It's been a full generation now, 21 years this May, since the town of Hudson, Quebec, became the first community in North America to ban pesticides — weed killers, insect killers and fungicides used for aesthetic purposes. And it's amazing that now, all these years later, the same exact arguments that preceded the Hudson prohibition in the 1980s are being played out in town after town in North America every ...

Coming just a month after Scotts Miracle Gro pleaded guilty in federal court to falsifying documents and selling bird seed tainted with pesticide, a the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined a Pennsylvania branch of Scotts Lawn Service $160,000 for dumping its waste water directly into a stream. In June of 2010 a Scotts employee built a syphon system to drain a tank of remaining weed ...

As a modern-day Rachel Carson, she is the titular queen of the environmental movement in the United States today. As a mom, she faces many of the same challenges that all of us encounter in an insanely busy world. In one month, Dr. Sandra Steingraber will keynote the 30th annual convention of Beyond Pesticides in New Haven, Ct. Between now and then, she'll be promoting her third excellent book, Raising Elij ...

A study published last week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Toxicology revealed that genetically modified corn containing the genes for Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is toxic to humans. The study further revealed that the herbicide known as Roundup is toxic to humans, even at small exposures. The vast majority of the corn grown in the U.S. has been engineered to contain Bt and is sprayed with Roundup ...

Anti-Pesticide Activists Ask for Support at Feb. 22 Hearing The state that made pesticide history in 2005 may roll back its protection of children if a new bill supported by the chemical industry is successful. Bill 5155 — "AN ACT MODIFYING THE BAN ON PESTICIDE APPLICATIONS ON SCHOOL GROUNDS" — is sending shock waves through the environmental and health community that has worked diligently to keep the origi ...

NOTE: This is an update of a position paper I first published in 2007. As I’ve traveled around the nation on our organization SafeLawns.org, I’ve sensed a tremendous amount of confusion about organic products. “What’s really organic, and what isn’t?” people ask. Just yesterday, on the phone with Consumers Digest magazine, a reporter was asking about the proliferation of seemingly safe, natural products — an ...

Games, Book Signing to be Featured at Atlanta Event Roswell, GA — THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ANNUAL EARTH DAY KIDS FEST will be held Saturday, April 14, 2012, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Chattahoochee Nature Center featuring the Lawn Games for Life campaign inspired by the new book, Tag, Toss & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games, which goes on sale nationally on March 27. Here's the official release from the even ...

With several states and additional Canadian municipalities considering bans on synthetic pesticides used to maintain landscapes, we're often asked to summarize all the reasons why we advocate for legislation that makes certain products illegal. Here's the primer: LAWNS AND SAFETY The industry that manufactures and applies synthetic chemical pesticides (weed-killers, insecticides and fungicides) hides behind ...

Make it a Point to Visit Maryland Museum in 2012 At the core of transformative learning theory, according to Wikipedia, is the process of "perspective transformation" with three dimensions: psychological, convictional and behavioral. True transformation in this world, according to many sources, is rare. It has taken place, however, at a magnificent facility known as Glenstone, an art museum in Potomac, Md. ...

For nearly two decades the New England Grows trade show has been among our favorite annual dates on the calendar. For me, it's where I cut my proverbial teeth in the horticulture industry, first as a landscaper, then as a publisher and television host and in recent years as an activist. When you've been going to the same big party for 20 years you tend to know a lot of people, recognize even more faces and ...