Thank You, New York!

Today is a historic and fantastic day for the kids of New York, although chances are few of them know it. Today, the Child Safe Playing Fields Act goes into effect in the state, prohibiting the use of pesticides on school grounds at all schools, public and private, up to grade 12, and including daycare centers.

To celebrate the occasion, Patti and I visited legislators in Albany yesterday to thank them for their hard work on this issue, and congratulate them for doing such a great job. The New York legislation is a model for all states. As the song says, "If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere."

Here's Patti talking with the two prime sponsors of the bill, Assemblymen Steve Englebright and Robert Sweeney. The poster in Sweeney's hand is the "Thank You, New York" poster we created, which was signed by almost every environmental and health organization in the state. You can see the full-resolution poster here.

The Organic Lawn Mindset

Several years ago we started our award-winning “Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program,” designed to increase both the demand for organic lawn services and the supply of trained professionals who can deliver those services. Over the past few years, hundreds of landscapers and turf managers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts have gone through our two-day intensive course.

So naturally, we’re delighted that the demand for organic lawn care has skyrocketed as the public has become increasingly aware of the dangers posed by typical lawn chemicals, especially for children, pets and pregnant women.

But there’s also bad news: some of the landscapers offering organic lawn care services don’t really “get it.” Worse, some of them don’t even believe it!

Organic lawn care is based on the principle that if we create the best possible environment for grass to grow, nature’s own systems will take care of most of the problems that plague chemically-maintained lawns. What’s the best defense against weeds? A thick, healthy lawn. How do you discourage crabgrass? Adjust your soil pH to 6.8. Got a yard full of broadleaf plantain? You need to aerate your soil.

So if you’re a landscaper who has spent his entire career believing that lawn care is a battle between you and pests, and that your primary job is to kill them, then you’ll probably never succeed in organic lawn care. Unfortunately, most university turf and agricultural research programs are heavily funded by chemical companies whose products are primarily designed to kill pests.

If you’re looking for an organic landscaper, find one who has been through the Grassroots Healthy Lawn program, the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) 5-day Course, or the course offered by the Nature Lyceum. At least you can be sure they’ve studied with people who get it.

Unwelcome Signs of Spring

As the crocuses and daffodils bravely make their way out of the ground to signal the start of a new season, we know that other, less welcome signs of spring are probably not far behind. Those bright yellow pesticide application flags that spring up on neighborhood lawns and playing fields this time of year are sober reminders that emerging science linking pesticides with serious health problems for humans and pets (not to mention water contamination and environmental destruction) has not yet fully reached the public consciousness

There’s no longer much dispute among environmental toxicologists or medical experts about the potential impact of pesticides on human development. Asthma, certain types of cancers, birth defects, reproductive and neuro-developmental problems (all of which are on the rise) have all been associated with exposure to these chemicals. Children and women who are pregnant are particularly vulnerable.

Pesticides are also potentially harmful to pets, who roll in the grass and groom themselves by licking their paws and fur. A National Cancer Institute study showed that dogs whose owners treated their lawns with 2,4-D herbicide (usually the “weed” part of those popular “weed-and-feed” products) were twice as likely to contract canine lymphoma.

"Natural" or "organic" lawn care is the fastest growing segment of the green industry, and we're proud of the role Grassroots has played in helping to make that happen through our professional education seminars, our informational videos, our consumer flyers and our ever-popular "green lawn cards." But obviously we've got a long way to go.

Happy Spring to all our Grassroots friends!

The School IPM Rant

We often hear people brag about their child's school having an IPM, or "Integrated Pest Management" policy for school fields. Do they not realize that IPM is an industry-developed and sponsored program? The underlying concept of IPM sounds great - using least toxic methods first, then graduating to heavy chemicals only if the natural methods don't work. But the reality is that these programs are usually administered by people with years of training in pesticides and zero training in natural methods. In all the years since IPM was introduced, the use of pesticides has gone up, not down. IPM may have some limited applications for indoor pest control, but to control weeds? We don't think so.

Bottom line: Many lawn pesticides are either carcinogens or neurotoxins or both. If they were spilled on a school field by accident, men in hazmat suits would be dispatched to clean them up. These products should never even get close to a school, and with today's advances in soil science and organic products, we don't need them at all!