Food-lovers everywhere have applauded Michelle Obama's initiative to plant a garden on White House property, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden there more than half a century ago. But while the praise for the initiative seems unanimous, the opinion on the future of food growth still is not. The official name of Michelle's garden is the White House Organic Farm Project and both proponents of organic farming and conventional farming are expressing their views.

Alice Waters, an outspoken supporter of sustainable agriculture, doesn't see any reason why organic farming shouldn't be accessible to anyone and everyone.

"I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides," Waters recently told CBS' Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes." "And everybody deserves this food. And that's not elitist."

However, the author of "Real Foods for Healthy Kids," Tracey Seaman realizes that growing vegetables and buying organic produce may not be feasible for all families. In other words, not everyone has access to a full gardening crew the way the First Lady does.

"It's a real challenge because organic stuff is still pricier than the conventional," said Seaman, a single, working mother of two teenagers. "I think parents have to choose what's really important."

Others echo Seaman's sentiments.

"We're all in the middle of a recession, like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the 'green' market," renowned chef Anthony Bourdain said in a January interview with DCist.com.

Bourdain is host of the Travel Channel show No Reservations, author of "Kitchen Confidential" and no fan of Waters by the way.

And then there are still others like "Omnivores Dilemma" author Michael Pollan, who don't necessarily vocalize an opinion on the organic farming debate, but are in favor of the eco-friendly benefits that planting a garden can provide.

At a time of economic crisis, a garden can provide a surprisingly large amount of fresh, healthy produce," Pollan said. "But just as important, it teaches important habits of mind -- helping people to reconnect with their food, eat more healthily on a budget and recognize that we're less dependent on the industrial food chain, and cheap fossil fuel, than we assume."  

» ABC News