If by now you still aren’t convinced that totally organic is the way to go, here are 14 good reasons why you should never, and I mean never, use chemical fertilizers and pesticides on your property or anywhere else.
Admit it, the first sight on an ugly bug and you just want to get something to kill it and kill it fast. You think that a little bit of chemicals here and there won’t hurt you or anybody else.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1995 homeowners spent more than $1.9 billion pesticides for the home and garden. Ironically, it’s not even necessary.
If you ever needed a reason not to use chemicals in your yard, here are 14 of them.
1. They smell really bad. I mean it. The smell of fertilizers and pesticides practically ruins the spring nursery experience. The places are full of it and it stinks… and people complain about compost. Ha!
2. They can make you and your family and your pets and the wildlife sick. S-I-C-K. Nausea, vomiting, skin rashes, leukemia and other cancers, weakened immune systems – lovely, have some more, dear! They can also potentially make us infertile as a species.
3. They leach into the groundwater and pollute our drinking water, making people, animals, fish, and birds sick. S-I-C-K.
4. Pesticides kill the bad bugs and the good bugs and the birds. Then the bad bugs get resistant, and the bird less to eat, and what they can eat makes them sick. Pesticides also kill bees. And many plants depend on bees for pollination. Without bee pollination, there would be fewer fruits and vegetables. Not to mention less honey.
5. Chemical fertilizers add nutrients to the soil, but they don’t add anything else. Before you know it, the soil structure is so weak that it can’t hold itself together,and it starts to erode and collapse. Once it starts eroding, it clogs up the rivers and streams, and it goes all the way out to the sea and kills the coral reefs. No kidding. Erosion is the number one cause of damage to coral reefs.
6. The more you use, the more you need to use. Just like a junkie.
7. Wouldn’t you rather spend your money on some great new plants?
8. Buying chemical fertilizers and pesticides supports huge corporations who spend millions and billions of dollars lobbying to try to suppress research that shows just how bad the stuff really is. And then they go and sell billions of dollars worth of DDT to Third World countries where it is still legal.
9. Did you know chemical herbicides were developed by the Pentagon as defoliants in the Vietnam War? People make bombs with chemical fertilizers. Find another way to be patriotic.
10. Using chemical fertilizers is a substitute for thinking. If you don’t want to think, fine. Just don’t ruin it for the rest of us.
11. Pesticides travel and have contaminated even the most remote regions of the world. From the rain forests of South America to the polar caps, high concentrations of pesticides can be found, even though none of the chemicals was ever made or used there.
12. Even using pesticides inside the home can contaminate water supplies. Believe it or not, many people dump excess home pesticides down sinks, toilets, sewers and storm drains. It all comes back to your drinking water. Don’t do it. Don’t buy them in the first place.
13. Studies have shown that pesticides are strangely attracted to children’s toys – most of which end up in their mouths.
14. Up to 20 percent of the chemicals you buy legally include heavy metals – toxic wastes, which include lead, dioxin and arsenic, that would otherwise be subject to rigorous hazardous waste disposal laws – as fillers. I guess the government figures if you’re willing to put chemical fertilizers and pesticides in your own backyard, you’d be willing to do your part to get rid of all the toxic waste in the world. Not in my yard!
source: from the book Maria Rodale’s Organic Gardening
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