Open forums, like live radio and television shows, are the closest thing to flying, and perhaps free falling, this side of an airplane. The Midwest Organic Lawn & Garden Conference, held this past week in Madison, Wisconsin, allowed for uniquely intimate access to the four main presenters: Howard Garrett, Peter Wild, Jeff Carlson and yours truly. Several great points were made, many of which were covered in ...

[caption id="attachment_796" align="alignnone" width="648" caption="ArborJet Founder Peter Wild displays a photo of a crew (not his) spraying chemicals from a boat over water . . . "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_797" align="alignnone" width="648" caption="Organic golf course superintendent Jeff Carlson"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_798" align="alignnone" width="648" caption="Howard Garrett, aka ...

In an effort to scare the bejeezus out of any would-be anti-pesticide activists, the lawn care industry has hired a public relations firm that is slapping punitive lawsuits on politicians and activists alike in Canada. It's hard to imagine how the lawsuits will stand — since the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled that the little town of Hudson, Quebec, had the right to ban lawn pesticides. That town, ...

We've been waiting for this behind the scenes for at least two years, ever since I met a representative of Neudorff North America at a Garden Writers Convention in Portland, Oregon. In what could be — and I stress Could Be — a game changer in the organic lawn marketplace, that company has released a selective herbicide for broadleaf weeds known as Fiesta that is based on a naturally occurring iron. No 2,4-D ...

A day after we discovered Major League Baseball's multi-million-dollar deal with lawn care giant Scotts Miracle Gro, a perusal of media pickups shows that someone in the company's PR department is doing his or her job. The nauseating rhetoric is everywhere. "The grass on the field of play is part of the very foundation of baseball, so this deal with Scotts, the worldwide leader in lawn care, is a natural fi ...

[caption id="attachment_785" align="alignnone" width="504" caption="Dave Mellor, head groundskeeper for the Boston Red Sox"][/caption] Having survived two of its most tumultuous years in its history, the Scott Miracle Gro company enters 2010 swinging for the fences with a new deal with Major League Baseball. In an effort to convince consumers that aspiring to a Fenway front lawn is a good thing, the world's ...

In my travels around British Columbia last week, I heard numerous opinions about lawn pesticides. Most people I met, predictably, were in favor of a provincial ban that would eliminate the sale and use of products like weed 'n feed and Roundup. One federal politician predicted that a national ban in Canada would likely never happen, due to fear of a lawsuit from the giant U.S. chemical companies such as Dow ...

We are thrilled to announce that Fire Belly Organics has signed on a supporter of SafeLawns.org and as a presenting sponsor of our film, A Chemical Reaction, for the spring North American screenings that we're titling the "Launch One in Your Town Tour." The New Hampshire based company offers an affiliate marketing program that pays 10 percent commission to any organizations or groups that sell its products ...

The goodwill continues to pour in from our whirlwind tour through Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia. The province is in the midst of a public comment period about whether or not to invoke a province-wide lawn pesticide ban and passions are running high on the issue. I encountered bi-partisan support for the issue and overwhelmingly positive reviews of our movie, A Chemical Reaction. "I just wanted ...

[caption id="attachment_759" align="alignnone" width="525" caption="For one night, the second highest grossing film in history was outdrawn by a little film from Maine"][/caption] The Park Theater in Vancouver, British Columbia, was rocking last night, with more than 200 patrons viewing A Chemical Reaction with SafeLawns, the Canadian Cancer Society and a coalition of more than a dozen other organizations w ...