Vert-à-Go

First Family/Inauguration Cookie Pack from Little Rae’s Bakery

With only 10 days, 13 hours, and 6 minutes to go in Bush’s time in office (but who’s counting?), pretty much everyone is already casting their eyes forward to US President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on 20 January.

So what do we know about Obama’s likely approach to food issues?

• Much speculation has been made over the fact that Obama both read and responded to Michael Pollan’s open letter in the New York Times to the ‘Farmer-in-Chief’.
• Sustainable food advocates have been campaigning for Obama to turn part of the White House lawn into an organic garden, and it turns out that the White House already has a rooftop garden that helped provide both the Clinton and Bush families with very local produce.
• The Obamas plan to keep the current White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, who creates “original dishes with American flavor” and who shares the Obamas “perspective on the importance of healthy eating and healthy families”.
• Reaction from the left has been decidedly negative to Obama’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack–a big advocate of biofuels, GMOs, and biotechnology who used Monsanto’s private jet while he was governor of Iowa. Should we be dismayed? Or maybe he isn’t the agricultural antichrist after all?

For more up-to-the-minute info on the “Obama Foodscape”, check out Obama Foodorama. And if you’re in the catchment area for Little Rae’s Bakery in Seattle, don’t  miss the First Family/Inauguration pack of cookies, designed “to honor the entire first family to show our support and hope that when we stick together, when we lean on those closest, we are strongest.” Because the Obamas couldn’t adopt a dog from the animal shelter due to allergies, Little Rae’s is donating a portion of every sale to the Humane Society. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that.

photo: Little Rae’s Bakery’s election cookie pack

These delicious and topical shortbread cookies are from Little Rae’s Bakery in Seattle, Washington, which turns out the cutest cookies on the planet, as well as a wide range of other delectable baked goods using all-natural ingredients. The election pack of cookies was an instant hit in coffee shops and espresso carts across Seattle and on the first day they hit the streets, they sold out in 45 minutes flat. But the important question is, ‘Who’s winning the shortbread poll?’

As of this weekend, Obama was outselling McCain 72% to 28%. Not too big of a surprise in the historically Democratic Washington State, but still great news for everyone who prefers their politicians (and their baked goods) nut-free! Actor and liberal activist Sean Penn was spotted scarfing one in Los Angeles a few days ago.

James Morse, owner of Little Rae’s, says of the cookie-lovers’ overwhelming vote of support for Obama, ‘”We haven’t had any complaints of fraud, and we haven’t been accused of trying to steal the election or anything of the sort.” A local radio station interviewed an espresso cart owner based in front of Seattle City Hall, who said that a lot of people are buying McCain just to bite his head off–that they were taking a real “visceral satisfaction” in it. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels responded with his belief that ‘people should buy their cookies out of love, not spite.’

Well, here’s hoping we’ll be feeling some love of the true blue variety by tonight!*

Some more photos of the cookies from the Seattle Daily Photo on Flickr.

* The Retail Bakers Association, which says its 2004 Cookie Poll was very accurate in predicting a Bush victory, currently has Obama in the lead at 58%, with McCain trailing at 42%.