the QUEEN!

The Guardian food page reports Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip returning use of some of their grounds to vegetable growing!

As a 14-year-old, she picked up a spade and joined with the rest of wartime Britain in the Dig for Victory campaign. Seven decades later, though no longer wielding the spade herself, the Queen, 83, has again embraced the "grow your own" movement.

The Guardian, and the UK and Europe in general, are way ahead of the US on lots of food policy and farm issues, from the much greater availability of locally grown food and the value placed on it, and on farmers, to a higher awareness in the public about how health and the environment are impacted by what we eat, where it comes from, and how we grow and produce it. In the US, lots of these issues are just catching on in the mainstream.
IN FACT, The UK is so up on their food awareness that some of features on the Guardian's food page are about how annoying it is to be bombarded with sustainable/green/organic/local campaigns, especially from celebrities. This guy has a nice post about a sustainable fish advert - some nakedish folks holding a huge cod - and how it makes caring about where your food comes from A Hip Elite Fad rather than a nice, basic, how-grandma-used-to-do-it kind of thing.