One of my colleagues passed me a link to the trailer for a really interesting movie entitled “A Chemical Reaction”. The documentary was produced by Paul Tukey, an award winning writer about lawn care. He is the founder of the safelawns.org, which is an organization that has as its mission to “To create a broad-based coalition of non- and for-profit organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of environmentally responsible lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior.”
The trailer is for a documentary that features our little neighbour, the town of Hudson Quebec (just East of Ottawa), and how a local doctor there, aided by the mayor and council changed the way that lawns are maintained in Canada and likely around the world.
I can remember when it all all went down, but it was a blast to see the folks that made it happen. I remember that there was concern in the medical community (especially in the holistic medical community) about the safety of lawn care products, and that concern was slowly spreading to the general community. You might remember that, back then, everyone (especially municipalities) dumped tons of chemicals on their lawns each year to make them green and “healthy”. Of course the fact that the resulting monoculture was anything but “healthy” and brought with it serious health effects for many creatures (including people) was only beginning to dawn on most of us. And then, in response to a conserted campaign by a local doctor, the Mayor and council of Hudson Quebec decided to take a stand for the health of people over the “health” of lawns. After 10 years of legal battles that ended up in the Supreme Court of Canada, brave little Hudson prevailed and the Court affirmed the right of municipalities to have by-laws that ban the use of chemicals for lawn care.
Anyway, I have only seen the trailer for this documentary, but I found it to be very engaging and compelling. The full film is available on DVD for private or public viewing. The full film is $19.95 to purchase for private viewing and is available for screening at a higher cost. I am considering buying a personal copy so that I can write a better review in the future, but at 3 minutes and 44 seconds, you will not be wasting your time if you decide to look at the trailer.
Gourken's Brain Dump (more of a trickle actually) 