Archive | January, 2010
Some Questions Remain Unanswered
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 [...]
Continue reading...Scenes from the Midwest Organic Conference
30. January 2010
The premiere Midwest Organic Lawn & Landscape Conference was an overwhelming success for the organizers and 100-plus attendees to the two-day event. “We had more solid conversations about our products here than another event way, way larger,” said Brian Milan of NatraTurf, a supporting sponsor of the SafeLawns Foundation. The information was high level and the [...]
Continue reading...Scare Tactic: Green Industry Attempts Witch Hunt Lawsuit
29. January 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Game Changer? New Selective Weed Control Hits Market
27. January 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Baseball’s Big Sell Out: The Rhetoric Continues
26. January 2010
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, [...]
Continue reading...Fields of False Dreams: Scotts Joins Forces With Major League Baseball
25. January 2010
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 largest lawn care fertilizer and pesticide [...]
Continue reading...Opinion: You Don’t Need To Wait for a Law to Ban Pesticides
24. January 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Fire Belly Organics Joins SafeLawns Movement
23. January 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...The Feedback from British Columbia
23. January 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Tales from the Road
21. January 2010
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 who are passionate about pesticide reform. I could go on and on and on if I had the time, [...]
Continue reading...- Miracle Gro Deal with Wildlife Federation Outrages Environmental Community
- Citing Guilty Plea, Wildlife Federation Ends Agreement with Scotts
- Chemical Industry Convinces Toronto Flower Show to Ban Film
- Researcher: Roundup May Be Causing Miscarriages in Cattle, Humans
- Groundcover Wednesday: Lemon Thyme
- Amidst Wildlife Federation Firestorm, Scotts Miracle Gro Fined $4.5 Million for Toxic Bird Seed, Falsifying Records
- SafeLawns T-Shirts & Lawn Signs Now Available
- Good Morning America to Showcase Natural Pesticides
- Use New Neem Product for Grub Control
- As Wildlife Federation Defends Its Greed, Scotts Continues to Assault Our Sensibilities
- Elisabeth Beaubien: howdy Paul, sodium laurel sulfate... perhaps no...
- Karina Zedalis: Many school & municipal sports fields are heav...
- jack: One sign is not enough. On our soccer fields, the...
- Tom: I just got unwanted service from Scotts. They spr...
- The Weed's Network: Great environmental eductation Paul. Thanks. Dav...
Upcoming Events
31. January 2010
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