So I see this gorgeous field of buttercups (as I was Traveling at the Speed of Bike to see the last of the peach trees my 90-year-old friend planted five years ago, hanging heavy with fruit, before they are chopped down shortly by the city).
I smile and burst into song (Build Me Up, Buttercup, of course), but just for a moment because then I get let down thinking about how this beautiful green space is about to become artificial turf — and I seem to be the only one (besides the Centers for Disease Control and Mt. Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center) raising questions about its proliferation in both our urban and suburban communities.
You know all those RoundUp, sunscreen, and other headlines about toxicities now wreaking havoc in our bodies, water, soil, food, and air? I wrote about them on another blog* of mine more than ten years ago, with the recommendation to use the precautionary principle and avoid, especially if children are involved. I feel the same way now about artificial turf.
I’m not coming out of left field here with my concerns. Just a field full of buttercups that seems far healthier to me than what’s about to happen.
* some of which has been published in my book, Food for My Daughters
See related posts:
Real Talk about Artificial Turf
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 