Four industry experts participated in a wide-ranging panel discussing important issues in the chemical lawn care industry including how to deal with local chemical bans and how to change the perception of the industry during Lawn & Landscape’s 2019 Virtual Conference.
The panel included Harold Enger, director of education, Spring-Green Lawn Care; Bob Mann, director of state and local government relations, National Association of Landscape Professionals; Karen Reardon, VP of public affairs, Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment; and Eric Wenger, president, Complete Lawn Care.
Here are some takeaways from the panel discussion:
The state of chemical bans
Reardon: We certainly should be uneasy about where we are. We have about 600 jurisdictions that have put bans in place that include cities and towns out of about 80,000 in the United States. But really, the core issue is the undermining of our state and federal regulatory processes and generally the trend overall in society not to trust institutions. I think we are an easy target, a low-hanging fruit, if you will. And that’s something that really should get everyone’s attention, especially professional applicators.
Mann: There is a strong correlation between anti-pesticide activity and the presence of a pesticide preemption law in each one of the states. There were 45 states that have preemption language in their laws that say that only the state and the federal government can regulate pesticides. But in those states where that is not the case, like for instance, Maine with its home rule tradition, and Maryland with its similar type of tradition – that’s where the anti-pesticide activists are concentrating and working against that.
Then to take the model that was used to ban pesticides in the province of Ontario, they use local momentum to effect change at the state level. In Massachusetts, when we talk about the pesticide preemption, what we’ll hear is how wonderful and things are in Maine where they’re able to regulate it from local level. The local level means that things are going to be banned. I mean, there’s really nowhere else to go after the EPA and the state regulatory agencies have done their job. That’s the only thing left is to ban the product. So that’s what we’re kind of looking at the moment.
Know your representatives
Wenger: The number one thing that LCOs who are concerned about these things in their jurisdictions should do is to immediately get involved with their local politics, learn who their politicians are, who the representatives are and show up – not just sending a check in to support.
You can certainly send money, but you need to be a presence. You need to show that you’re a human being, that you’re a real person – a business that supports the community. You need to learn who your representatives are, and you need to try to make friends with them or at least show them that you are an important part of their constituency.
I can’t emphasize it enough. It’s something we didn’t see coming here and we don’t have a lot of friends at our local political level. So do your due diligence as a local person. Learn who your political leaders are, your representatives. Meet them in person. Go to fundraisers, go to networking events and let them know that you’re a real person.
Enger: I think what Bob did by inviting the EPA to come out and look at a lawn care operation to see exactly what we do was very good because a lot of these people have no idea what we do.
As I often say, I think a lot of customers think that we’re in this big warehouse with the big cauldrons and we’re mixing up all these exotic chemicals. They can buy the same products at the hardware store that we use. So maybe invite your county person or whoever to come out and spend a day with you, looking at lawns, seeing how you run your operation, seeing how that, yeah, we don’t overuse these products. We use proper protective equipment when we’re applying these things so they understand how we do things.
To view the full story, and more from the virtual conference, click here.
