A Chemical Reaction, feature-length documentary appearing now at film festivals, is described well in the press release:
Centered on the small town of Hudson, Quebec, the first municipality in North America to ban common lawn and garden pesticides nearly two decades ago, the 80-minute film explores a landmark case decided in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2001. After the Court’s 9-0 verdict against the billion-dollar lawn care giant then known as ChemLawn, most Canadian municipalities followed Hudson’s lead and enacted pesticide bans of their own. In 2008, retail giant Home Depot removed products such as weed ’n feed and Roundup from its shelves in Canada...At its core it's the story of how a few people in one town could ultimately change an entire nation’s stance.
It's narrated by organic-lawn-care-crusader Paul Tukey and funded by SafeLawns.org. Enjoy the trailer, check out the movie's website and the new Safe Lawns Blog, and coming soon is an Action Guide. A writer for MovieMaker Magazine has compared Tukey to Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock.
Billy Goodnick and Owen Dell cover lawn reform basics in this episode of their "Garden Wise Guys" show. It ends in the rousing rock video: "Taking out the Grass".
Here on YouTube, the transformation of one California front yard from a lousy lawn to a wildlife-friendly garden. New on YouTube, Bay-area designer Susan Morrison's fun video "Who needs a lawn when you can have a garden?"
Susan Harris's video tour of her front ex-lawn, now a mosaic of groundcovers, is also here on YouTube.
