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!

Magical Thinking on Fluoride

The world is a strange place. Take fluoride, for example. In this country, the handling and disposal of hydrofluorosilicic acid - an industrial by-product from the phosphate fertilizer industry - is closely monitored and regulated by the EPA. That is, until it is sold as a product. Then, as if by magic, this highly toxic substance no longer requires oversight by the EPA. It is transported freely across the country and is added to public drinking water supplies, so that everyone who drinks the water also drinks some of the toxic chemical.

Unlike the fluoride used in toothpaste, hydrofluorosilicic acid is not pharmaceutical-grade quality. It is a corrosive acid, usually unpurified. Exposure to fluoride has been associated with developmental problems in infants and increased levels of lead in children’s blood.

Now, anyone who grew up watching television knows that fluoride helps prevent tooth decay (or so we've been told), so you might think that adding the chemical to drinking water might help reduce tooth decay, but there is actually no scientific evidence to support this theory. The only measurable benefit scientists can document comes from the topical application of fluoride, not from systemic ingestion.

The practice of adding fluoride to drinking water has been banned in most European countries, but here in the United States it is still widely accepted, with government agencies and industrial producers stubbornly clinging to the notion that exposing the entire population to this chemical, without their consent, is wise and just. We strongly disagree.

If you live in an area where fluoride isn't added to your water supply, consider yourself lucky. If not, you might want to think about getting your family a good quality water filter.

- Doug

P. S. We had Dr. Paul Connett on our Green Street radio show last year. To hear the show, click here.

New York State: Guardians of the Public Health

A few years ago a title like this would have seemed highly unlikely. And given last year's political spectacle in Albany, you might think nothing much could possibly have been accomplished. Nevertheless, we think 2010 is going to go down in history as the year New York got serious about the public's environmental health. Consider the evidence:

• In May, the State passed truly historic legislation prohibiting the use of pesticides on playing fields at all public and private schools in the state, grades K-12, as well as day care centers. This is the most comprehensive law of its kind anywhere in the country.

• In October, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation announced "Be Green Organic Yards, NY" - a groundbreaking program to train and certify private landscapers in natural (non-pesticide) turf management. No other state offers such a program.

• Just last month, the Interagency Committee on Sustainability and Green Procurement announced a list of "Chemicals for Consideration," containing scores of known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and other bio-accumulative toxins. The list will be used by all State agencies making purchasing decisions.

As a member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Sustainability and Green Procurement, I can tell you it was exciting and gratifying to see all our hard work and persistence pay off. For once, I felt we had really moved the ball forward in a significant way.

All three of these initiatives embrace the Precautionary Principle - the idea that the government can and should take action to protect the public's health even when absolute proof of cause and effect has not yet been established.

Now the fight to protect the public's health moves to other states across the country, but with New York leading by example, we hope other state governments will find it easier to move forward on these extremely important issues. We are proud to have been able to play a role in New York's actions this year.

- Patti

Autism and the Environment

Last week our Green Street radio show was about autism, We talked with a leading researcher about possible environmental links and we talked with the VP of a non-profit organization about the things being done to help parents of autistic kids. It was both inspiring and frightening.

As we watch our grandson grow up, we are reminded of just how much work it is to raise a child, and how invested parents become in the health and welfare of their children. The possibility that your three-year-old child begin to regress and withdraw as the symptoms of autism appear is something we all have to live with.

The link to vaccinations seems to have been mostly dispelled by the research, although doubt lingers among many parents of autistic children because of the significant anecdotal evidence noting the proximity of vaccinations to the first signs of autism. But there are other factors coming to light.

Prenatal exposures are getting particular scrutiny, including viruses and ultra-sound procedures. And of course, chemical exposures from airborne toxins, nutritional deficiencies, personal care products and food are always on the list of suspects.

"I don't think that any case is due to a single exposure or a single gene," Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the University of California at Davis told us. "Every [autistic] child has probably been affected by several genes and several environmental factors."

You can hear the whole show at http://www.greenstreetradio.com/thisweek.html.

Giving Thanks for Natural Food

In a few days we'll be sitting down to a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner; roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, winter squash, brussels sprouts, rutabaga, cranberry-orange relish, pumpkin and apple pies and probably a few other things I left out. The difference between our meal and what most Americans will be eating this year is what's missing from our food: GMOs, antibiotics, pesticides, artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, preservatives and a host of other chemicals that have contaminated our food supply.

Few of our ancestors would recognize most of the food items that pass through the checkout counters and end up on dinner tables this week. They might shake their heads in disbelief at genetically-modified fruits and vegetables in styrofoam trays and plastic wrap, boxes of "food products" that contain virtually no actual food but lots of chemicals, and meat and poultry raised in huge commercial feeding operations and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.

The truth is that we are what we eat, and a diet of these chemicals will eventually take its toll on our bodies. During the great debate over health care in this country, we were astonished at the public disconnect between our typical American diet and the state of our national health.

How will it change? It will change when mothers and fathers rise up and collectively say "no more." It will end when feeding your kids junk food is seen for what it really is - a form of unintentional child abuse. It will change at the grassroots level - one family at a time, just like every other movement.

We'll be out at the farm this year, celebrating our first Thanksgiving with our grandson and his parents, Maggie and Matt. We'll be giving thanks for a bountiful harvest this year, for good health, and for the real food we eat.

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!