Michelle Obama entertained some fifth-grade students from Washington's Bancroft Elementary School at a late lunch Tuesday in the first lady's garden. It was a harvest celebration, with ingredients from the kitchen garden the children helped get started in March, coming back in April to plant the seeds.

Kids, gardens, seeds and organic vegetables would normally make for a pretty safe and innocuous White House event, even given today's hothouse atmosphere in the nation's capital. But the symbolic importance of an organic garden on the South Lawn, visible from the iron fence on E Street, has blossomed in ways no one could have expected. It has not only spurred many to have their own home garden - it has also clearly put a scare into conventional agriculture, which has fought back.

Obama's stated purpose - to highlight the importance of a healthful diet for children and how much easier it is to get children to eat from their least favorite food group, vegetables, when produce is just out of the ground - was quickly transposed upon a much larger playing field.

No sooner had the garden been announced than a letter addressed to Mrs. Barack Obama arrived at the East Wing from an organization that represents companies selling chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The Mid America CropLife Association, an agribusiness media group, urged the first lady to give conventional agriculture equal time. Referring to chemicals the group euphemistically called "crop protection products," the letter said not only are such nonorganic techniques necessary, but their safety is also "supported by sound scientific research and innovation."

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