Pesticide Horrors, and how a farmer fought and won.

[Guest guest]

Those pesky pesticides

By Charlene Peters/ cpeters

Thursday, March 23, 2006

http://www2.townonline.com/swampscott/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=454044 & for\

mat=text

 

Fear of failure is the driving force behind resistance to change. On an

individual level, taking a risk can be scary, even if the results benefit your

health. Horticulturist Chip Osborne took a large-scale risk three years ago,

when he convinced the community of Marblehead to allow him to transform a

pesticide-laden athletic field into an organic, livable lawn to prevent

long-term health risks associated with agrochemicals.

 

Many stood back at arms length, waiting for his pesticide crusade to

fail.

Osborne recalls a preliminary comment from one town official, " Just

give the guy three years. It's going to blow up in his face, the grass is going

to be horrible, and then we can go back to using chemicals again. "

Like many state, college and town officials he's faced since that

time, Marblehead was afraid if they stopped using pesticides, the whole system

would collapse.

Fortunately, Osborne's organic methods succeeded, and he's become

co-chairman of Marblehead's Living Lawn Project, a seeing-is-believing organic

lawn and garden demonstration site.

The success he found in his small community has begun to spread

across the state of Massachusetts and, most recently, nationwide.

This weekend, the Marblehead Chamber of Commerce holds its ninth

annual Home and Garden Show and Plant Sale at the Community Center on 10

Humphrey St., Marblehead. Osborne, now a nationally recognized natural, organic

lawn and turf consultant, will be there to answer questions about organic lawns

and gardens and promote pesticide awareness on Saturday from 1-4 p.m. and Sunday

noon-4 p.m. at the Osborne Florist and Greenhouse booth.

Based on 30 years of eye-opening horticultural experience, Osborne's

most recent venture was to convert his greenhouse operation into an organic

management plan.

'Better living through chemistry'

Born in the 1950s, Osborne grew up in a time where the mindset was

" better living through chemistry. " When he bought his business in 1974, his

education was pesticide oriented.

" I was taught as a greenhouse grower to spray a cocktail mix of

pesticides every 7 to 10 days, with the idea that there would be nothing living

in the greenhouse environment to pose danger to my crops, " explains Osborne. " I

used to inject a fungicide through my waterline, so every time I planted a

geranium or a poinsettia, I would drench the pots with fungicide. I didn't wear

gloves, and my hands would be stained yellow at the end of the day. "

In the late '70s, the first tests on the possible carcinogenic

effects of agrochemicals ranked the fungicide Osborne had been using number

three on the list of high-risk carcinogens. The list reinforced a loss close to

home, when his two English Springer spaniels, which had spent their days at

Osborne's greenhouse nestled under a bench in the cool soil, died prematurely of

cancer.

" One was covered in open sores on her belly, " says Osborne as he

points to the framed portrait of his dogs.

Osborne is painfully aware that some of the lawn chemicals still

legally in use today on athletic fields, backyards and golf courses have a

component of Agent Orange, a chemical used during the Vietnam War.

During the '80s, when Osborne married and began to raise a family,

he realized the need to explore a change in his method of pest control.

He says, " I didn't want my kids to come into this kind of

environment, so I backed away from toxic chemicals and began a process called

Integrated Pest Management, where you use a series of cultural steps to get rid

of a bug or a pest of some kind. If that doesn't work, you use a pesticide. "

He then went one step further and gave up the use of all toxic

pesticides. He uses natural products, such as oils, soaps and garlic to thwart

pests from ruining his plants. His greenhouse even sells a pre-made formulation

of hot pepper, ground chili peppers and garlic to spray on plants to clog the

openings in the pests' skins, leaving them to suffocate and die.

Although Osborne has become a nationwide activist against pesticide

use, he does understand how certain chemicals have been beneficial to humanity.

" I'm not against all chemicals, by any means, " says Osborne.

" Certainly, there have been gains in our society with the advent of certain

chemicals, but with such an enormous chemical cloud overhead, there are ways in

our society that we can learn to live without some of these chemicals and reduce

exposures. "

Over-treated population

Those yellow flags on your neighbors' lawns mean that poison has

been applied and that you, your kids and your dogs shouldn't walk there, notes

Osborne. If that fact doesn't scare you enough to change lawn-care practices,

log on to www.bodyburden.com to browse through the results of nine people whose

blood was tested at random and found to contain 77 different chemicals from home

products and power-plant proximity.

Pat Beckett was walking her babies in a stroller on the streets of

New York when she began to identify the strong odor as pesticide treatments on

the lawns she passed. It rang a bell, it was close to her heart, and she wanted

to learn more.

A decade ago, Beckett came to Marblehead and placed an advertisement

looking for someone interested in pesticide reduction. Osborne answered her ad,

and together they developed an Awareness Through Education campaign committee,

offering simple steps to organic lawn care.

Since they formed the committee, the two have spoken to thousands of

people in a " non-alarmist way " to send the message of the health risks

associated with pesticides, and why one should consider going organic.

Says Osborne, " In 1997, we began to give classes to landscapers to

bring them on board and explain that we're not the enemy. "

By 1999, the two took their campaign to the Marblehead Board of

Health, which agreed that pesticide usage was a public-health issue. They issued

a statement, published in the Reporter on April 22, 1999, to explain the serious

adverse health effects of pesticide exposure, even at low levels.

Further discussions on pesticide usage brought the town's

Recreation, Parks and Forestry Commission on board. In May 2001, the Board of

Health adopted an organic pest-management policy, stipulating all town-owned

land be taken care of without the use of pesticide products. As one of the first

organic policies in Massachusetts and one of the first in the United States,

Marblehead took a leadership role nationwide.

In December 2005, the Board of Health went one step further and made

the policy a regulation: No pesticide can be used on town land in Marblehead.

All about the soil

At the Home and Garden Show, Osborne's newest company, Osborne

Organics, will offer a complimentary DVD for anyone interested in taking the

first step to organic lawn care. For just under two years, Osborne has been

developing a series of DVDs to inform professional landscapers, homeowners and

municipal officials about natural organic land care.

Osborne Organics will offer a service where, for a fee of about

$100, Osborne will walk onto a property, perform soil tests and provide

easy-to-understand analyses on how to incorporate an organic program. His first

job was the grounds at the Marblehead Museum and Historical Society's Jeremiah

Lee Mansion, which he's served as a consultant for the past four years.

According to Osborne, aeration of soil and over-seeding your lawn

are the keys to success.

" The soil in the area of Marblehead is 45 percent mineral, 5 percent

organic matter, 25 percent air, 25 percent water, " he explains. " When the soil

gets compacted, the air portion of the soil is forced out and grass won't grow.

Weeds love compacted soil. Turf grass hates it. One of the biggest things to do

is just to aerate the soil. The other thing is to over-seed. Grass gets damaged

and can't reproduce as quickly. If it gets thin and grass gets damaged, weeds

can come in as a secondary infection very quickly, and if you over-seed once or

twice a year, you'll always keep it thick because you're getting new growth. "

Osborne is in the process of offering an additional service to

aerate, over-seed, fertilize and spread compost, and by next year, he expects to

incorporate a full maintenance service.

Grubs be gone

" So much of natural lawn care is just understanding what's going

on, " says Osborne as he explains how to get rid of those pesky grubs, which are

the larval stage of beetles and a food source that attract skunks, raccoons and

crows.

He explains, " When the temperature gets colder, the grubs go deeper

in the soil and lie dormant throughout winter. In May, they move back up and

feed actively through June. In July, they metamorphose into adults and emerge as

beetles and feed on foliage. "

Drought conditions intensify grub issues. Heavy watering for a few

days will cause the grubs to surface for air or drown. When they surface, birds,

skunks and raccoons swoop in to eat them, thereby naturally ridding your lawn of

grubs.

For larger parcels of land, a beneficial nematode may need to be

sprayed, as was the case recently at Seaside Park. Five days after 24 million

nematodes were sprayed onto the field, dead grubs surfaced.

The cost for the non-pesticide application is the same as chemical

control, says Osborne, plus a little patience.

Says Osborne, " As society changes, the market changes. We said 10

years ago it would be the consumer that changes the market. "

When you stand on Gatchell's athletic field or catch the beauty of

the Living Lawn Project's garden, you have to admit - organic works.

====================================================

 

" Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest

of life by the power of the spirit. " - Aurobindo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big.