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Article: Whose Grass is Greenest?(lawn care, United States)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- E Magazine
- Article date:
- May 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Earth Action Network, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Building a Pretty Lawn without Toxic Chemicals
The Great American Lawn, a coast-to-coast carpet of green, inspires $6 billion in annual spending. Lawn care companies do $1.5 billion of business a year in the U.S., applying up to 50 million pounds of toxic chemicals in the process.
The American lawn is a relatively modern phenomenon. Few homeowners could contemplate installing one until the first lawnmowers were invented in the 1860s. But the importance of a smooth, green carpet as a necessary adjunct to the perfect home grew quickly. By the 1950s, magazine articles were boasting that pesticides would give suburbanites obsessed with engineering the ...