AERO KUFM Commentary

May 29, 2008

“Food, not Lawns”

by Bruce Smith

Lawns have somewhat of a checkered past. French aristocrats popularized the idea of the green, grassy lawn in the 18th century when they planted the agricultural fields around their estates to grass to send the message that they had more land than they needed and could afford to waste some. Meanwhile French peasants starved for the lack of available farmland. Not to be outdone, the English followed suit, which lead, in part, to millions starving to death during the great Irish potato famine.

Now that you know the ill-begotten history of lawns, let’s talk about what they are doing to us today. Not only do lawns waste our time, energy, and money, they are silently poisoning our environment. In 1999, the last year the EPA kept such figures, over 39 million tons of yard insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides were sold to US house-holds, this doesn’t include the chemicals used for professional applications, like golf courses. Additionally over 3 million tons of fertilizers are dumped on lawns in the U.S. every year. Much of these chemicals end up in streams, lakes, rivers, and in the groundwater and ultimately, some of these chemicals make their way into our bodies.

These chemicals are not the only problem caused by lawns. The amount of carbon monoxide, not to mention noise pollution, caused by lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and weed trimmers, are estimated to make up more than 5 percent of the nation's air pollution. According to a 1998 study, about 4 out of 5 U.S. households have private lawns which are typically about a third of an acre in size. In 2003, Americans spent $38.4 billion tending those yards or about $457 per household, says the National Gardening Association.

Information gathered from the Environmental Protection Agency and People Powered Machines estimate that:

• 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend.
• 80 pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere each year by the average gas-powered mower.
• Over 580 million gallons of gas are consumed each year by gas mowers.
• 30% to 60% of urban water is used for watering lawns. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average lawn consumes about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall.
• Three times as much pesticide is used on lawns per acre than on agricultural crops

If you are really serious about doing something for the environment, consider taking out your lawn and putting in something we or the wildlife can eat. It’s a win-win situation for all of us.

Consider the amount of energy that can be saved if you grow your own food in your yard or some other place close to home. Most of the food we eat travels 1,300 miles, or further, before it gets to our tables. Also consider the amount of gas, time, and money you save not having to go to the grocery store to buy this well-traveled fare. Local food is usually the freshest, best tasting food you can find. Not having been developed to withstand storage and transport, it is usually grown for its taste. The side benefit being that the better a food tastes, the more you enjoy eating it. Local food is usually healthier food - more natural sugars and nutrients and less flavor enhancers and preservatives.

All the time, energy, and money spent tending a piece of ground that puts nothing healthy back into the system and goes a long ways towards polluting it, is truly wasteful. Here are some suggestions to help us build our communities while cleaning up our environment:

• Spend some of your time donating back to the community. If you can’t commit to an organized program, consider growing food for the food bank or some other community-based program.
• Trade the time, money, and energy you spend fertilizing, weeding, and mowing a lawn on growing something healthy for your family or somebody else’s family.
• Share seed, share ideas, or share your yard with someone who doesn’t have one.
• Grow plants that require little or no maintenance or fertilizers, plants that can make it on their own or are naturally adapted to our climate.
• Catch the water off your roof before it gets to the street. Set up an irrigation system that uses the best plant water you can find – rain water.
• Wean your lawns and yards off chemical fertilizers and pesticides. If you have been a heavy user, it won’t happen overnight and, at first, it won’t be pretty, but it can be done.
• Use pots and containers you can move indoors and out. Trade out houseplants for food plants.

So the next time you are tempted to admire someone’s well-kept, manicured lawn, think about what it is costing us, all of us.

If you like these ideas and would like more, the book Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community is a theoretical and practical handbook for ecological community transformation and a excellent guide for ecological living in the city through paradise gardening and shared resources. Food Not Lawns was written by Heather Coburn Flores who is also the co-founder of the original Food Not Lawns grassroots gardening project in Eugene, OR. You can find more information about that program online at www.foodnotlawns.com.

I’m Bruce Smith for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. My commentary is one of the many conversations we’re having at AERO. AERO is a grassroots membership organization that’s been building communities by linking people with sustainable agriculture and energy solutions for 35 years. To join the conversation and become part of the solution, call us in Helena at (406) 443-7272.