By Wayne J. McLaurin
University of
Georgia
For the past two years I’ve heard nothing but candidates voicing
opinions, special interest groups being interviewed and the women
or men on the street giving their opinions. This is well and
good, but it doesn’t get me very excited about the issues.
The issues I worry about may be different from others’.
I used to hear some candidates mention big agriculture, but even
that has vanished lately. And I’ve never heard anyone saying they
would make it a priority in their administration to control early
blight on tomatoes.
Where is the gardener vote? Are we the real silent majority?
That can’t be. As anyone can attest, gardeners are never silent.
You just have to hit the right button to get them started. Just
ask us, “How do you get that to grow?” And you can’t shut us up.
Don’t we deserve to know if any of these so-called national
candidates can even grow a tomato, much less keep an African
violet blooming? Where’s the fig vote? (As if I care a fig.)
Who can you trust?
The last candidate I can remember doing any kind of gardening was
Ike, and he just dug up the turf playing golf.
Do you trust anyone who doesn’t get out in nature and commune
with okra? Do they not have a soul for peppers? Have they never
longed to harvest new potatoes and cook them up with parsley
butter?
Maybe they’re just too busy going about their business. However,
if they’re too busy for gardening, well, they’re just too busy.
Period.
Where would we gardeners be without that time communing with
vegetables, fruits and flowers? Most of us would be lost or worse.
Oh, yeah, I’m going to go vote. It’s my duty as an American
gardener. But I surely would like to know where the candidates
stand — in the furrow or on top of the row?
(Wayne McLaurin is a professor emeritus of horticulture with
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.)
