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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2007

CONTACT
Lauren Annicelli
202-544-5430
lannicelli@didiongroup.com

Conference Offers Earth Friendly Gardening Solutions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a week when crude oil prices hit record highs and significant portions of the country remain mired in a historic drought, the non-profit organization SafeLawns.org visits the Nation’s Capitol to offer environmentally friendly solutions to frustrated growers of lawns and gardens.

“Patches of brown on the lawn must be a badge of honor,” said North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley during a press conference Monday in which he urged residents to stop watering their landscapes. “It means you are doing the right thing for your community and our state.”

The founder of SafeLawns.org, however, said that in most cases lawns and gardens could remain green and lush if homeowners and landscape professionals utilize organic methods. He’ll offer specifics when his organization participates in the DC Environmental Conference at the University of District of Columbia on Saturday, Oct. 20.

“If you avoid synthetic chemical fertilizers and switch to compost and organic fertilizers, you’ll reduce the need for watering by up to 75 percent,” said Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual. “These natural soil amendments help the soil store water and, therefore, help the grass stay green.”

With oil prices surging as high as $86 a barrel Monday, Tukey also noted that organic gardening solutions address the need for less reliance on fossil fuel.

“The average 40-pound bag of synthetic chemical fertilizer contains the fossil fuel equivalent of three gallons of gasoline,” said Tukey. “Manufacturing chemical fertilizer requires huge amounts of fossil fuel, but organic fertilizer is made from recycled natural materials including plant residues and animal manures.”

In addition to offering lawn and garden seminars at the DC Environmental Conference, representatives of SafeLawns.org will also continue work this week on the National Mall where more than four acres of lawn have been converted to organic maintenance. Grass seed planted less than two week ago has germinated on a plot situated between 3rd and 7th Streets.

To register for the DC Environmental Conference (media complimentary) please visit www.SafeLawns.org or to schedule interviews with SafeLawns staff, contact Lauren Annicelli at The Didion Group, lannicelli@didiongroup.com or call 202-544-5430.
The SafeLawns.org mission is to create a broad based coalition of nonprofit and for-profit organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior.
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This message was sent by: SafeLawns.org, 60 Pineland Drive, New Gloucester, Me 04260

Plants uptake antibiotics (Original is here.)
Public release date: 11-Jul-2007
Contact: Sara Uttech
suttech@agronomy.org
608-268-4948
Soil Science Society of America

Routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock may be contaminating the environment

MADISON, WI, JULY 09, 2007- Scientists at the University of Minnesota have been evaluating the impact of antibiotic feeding in livestock production on the environment. This particular study, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), evaluated whether food crops accumulate antibiotics from soils spread with manure that contains antibiotics. Results from the study are published in the July-August 2007 issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality. The research was also presented in Indianapolis, IN at the Annual Soil Science Society of America Meeting in November 2006.

Plant uptake was evaluated in a greenhouse study involving three food crops: corn, lettuce, and potato. Plants were grown on soil modified with liquid hog manure containing Sulfamethazine, a commonly used veterinary antibiotic. This antibiotic was taken up by all three crops. Concentrations of antibiotics were found in the plant leaves. Concentrations in plant tissue also increased as the amount of antibiotics present in the manure increased. It also diffused into potato tubers, which suggests that root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes, that directly come in contact with soil may be particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination.

The ability of plants to absorb antibiotics raises the potential for contamination of human food supply. However, Satish Gupta, group leader notes “The adverse impacts of consuming plants that contain small quantities of antibiotics are largely unknown”. Consumption of antibiotics in plants may cause allergic reactions in sensitive populations, such as young children. There is also concern that consuming antibiotics may lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance, which can render antibiotics ineffective.

Holly Dolliver, the lead scientist in this study, notes that antibiotics consumed by plants may be of particular concern to the organic farming industry. Manure is often the main source of crop nutrients for organic food production, since regulations prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizers. According to the USDA, producers must manage animal materials in a manner that does not contribute to contamination of crops by residues of prohibited substances, which includes antibiotics. However, manures containing antibiotics are not formally banned or prohibited.

Further research is needed to investigate the presence of antibiotics in edible parts of plants, especially vegetables that are consumed raw, and how different plants absorb different antibiotic compounds. Research is ongoing at the University of Minnesota to further investigate the potential fate and transport of antibiotics introduced to the environment from livestock operations.

Get rid of that lawn!
Develop a real "green" thumb with gardens and native plants
(Original Here.)

Lawns are about keeping up appearances. The homeowner who obsesses about obtaining the perfect shade of green probably is less interested in expressing their love of nature than simply competing with the neighbours. After all, no one really uses the space for anything, especially if there’s a "Pesticides: Do Not Touch’ sign stuck in the middle of it. At my apartment building, some faceless company waters, fertilizes and cuts the grass. Residents don’t give the lawn a second thought.
But now that global warming has created an almost biblical sense of guilt over carbon emissions, North America’s lawn fixation seems downright reckless. Lawns suck up plenty of resources, especially for something so ultimately useless.

Personal carbon emissions from home energy use and driving do not make up the bulk of personal carbon emissions, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based environmental group. They estimate 60 per cent of personal carbon emissions result from the products we buy. For instance, that packet of wildflowers spread around the rusted bike rack in the back of your apartment building may give you a happy hippie feeling, but the seeds traveled from California on a truck. That one purchase alone outweighs all the carbon emissions you saved by riding your bike to work instead of taking a car. And that’s not even taking into account the copious amounts of water and pesticides required by our obsession with green grass.

For the real "green" thumbs, the alternatives look much friendlier.

Community gardens

Keeping up appearances isn’t a concern for Bonnie Ogden and her fellow residents of Bay Vista, a condo building in the Queen Mary Park neighbourhood. Sick of mowing, weeding, fertilizing and cutting their grass for purely aesthetic reasons, the Bay Vista residents decided this year they’d exchange their front and back lawns for vegetable and low-maintenance plant gardens.

"The board would hire a big company to come and mow the grass, whether it was growing or not," Ogden says with a laugh. "We decided this is bogus. We’re changing our concept."

The building joined a handful of other groups across the city starting up gardens though the Community Garden Network of Edmonton and Area (CGN). This four-year-old nonprofit provides support for the creation of new gardens, including set-up materials, growing tips and networking contacts.

Bay Vista went one step further than simply planting their garden: they entrenched environmentally-friendly practices into the condo mandate. A communal compost heap will turn waste from resident’s homes into fertilizer, and the condo has also put a strict ban on pesticides. That comes as a huge relief for resident Gloria Lockie, who’s allergic to dandelion-killer 2,4-D. Before Ogden and her crew took over, Lockie was forced out of her apartment for three days while the lawn-care company sprayed for weeds.

Ogden doesn’t understand why more condos and apartment buildings don’t offer gardens and other alternatives, given the space and resources lawns gobble up and the desire on the part of residents for an outdoor hobby.

"What’s the point in coming home and just sitting in your apartment wishing you had a garden?" she asks. "We said, ‘Let’s make it happen.’"

Local plants

Buying or cultivating native plants is just as important for earth-minded Edmontonians as buying local food. Biodiversity isn’t something many of us think of when we’re planting, but the present monoculture of Kentucky Blue grass doesn’t support a healthy ecosystem.

Patsy Cotterill, a botanist and member of the Edmonton Naturalization Group, tore up both her front and back lawn to make way for native plants and trees. "It was a hell of a job," she says with a hint of exasperation. "It’s been four years and the garden is still far from looking nice."

Cotterill preserves local species by transplanting plants from areas that developers are paving over. She also buys native plants from Bedrock Seeds, a local nursery and seed supply company. Her lawn now boasts Buck Bush, saved from a St. Albert woodland, native juniper, tall native grasses, Scots Pine and only a small strip of grass between her lawn and that of her neighbours.

Cotterill realizes that not everyone has her ambition (or her amount of available space); she recommends that green-minded novice gardeners try planting native scrubs like the Saskatoon Berry, which require less care and look good year-round.

That said, she warns, even the least ambitious garden requires plenty of experimentation and time. But that’s part of the fun. After all, as Cotterill remarks, "Everything doesn’t have to be perfect."

- The fertilizer industry accounts for six per cent of Canada’s natural gas consumption.

(Canadian Fertilizer Institute)

- Only one per cent of pesticides actually reaches the target plant, the rest are released into the environment. These chemicals are linked to hormone disruption and damage to reproductive and immune systems in both people and animals.

(The World Wildlife Foundation)

- Canadians use 1,600 cubic metres of water per person each year, Of the 29 countries in the OECD, only the United States consumes more.

(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)

ANGELA BRUNSCHOT