You Buy Organic. But What About Your Lawn?

Organic produce and meat are becoming popluar dietary choices for many of us.   Some folks have even put in organic gardens, hoping to save money and grow the organic veggies they love the most.  We, the crunchy, the green, and the health-aware, are a group of people who have become conscious about what we put into our bodies and on our gardens.  But what about our lawns? 

I've heard for years about how pesticides and commercial fertilizers have been seeping into our water supply, are being found in high quantities in fish and other animals, and are directly making people sick.  I've even met a few sad folks who have been poisoned from something as "harmless" and ant spray.  So I was intrigued to find two articles recently that help explain how our obsession with pesticides is turning against us.   And what we can do about it.

The Dark Side of the Perfect Lawn

The first article, The Dark Side of Lawns, helps us understand why and how our everyday lawn care practices affect our health and the health of our planet.  Now don't get all "Oh, you are such a left-wing environmentalist" on me because I said the word, "planet".  These are really interesting and well-researched articles.   Super smart people from Harvard and the National Cancer Institute have been studying the use of pesticides and their resulting data is really clarifying.   According to the former, garden pesticides "can increase the risk of childhood leukemia seven-fold."  According to researchers at Harvard School of Public Health, "frequent exposure to pesticides increased the incidence of Parkinson's disease by 70 percent."  There is nothing political or partisan about those facts.  Even if you have the liver of a Superman, most of us cannot process all of the chemicals and toxins that we pump into our bodies via the earth.  It's not just the big companies that are doing it.  It's us, the little people, too.

Because the FDA does not require it, Commercial fertilizers also do not include specifics on their label about non-active ingredients.  Non-active ingredients can include high amounts of heavy metals.  We don't want those in our water either.  This article is a must read, so please read more....

An Organic Lawn:  First Step - Think Differently

I really love it when web sites and information sources not only tell you what NOT to do, but also give you a plan that will help you make a change.  The second article, Your 6-Step Organic Lawn Plan, will probably take seven steps because as they say in their introductory paragrah, thinking organically demands a change of mind. As I learned from the experts that helped me save my organic garden from blight, healthy plants require the immune system in their soil to be healthy, too, just like humans do. That takes nuture, not control.

As a Tender Foodie, I've had to change my habits and my way of thinking many times.  With each new mysterious symptom, with the realization that many of these symptoms could be cured with food and lifestyle changes, and with each new kind of food that crosses my path, a whole fresh world has slowly opened up to me.  With a few exceptions, my food is more delicious and more nutritious.  My body likes that and responds in kind.  As a result, I have become concerned with "why" so many people have food allergies and other health problems in the first place.  I also wonder why people with food allergies have multiple food allergies, many of them life-threatening.  The number of people with food allergies has risen so sharply in the last decade or so, that this is concerning researchers, too.  And it isn't just because more people are being diagnosed.  There is actually a change in our environment and our food.  Research Says So.  At least, it is beginning to.

For people with food allergies, "you are what you eat" takes on a whole new meaning.  So does, "know where your food comes from."  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 80 million U.S. households dump nearly 90 million pounds of herbicides and pesticides on lawns in a year.  The grass doesn't use very much of that.  So the rest gets into our ground water, rivers and lakes.  Our crops use that water.  Cows, fish, chickens, and sheep ingest that water.  We drink that water, eat those crops and ingest cows, chickens, fish and sheep.  I think this subject is worth a little change of mind.  A change of heart.  And a change in practice.  Don't you?