Our free-market society conditions us to think we need to purchase products for everything — and this is especially true in gardening and lawn care. Having been raised by a family of dairy farmers, I fondly remember growing vegetable and flower gardens with nothing more for fertilizer than cow manure and manure "tea." Here's an excerpt from my book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, that reviews some of the bes ...

Think you still have lots of choices when it comes to seeds? Not so. An article published by Natural News explains how the seed industry has changed over the last decades. Besides farmers who are signing the genetically-modified pledge and effectively losing the ability to use any other seed, the biotech industry has been buying up seed companies faster than you can say, "Goodbye, Heirloom". According to Pr ...

The Minnesota state Court of Appeals ruled today that pesticide drifting from its intended farm onto an adjacent Stearns County organic farm could be considered a trespassing violation by the company that sprayed the pesticide. The appellate court ruling reinstates a lawsuit filed by Oluf and Debra Johnson against Paynesville Farmers Union Oil Company. In the suit, the Johnsons claimed that chemical drift d ...

July 24 Give them an inch, they'll take your yard The best way to minimize backyard pests is to have the most naturally healthy lawn and garden you can. By Ray Routhier rrouthier@mainetoday.com Staff Writer, The Portland Press Herald There's a reason your backyard is full of pests. Lots of reasons, actually. If you know when beetles lay their eggs, you can avoid population explosions the next year. Slugs ar ...

When we checked our in-box this morning after several days out of the office at the end of last week, we found the requisite questions about the heat (don't mow! water deeply once a week if you water at all! the lawn will do dormant, but won't die!). We also found lots of questions about what I've been up to, since my posting here has been scarce (launching our next major campaign behind the scenes, which w ...

The Guardian is reporting that scientists from Canada and Norway have discovered via air measurements that persistent organic pollutants (POPS), banned under the 2004 Stockholm Convention, are seeping out from Arctic ice as global temperatures rise. The researchers warn that the amount of the poisons in the polar region is unknown and their release could "undermine global efforts to reduce environmental and ...

Want to win $250? You can do that by being the winning t-shirt design entry for the new "Pesticides Bug Me" campaign, launched this week by the online education and fundraising intiative group, California Certified Organic Farmers. In 2009, over 156 million pounds of pesticides were applied in California alone. This week saw the first sprayings of the highly toxic methyl iodide, a pesticide linked to cancer ...

Genetically-modified foods are banned in Hungary, and seeds are supposed to be checked prior to entering the country, yet somehow a supply of tainted seed made it in and was planted, unwittingly, by farmers. Now the country is making good on its legislation and destroyed 1,000 acres of gm-corn this week, plowing it under before any pollen could be released. Read more here: http://planetsave.com/2011/07/21/h ...

Change.org is reporting that more than 16,000 California residents have contacted Governor Jerry Brown, urging him to revoke approval of methyl iodide, a pesticide linked to cancer, late-term miscarriages, thyroid and kidney disease, and other health issues. John Froines, a leading toxicologist at UCLA, has referred to methyl iodide as "one of the most toxic chemicals on earth". Three California farms have ...

Genetically modified lettuce has existed for years, but in limited form and not as part of the public produce line. If Syngenta has its way, however, this will change. The Packer is reporting that the biotech firm, in addition to its purchase of two North American seed companies two years ago, has recently entered into several confidentialy agreements with growers-shippers interested in customizing lettuce ...