Why do Americans shit where they eat?
What benefit is there to consistently dousing your lawn with chemicals for the soul purpose of aesthetics?
related: two of my neighbors across the street just had their lawns sprayed for weeds. Guy in huge truck pulls up with a huge tank and just starts spraying the lawn. I could smell it all the way into my yard.
Is there any specific scientific research to show how harmful weed control is to both the environment and human health?
>>8096585
Most often because home owner's association requires it.
Lawns are pretty bad though:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/another-downside-to-your-classic-green-lawn-22716743/
>>8096585
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a study of 9,282 people nationwide, found pesticides in 100% of the people who had both blood and urine tested. The average person carried 13 of 23 pesticides tested. - See more at: http://learn.eartheasy.com/2009/01/lawn-care-chemicals-how-toxic-are-they/#sthash.pWfDyNZu.dpuf
Why are they still allowing the use of these practices then?
>>8096602
Why wouldn't we want pesticides in our blood and urine? I for one don't want any pests trying to crawl into my urethra, so I actively ingest pesticide on a daily basis.
>>8096602
Did you know that caffeine is a pesticide?
>>8096667
Did you know that near every system for formally defining something, and making communication more concise and accurate, is actually arbitrary and philosophically null? Fuzzy around the edges?
Did you know that from a pharmacological perspective when you really get down to it, there is no meaningful difference between a food, a drug, or an anything else? The human body is a machine made of billions of arbitrarily subdividable units that are intertwined?
Don't be a smartass dickhead. You know exactly what's being said here. Keep your copper, nictotine, salsolinol, phenylethylamine, caffeine, theobromine, etc, horseshit right the fuck out of here. HCl is a goddamn pesticide by your moronic definition. I hate you. I hate you anon.
>>8096695
Why are you so mad? He's right in caffeine being a natural pesticide, that's why plants produce it.
Also just saying 13/23 people had pesticides in them is a bullshit statement as it says nothing about concentrations.
>>8096849
Why are you responding if you didn't even understand my post.
Not trying to be a prick, but fuck off.
Without lawns, neighborhoods would be filled with bugs that carry deadly diseases, or entirely devoid of any plant life at all. Die from a disease a mosquito or tick is carrying, or use pesticides that aren't really that harmful. The choice seems obvious.
>>8097044
I live in rural Vermont. Must be a miracle I'm still alive.
>>8096585
Americans like having big, green lawns. And outside the southwest using Astroturf (plastic grass) is considered cheating.
>>8096585
As an American who grew up in the suburbs, I honestly still couldn't tell you. I always thought those perfectly homogeneous lawns were ugly as fuck. My parents had some grass, but it was a blend of different types, plus clover and dandelion. I thought that was much better looking, far lower maintenance, and just as functional for playing games, etc. And most of the property was just wooded, which is even better.
>>8097044
b8
>>8097044
lol are you serious?
yeah man I control my weed
all day erry day
>>8096585
>shit where they eat
wat
>>8098362
it's a phrase, google it anon
>>8096585
I'm a white American but I've never understood this shit either. Waste of money and resources if you ask me.
They are an invasive species not native to north america. They are also major allergen sources and steal water from the grass/flowers/plants they grow near. They need to be exterminated.
The alternative is we take away pesticides and food prices increase 1000% so only the upper middle class and above can survive. The slave workers then die out and society collapses. If you have any healthy, cheap alternatives to synthetic pesticides, then go ahead and propose a solution. Society sucks and its killing us. But pesticides are necessary for its continuation
>>8099153
I'm not saying we should do away with pesticides.
I'm saying why the fuck are we putting them on our lawns just for the soul purpose of just making them look nice.
There's a difference between when it's required and when it's a luxury.
>>8099351
What's better: California is currently on maximum overJew. They've been in a drought for like a decade, so they passed water-restriction laws for gardens, despite farming almonds and shit taking up most of the water. Well they never repealed laws that let them fine you for having a shit lawn. They're literally just going around fucking over anyone they want because if they water their lawn it's a crime, and if they don't it's a crime.
>>8099136
I'm a finn + gardener by profession and i dont get why the fuck you people do this.
>>8099356
lawns* not gardens, obviously
>>8096585
>not realizing the entire lawn is for fucking aesthetics
Lawns are part of the American Dream. That's why we grow them in stupid places like California
>>8096856
He's trying to help you out and keep you on topic
>>8099396
I suppose that's possible. Might even be a better way to look at it, even if it's not accurate to the source.
It's obnoxious because acknowledging methylxanthine synthesis being effective at killing insects and certain fungi was implicit in what I said. I cannot stand being told the same thing I just said as though it's novel.
>>8096602
And what concentration of those 13 pesticides did they have, and do those doses have any biological effects at a magnitude I should care about?
I have a lot of chemicals in me. What matters is how *much* of them.
>>8099356
>despite farming almonds and shit taking up most of the water
It's mostly farming alfalfa, actually.
>>8099358
It's just a cultural thing, like Christmas trees; there's no actual purpose for it.
Because your neighbors care very much about how good your own house looks (because the overall quality of the neighborhood is a substantial factor in the property value), they will often form neighborhood councils and mandate (among many other things) that everybody's lawn is kept in good shape so it doesn't make the neighborhood look shitty and poorly maintained. (i.e. full of poor people.)
>>8099423
Can they actually do that, though? Is there any legal faculty to enforce their arbitrary garbage?
>>8099351
I see what you mean. I'm going to go ahead and say that the issue is just that those kinds of people are too dumb to properly to take care of their lawn. Or too busy to care what their workers are using.
>people who think having a strip of allergen factories looks good
>people who want to host a fertile environment for ants and other insects on their property
>people who want to waste land
>people who want to play outdoors
>people who move their bodies for entertainment
>people who force this shit on others around them
>>8100306
>people who want to host a fertile environment for ants and other insects on their property
Dig up 6ft of dirt everywhere on your lot up to property lines, fill in with glorious concrete or recycled plastics.
>>8096585
Penn and Teller did a decent episode of Bullshit on the lawn care industry. It really is pointless and harmful.
http://gorillavid.in/x8xxy413fupt
That link works for me - if it doesn't for you just search for the episode.
>>8099439
If you bought a house that's part of the "I'm a cocksucker" club, then yes. If all of your neighbors decide to form their little "We're going to vote for Hillary and then act smug" club they can't actually do anything to you unless you willingly sign your property up however.
But, the city/state can still fuck you over.
