All four of the main candidates are running on a “change” platform. “Vote for me to bring change to White House,” they say. I recognize that “changing the lawn” by replacing part of it with edible gardens is probably not what most people have in mind, but it would send a number of messages, all of them positive. At a time when America is in the grips of an obesity epidemic and the world is struggling with climate change, it would send a message that fresh fruits and vegetables produced close to home are good and healthy things.

All candidates are saying that they’re the best person to reach out to independents and across the aisle to the other party. Gardens already do that. Productive home gardens are not conservative, liberal, democratic, republican, red, white, blue, black, Latino, male or female. They cut across all lines. They even cut across national borders.

So what’s standing in the way of change? I suspect the biggest argument against would be “tradition”: i.e. we can’t plant a kitchen garden at the White House because it would involve tampering with a landscape of historical significance. In digging a little deeper in our history books, most people would be surprised to learn that planting edible gardens would not involve breaking traditions so much as returning to them. In 1800, John Adams was the first president to occupy the White House in 1800 and one of his first additions was a vegetable garden. It was 25 years later, in 1825, that John Quincy Adams developed the first flower garden on the White House grounds and planted ornamental trees. So, if there’s a gardening tradition that’s less well-rooted, it’s that one.

For me, promoting home gardens – at the highest of levels - is the responsible thing to do. Last August, the Guardian reported that more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined in order to keep up with population growth which is projected to hit 9 billion by 2050. That will involve some radical new thinking about what food is, where it comes from, and who produces it.

It will also require some new policy initiatives to make local and home-grown foods more accessible to all. These might take the form of incentives. While the idea of a "Victory Garden Tax Break" might sound trifling to some, it deserves consideration. To help encourage people to plant carrots, perhaps we need to offer them some. If we rely on people to use the "honor system" in reporting the size of their home-offices (the costs of which can be deducted from income taxes), surely we can use the same system for reporting the size of and costs associated with their home gardens.

If these ideas seem strange or unreasonable, it may be due to the Maine air and climate. Although Mainers are short on frost-free days, we're long on the type of hope and patience that gardening requires. Despite our size and chilly weather, we're home to several nationally-known garden writers and seed companies. We've even got our First Lady, Karen Baldacci, on board. Among her first acts as First Lady was to plant a kitchen garden and set up a greenhouse at the Governor's Mansion, Maine's answer to the White House. If it can happen at the state level, surely it can happen nationally.

So, my formal proposal is that the current Presidential candidates pledge that on day one of their presidency they will announce plans to plant a food garden on the White House lawn, making one of the White House's eight gardeners responsible for it, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. If you think that this is an idea worthy of support, you can lend it here. Simply follow the link and click on "rate this idea".