Chapter 14: Lawns

Chapter 14: Lawns Student notes

Chapter 14 takes the modern lawn as its object of concern. This chapter explores why people use lawn chemicals are harmful for humans and environmental systems, even when they are aware of the threat, by understanding their use as a calculated risk (Chapter 6), a social phenomenon (Chapter 8), and a response to a particular set of political economic structures (Chapter 7).

How Much do People Love Lawns? Turfgrass lawns are a million dollar business, a cultural phenomenon, and an environmental phenomenon. Grass is natural, but the perfect green lawn requires mechanical equipment and chemicals, some of which are used even though they are known to be toxic to humans, pets, and ecosystems. What do lawns tell us about our relationship with the environment?

A Short History of Lawns Turfgrasses were domesticated for livestock raising, so they do best when clipped frequently as would occur under grazing.

Turfgrasses as part of human economic history 1. Turfgrasses are not native to the Americas, and were brought over as part of the Columbian Exchange. Early on, they were cultivated in pastures along with other species in a system of agrodiversity, which is more resilient to extreme weather and disease. 2. Cultivated turfgrass lawns are ancient, but the modern front lawn emerged after World War II as people moved to the suburbs, where there was sufficient space for front lawns, and chemical inputs became widely available to the public.

The chemical revolution 1. Early lawn chemicals were crude and dangerous. DDT replaced early chemicals because it seemed safer, but it was banned in 1972 because it is so toxic for marine and avian species. The subsequent chemicals in use now are also known to be dangerous to humans and ecosystems. a. eutrophication – the process through which nutrients in water, often from chemical fertilizers, cause algal blooms that lead to dissolved oxygen depletion and ecosystem collapse b. chemical inputs are only necessary if lawns are monoculture, a single cultivated species

The explosion of lawns 1. Lawns cover a large portion of the United States, and may be considered the largest irrigated crop in the country. Lawns are also increasingly common around the world. 2. Negative environmental impacts: a. the problems associated with chemicals b. demand for fresh water 3. Positive impacts a. absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which combats climate change b. reduction of urban heat island effect – the warming of a city that occurs through the absorption and re-radiation of heat from concrete in buildings and pavement

The puzzle of lawns People know about the harm that lawn treatments do to human and environmental health, yet continue these practices anyway. Why?

Risk and Chemical Decision-Making If keeping perfect monoculture lawns is known to be a hazard, people who choose to do so must be calculating risks associated with lawn care activities. Risk perception may be impeded by biases or lack of information.

Is chemical use irrational or uninformed? If people are not aware of the human or environmental health impacts, labels and consumer education may change the behavior. However, a national survey suggests that people who use the chemicals are more aware of the dangers than people who do not, which suggests that education will not change the behavior.

Chemicals as economically (or socially) rational Economic and other benefits may make such decision making appear rational. Manicured lawns increase the value of a home by several thousand dollars, so people may be accepting the risks to their families and ecosystems for that benefit. Rational risk taking may be based on intangible or social benefits such as neighborhood pride, which may be rooted in affect.

Social Construction: Good Lawns Mean Good People Well-maintained lawns are a sign of status and responsibility, linked to good citizenship. People keep good lawns because they do not want to let their neighbors down.

Landscape as text 1. A lawn is a narrative about the people who live there, which says that the community is connected and responsible to each other. 2. The ideology is that people have a responsibility to behave in a certain way and put in effort for each other. 3. A lawn is a social construction in that it is a landscape with an agreed-upon meaning. 4. If social solidarity is the reason that people use chemicals, it could also be one way to mobilize alternative lawn practices such as growing native grasses instead.

Social and ecological anxiety 1. Some people use chemicals because they are concerned that their neighbors will think poorly of them or even sue them. 2. Some use them even though they feel guilty for the harm it could cause their neighbors or ecosystems.

Political Economy: The Chemical Tail Wags the Turfgrass Dog We must consider the household decision within the political economy of the multi-billion-dollar turfgrass industry. Along the commodity chain are manufacturers, formulators, distributors, retail sellers, lawn services, and households.

Pressures on the lawn chemical commodity chain 1. The lawn chemical commodity chain: a. Manufacturers prepare the raw petrochemical inputs, primarily for agricultural use. b. Formulators take a fraction of these chemicals and bundle them into household brands, marketing directly to consumers and working with distributors and retailers. c. Consumers purchase the chemicals from retailers or lawn service companies. 2. Profits are taken where value is added at each step in the commodity chain. But the industry faces constraints that limit profits, including high costs of inputs and lower demand because of fear and efficient use. a. Crisis of overaccumulation – concentration of wealth and decline of consumer power, also called underconsumption. b. Chemical companies have to drive up demand to maintain profits.

Marketing strategies: Manufacturing demand 1. To create more demand, chemical companies have shifted from push marketing to aggressive pull marketing. a. Push marketing – consumers identify a problem and get recommendations from retailers b. Pull marketing – formulators convince consumers they have a problem that they were unaware of and that can be resolved with a particular solution, to “pull” them into the stores looking for a particular product. 2. Chemical companies are also expanding into new markets abroad, an example of the spatial fix. 3. The political economy approach suggests that rather than household demand driving the lawn chemical industry, the industry is manufacturing demand for the lawns that it maintains. a. Decisions made by households and chemical companies are constrained by economic structures. b. These structures create incentives that lead to environmental degradation, so some entities are creating strict regulations on the types of chemicals used and the locations where they may be applied.