Choosing a Pesticide Free School

Many schools have real pest problems. Wasps and ticks are a few examples. But there are alternative ways, natural ways, to get rid of pests. Considering the carcinogenic side effects of the common pesticide sprays why not choose natural pest management choosing? A school can rid themselves of disease carrying pests and not contribute to cancer. This is why I applaud states like Connecticut which has ban pesticide application in and near schools.

"Neuroblastoma Linked to Hormone treated with Pesticides", Epidemiology . Where Neuroblastomas account for 10% of childhood tumors and rates have been increasing over the last 50 years. This was a colaborative study between 6 universities and St. Judes Children's Research Hospital.

"Breast Cancer Linked to Hormone Pesticide Chlordane" This study was performed by Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Lubbock, TX and the US Army Institute of Surgical Research.

S.T.A.T.E Report with 38 citations This is a long report but a few of the quotes are as follows.

"Many components are classified as "inert", which allows them to be kept hidden from the public and not listed on product labels. These are more than just fillers or solvents. "Inert" does not mean "inactive" - some, such as benzene and xylene, are more toxic than listed chemicals.(1,2)"

"Fat soluble pesticides accumulate over time in our bodies, then are released at potentially toxic levels when illness or stress results in our fat reserves being metabolized. A large portion of a woman's lifetime exposure to such pesticides is released in the breast milk for her firstborn child.(37) "

"Some pesticides labeled "bio-degradable" degrade into compounds more dangerous than the original. Examples include Mancozeb, which degrades into a substance that is an EPA-classified probable carcinogen.(6) The pesticide industry also implies that "organic" means safe and natural (for example, "Nature's Lawn"), knowing that the term legally may be applied to any compound containing carbon and hydrogen. ChemLawn and other lawn "care" companies and manufacturers have often been sued for fictitious claims.(5-14)"

"Now it is even being found that chlorpyrifos causes multiple sclerosis.(38)"

"The United States General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has also tried to alert the public to lawn chemical dangers. GAO's undercover team noted many fictitious claims by many in the lawn "care" industry.(35) Many included illegal claims of product safety. Others were just deceiving, such as the ChemLawn claim that a child would have to ingest ten cups of treated grass clippings to equal the toxicity of one baby aspirin. In fact, the real danger is not that people will be grazing the lawn but that most poisonings come from inhaling pesticide residues or absorbing them through the skin.(6,7,10)"



Parents should also note that many schools may not use a commercial supplier. Often the maintenance personnel does the deed. Though, pesticides applied with or without training can lead to the maintenance person also getting exposure to carcinogens along with the students. That does not seem like a good way to keep insurance costs down.

The responsibility for taking care of the student, that develops the cancer, will fall on the parents. When you think about all the pain and suffering the child will go through, not to mention the cost to the parents, why not use an effective alternative?

Student safety should be at the top of the list of requierments when it comes to choosing a school.

Uber Urban Farmer

Well, we planned on having two garden beds but with work, a kid and a yard that needs a lot of attention the second raised bed only has the 5 sunflowers I planted, dozens of maple saplings, and the wild garlic growing in it. The first raised bed came out nicely though. But still will need work.

The bed is a mount of dirt about three to three and a half feet high, 6 feet wide by 10-12 feet long depending how you measure this ovalish bed. The beds are designed around a landscape that took into account vertical, horizontal and curving lines.

I was impressed with the insect diversity. We had insect eating ladybug and wasps everywhere. There were at least 3 types of bees. I saw a variety of other insects too. I did not have a slug issue. I think it might of been because the bed was raised and did not stay moist. Also the sharp hairs on the pumpkin vines were everywhere. The hairs would of made it impossible for the slug to glide its soft body across them.

I did have a technique when planting. I wanted the garden to block the view straight into our back yard, hence the raise bed. I also wanted to intermingle the plants. I am not into monoculture. The main part of the mount including three side hosted the three types of sunflowers. I clustered them by variety Mammoth at the top, Yellow Heirloom around one side and the Red Heirloom around the other side/top. I then planted pole beans at their base. Two beans per sunflower. The bean grew up the sunflower using it as a trellis. The beans also provided nitrogen in the soil for the other plants. Then for a ground covering and then some I planted a squash...pumpkins for later use at Jake-o-lanterns. This worked out relatively well. Next time I will give the sunflowers a few more weeks head start before transferring the beans into the ground next to them. All plants were grown from seeds.

My spouse sequestered a flatter section of the garden (on the end) for his plantings. He grew a packet of seed that had mixed lettuces. He also had 4 kinds of rather hot peppers and celontro. All from seeds. I was beginning to think that he had adopted the four varieties as long lost children. Luckily our real daughter squeaked into the number one spot. But it was close at times.

There are still fresh beans on the vines. I let some of them dry there to collect later. I will see if I can get them to grow next year. Our harvest so far includes the following.

100 pole beans - Kentucky red and a green variety
52 plants of celontro - herb
7 pepper with a dozen more on the plants (habenero, jalepeno, peruvian heritage, cayenne)
4 the equivalent of four pre mixed salad packages you get from the store
3 dozen sunflowers - red heirloom, yellow heirloom and mammoth
2 pumpkins on their vines

dozens of gone wild lemon balm
dozens of wild garlic

The only thing that didn't make it was the tomatoes. Never even left the pots. Next year.

Things I will change:

1. Get the composter working
2. Get a Rain Barrel
3. Frame in the raised beds

I would like to point out no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or the such were allowed in my garden. The few 30 lb bags of soil we introduced to the garden, well my spouse's part of the garden was organic, bought fromUrban Roots but was sourced from a farm in our area. All our seeds, pots, etc were all from Urban Roots

Life Style..er Subculture

Different people choose different life styles. This is obvious. I use to be under the notion that if someone was socially conscious that they would also be environmentally conscious and vice versa. But this is not true. This is unfortunate.

I recently have noticed another life style almost subculture in its own way. I do not know how to describe it in 1 or 2 words but...the only variation within this group is to what extent an individual will choose to adhere to the shared ideals that brought everyone together. I have a hunch that this Buffalo group is not the only one.

I would describe this group, one that I recently found myself unintentionally in, as being very comfortable to be apart of. These people share all the macro ideals I do.

1. environmental consciousness / and does something to help
2. social consciousness / and does something to help
3. child education / 1950's institutions are just not going to meet our requirements
4. attachment parenting
5. organic and locally grown foods
6. renewable energy wanted now
7. wanting our children to be healthy, happy, well educated and to "think out-side-the-box"
8. mixed feelings about vaccines / some people due to faith, some to health
9. There is no prejudges against ethnic heritage or partner chooses / we like diversity
10. Of the people I know, I am the most up-tight. They are more relaxed. / I like that. I need to relax.

It is really a great thing to meet people that are individual thinkers, fun and well educated (whether by school or self thought). I think I am most surprised at, and should not be, is that we all migrated to the same living area. The west side of Buffalo and the area surrounding Delaware Park. Not everyone in this area is the same but this subculture is concentrated here. I think the plethora of cafes, museums, art galleries, treed park space, beautiful old homes and urban family friendliness has made it one of the only diverse areas of Buffalo.

If you are imagining a girl in a hippy skirt, bare feet, dreadlocks and a baby in a sling you have a 1 in 20 idea. There are a few and they are welcomed but that is a small fraction of the people involved. There are classical musicians, architects, artist, baristas, shop owners, teachers, attornies, CEOs, COOs, computer programmers..etc. There are Itialian leather shoe and sandle warers. There are people driving volvos, riding their bikes, walking or busing. Some are from Pennsylvania, Boston, England, Belgium, Italy or born here. The ethnic diversity is good and could be better. But there is a number of stay or work from home dads.

So, there is a pattern. I am not sure what to call this lifestyle...Fun, Satisfing, Sustanable, Reasonable, Socially-Green Living & Parenting?

Socializing and its Benefits

My spouse, after our baby's play-dates left, made a comment that I managed to collect an intellectually stimulating and sociable group of friends for our baby. I stopped for a moment to think. Yes, the parents and the kids were great but it wasn't me that picked them out. I am good at keeping friends but not making friends. (I can be a bit intense.) It was our 1 year old who was going out of her way to smile, hug and vocalize at these children who happen to have cool parents. Then I would pop the question, "Would you want to get the kids together to play?"

This process really has me thinking. It has created a lot of questions and thoughts in general flying through my head. Why was baby attracted to certain kids and not others? Why was it that when baby was making friends with these kids it happened to be that the parents were also the type of people we would want to invite over again and again? Were we finding all these families in the same spot?

Location?...that might be it. We met one boy at the cafe, one near the ice creme shop court yard, and a little girl at... I think while walking by each other.

Speaking of meeting people ! Our baby went up to a little girl with pig tails that was sitting on her mom's lap in the grass. My baby thought it would be great to hold on to the little girl's pig tail...to my dismay...she can be rough. And then I realize this mom look familiar (and really cool). I had to remove baby's hand from her daughter's pig tail a few times. After the third time, I though to myself, I must live under a rock! It was Ani Difranco. She was so understanding, and down to earth.

(Back to the post) I think location is the key to finding playmates that are a good match. We happen to live in the Elmwood Village in Buffalo, NY. It is relatively diverse (compared to the rest of Western NY). The community has a variety of incomes and jobs. There are artists, college students, museum junkies, skateboard enthusiast, CEOs, investment bankers, bakers, shop keepers, theater goers, engineers, architects...etc. It really does seem too great at times. It is even family friendly but at the same time has a healthy night life. The community is supportive and creative. There are 14,000 of us jammed into a small area on the west side of the city.

The next thought in my head is that a diverse-vibrant community begets great people which produce well balanced playmates.

I don't know if I should smile and be grateful or be worried at the thought of my baby needing a Rolodex to help keep track of all her playmates. It is all good.

In summary I realized that these people in my community will have a major influence on my kid! These are the kids she will go to school with , talk with, and maybe date. When she is a teen she will be more receptive to other teens then me. I just paused. I am really, really grateful for living in such an environmentally and socially counscious neighborhood.