Many times I have read in the media about farmers wasting water for production of crops. Actually, according to a recent article in The Week, farmers are actually better stewards of the land than us people that want green lawns.
WHAT DOES A NICE LAWN COST?
Lawn care is a $40-billion-a-year industry in the U.S. Because much of the country is not hospitable to turf grasses—none of which are native species—we use 90 million pounds of fertilizer and 78 million pounds of pesticides annually just to keep lawns thriving, bright green, and bug-free. Lawns also consume massive amounts of water—more than U.S. farmers use to grow wheat, or corn, or any other agricultural crop. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one third of all water from public sources goes toward landscaping—most of it on grass. In tropical Florida, half of the public water is used for landscaping. In the Western states, where water is especially scarce, that figure is 70 percent.
