Abraham Lincoln, or some other combination of Presidents today. Being old enough to remember President George H.W. Bush’s denigration of broccoli, I decided to look into Presidential influence on our food culture.

I had always assumed that Bush had made hating broccoli “cool”, thus ruining healthy dinners for families across the country. But there was more to the story. California Farmers sent ten tons of broccoli to the White House, forcing him to admit his family was divided. “For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself,” Bush said. “So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in.”

The broccoli was used to feed the hungry, and broccoli ended up getting the best publicity of its life. Culture wars are not new.

And apparently, although Bush gave those who disliked the cancer-fighting cruciferous vegetable an “out”, broccoli consumption tripled in the thirty years after his initial comment - an indicator that any publicity is good publicity.

Our third President, Thomas Jefferson, has been celebrated as “America’s First Foodie”. Initially, food culture here was a straight transplant from the motherland - roasted meats, pies and the occasional boiled vegetable. But after his wife’s death, Congress appointed Jefferson Minister Plenipotentiary (cool title, but kind of like an ambassador), enabling his travel to Italy and Southern France, where he developed an appreciation for finer (or more diverse?) cuisine.

Here, I’ll defend many delicious foods from that small island (shepherd’s pie!), while finally realizing why my husband prefers much-of-the-same over exploratory cuisine.

Jefferson arranged for a slave to accompany him and be trained by European chefs, so that these new [to him] foods could be recreated at the White House. He returned from his travels with 680 bottles of wine, copious notes about the cultivation of various crops and a recipe for vanilla ice cream.

Jefferson also created an experimental kitchen garden at Monticello (later, revitalized and honored by Michelle Obama), noting many failures in his horticultural diary, but expressing great joy over his agricultural exploits. Like a true foodie, he appreciated all aspects of nourishment, from seed to table.

Abraham Lincoln advocated for the establishment of the US Department of Agriculture, which he called “the People’s Department” - over half of Americans lived on farms at the time. He established the land grant university system, to train future farmers, although was assassinated before slaves could reap the benefit he envisioned (that came 25 years after his death).

You may not realize that Theodore Roosevelt’s penchant for conservation and agricultural regulation evolved out of the loss of his own cattle herd due to overgrazing and intense heat. In 1908, he was quoted as saying,

“We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation.”

It might be helpful to think on this today…

Faced with the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and understanding the importance of healthy soil to the food supply, Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Soil Erosion Service, and initiated farm policies to keep the food supply stable (measures that would later be undone by Richard Nixon’s appointment of Earl Butz as agriculture secretary and his “get big or get out” policy).

Under direction of President Donald Trump, just last week, Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee released text for the new (and long overdue) farm bill, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026.

The draft includes a “save our bacon” provision that restricts states like California and Massachusetts from imposing their animal welfare standards (such as requiring a confined pig to have enough room to turn around) on imported products. Even the pork industry is divided on this, as many farmers have already transitioned to more humane methods.

It also includes a provision that prevents states and courts from enforcing label warnings about health effects beyond those formally recognized by the [ever-loosening guidelines of the] Environmental Protection Agency.

On the plus side, the USDA has announced assistance for specialty crop farmers (those who grow fruits and vegetables, rather than commodity crops) “impacted by unfair market disruptions” (backlash from tariffs).

More details and negotiations are expected in the next week, but I think it’s fair to say the Trump Administration will have a huge influence on US agriculture, environmental and food policies. These impact working Americans, farmers, animals and our future.

It’s my opinion that protecting a healthful, safe, diversified and regenerative food system is good for everyone - farmers and consumers alike. Devoting the current disproportionate amount of land and resources to industrial animal agriculture is not only inhumane and inefficient, but also unhealthy for humans and the planet.

To be clear, I’m not calling for the country to go vegan - but IMHO we need a readjustment of our priorities and proportions. If the goals is Eat Real Food (and I’ll add “mostly plants”), then policy needs to support that.

If you live in a farming state - or if you eat, farm policy will affect you. Readers in the United States, contact your members of Congress and tell them what you think.