MARKET GROWTH
Total amount Americans spent on turf, lawn care, garden products and maintenance total combined in 2005 = $45 billion

Average amount per American household spent on gardens and lawn care in 2005 = $550.00

Households in the U.S. participate in some form of gardening = 80%

A well maintained and landscaped residential property increase property values up to 25%.

Landscaping covers more than 1.6 million acres in California.

A city lot with 30 percent plant coverage provides the equivalent cooling necessary to air condition two moderately sized houses 12 hours a day in the summer.

LAWNCARE & PESTICIDES
Increased likelihood of developing cancer where chemical weed killers and
insecticides are used = Four Times

Two studies in Research Report (Faustini, 1996 and Figgs, 1998) show that exposure to 2,4-D, a commonly used weed killer in most retail products, killed large numbers of lymphocytes in the people who were studied. These people’s immune systems were weakened. Their lymphocyte counts improved only slowly. When the body is forced to form new lymphocytes after this kind of toxic injury to the immune system, mutated, abnormal cells may form in some cases, leading to the development of lymphoma.

Lawns and conventional gardens use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects.

Lawns and gardens in the United States consumed approximately 270 billion gallons of water a week, enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long.

Total pollution emitted from a power mower in just one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles.

There are around 700,000 athletic grounds and 14,500 golf courses in the United States, many of which used to be fertile, productive farmland. All are using pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides at the highest rate per acre in the lawn care industry.

The University of Georgia has seven turf researchers studying genetics, soil science, plant pathology, nutrient uptake, and insect management. They issue undergraduate degrees in Turf. The turf industry is responsible for a large sector of the biotech (GMO) industry, and much of the genetic modification that is happening in laboratories across the nation is in the name of an eternally green, slow growing, moss-free lawn.