What is the most irrigated crop in America? Being an agriculturally based nation, people tend to answer this question with some of the most common crops found on farms: corn or wheat. Turns out that it's neither of these: the majority of our irrigation practices in America are spent on grass.
The American lawn is one of the most symbolic references to the “American Dream”. Following World War II, the G.I. Bill was created to help veterans of WWII settle back into the U.S. lifestyle, providing home loan benefits to millions. With nearly 2.4 million low-interest home loans for veterans between 1944-1952, owning a suburban home became an idealized component of American life. A quiet town, a white picket fence, and most importantly, a large yard: these factors all became iconic symbols of an idealized life, and they were famously featured on the newly developed home TV. Emerging from World War II as the world’s leading superpower of the “free world”, American values in the 1950s stressed both consumerism and formality. As such, there was a huge rise in suburban interest, as it was commonly depicted to be a better way of life.
Due to the rise of the suburbs and white flight, where middle and upper class white Americans moved from city centers to the suburbs, the home became a representation of both a person's status and “Americanism”. Being an uncommon commodity in traditional urban life, the lawn became a prized possession for suburban residents. Resulting from this, more than 80% of Americans own a lawn in 2024.
Blinded by this unsustainable dream, the damaging effects of maintaining this “green status” has led to abundant environmental and humanitarian impacts that often go unseen. Currently the U.S. as a whole expends enough water each year on their lawns to fill the Chesapeake Bay. This mass scale water expenditure, of roughly 8 billion gallons of water a day, not only wastes energy, producing excess greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, but can also lead to nutrient leaching. This phenomenon forces nutrients below plant root systems, which can overwhelm and kill surrounding vegetation. In addition, the grass itself, with excess water, becomes less water absorbent. As a result, in weathering events such as excessive rain, there will be an increase in soil and nutrient runoff, overwhelming surrounding bodies of water. This, in turn, can lead to nutrient imbalances within water based ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and killing off wildlife.
Watering a crop (i.e.,grass) is quite possibly the most basic step in maintaining a lawn. However, as citizens we don't just want any ordinary lawn, we want one that represents our American pride: a lawn that looks just as good – if not better– then our neighbors. Once again, we go overboard! Approximately 2.4 million metric tons of fertilizers are used each year to maintain the American lawn. This, in conjunction with increased soil vulnerability, can lead to the runoff of excess nutrients from these fertilizers, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, into nearby bodies of water. This runoff, in turn causes a death-ridden phenomenon for aquatic life, eutrophication. The eutrophication process consists of Algae-based species taking in the excess nutrients to grow to abundant sizes: algal blooms. Not only do these blooms block sunlight from reaching ground floor plant life but also, when they die, are decomposed by surrounding bacteria and use up the oxygen supply in the area. This, in turn, leads to the development of “dead-zones”, areas in which there is no oxygen and wildlife itself cannot sustainably exist. As a result, aquatic life is suffocated, and the ability to maintain a healthy system is diminished.
Homeowners outcompete farmers in the process of watering their crops; however, this does not stop at just H2O, as they also use an abundance of pesticides. On average, American lawn maintenance uses 20 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use per acre on their crops. This amount can equate to roughly 70 million pounds of pesticides that threaten both wild and humanitarian life. Due to the damaging chemical compounds present in pesticide products, 7 million wild birds die each year from homeowner pesticide usage. This is a significant decrease in national bird populations, which in turn disrupts the food chain and overall balance of the ecosystem. With a reduced bird population, higher trophic species (those that consumed birds) now have a diminished food supply, causing their populations to similarly decrease. On the other hand, lower trophic organism populations thrive. These lower trophic organisms tend to be herbivores, which means that in abundance they will increase plant life consumption dramatically changing the landscape of the ecosystem and overall richness of species capable of inhabiting the area.
However, wildlife is not all that is harmed by the mass presence of pesticides: we have put ourselves in danger too. One of the most prominently used pesticides on lawn care is glyphosate, which, when in contact with humans, can be severely damaging and in some cases life threatening. Human contact with glyphosate can lead to nausea and vomiting, respiratory damage in the lungs and nose, developmental effects in bone and organ structure, and in the most severe cases the formation of cancer. As such the usage of pesticides endangers those that are exposed to these chemicals, and has had global consequences with 385 million cases of unintentional pesticide poisonings and 11,000 fatalities. Be it the lawn your kids or the neighbors kids play in, the usage of pesticides threatens humanitarian health greatly, and if unregulated can potentially harm you and your loved ones.
Another major excessive component of lawn maintenance is the usage of gas powered lawn equipment. As of 2024, roughly 800 million gallons of gasoline are used every year for lawn equipment and 17 million gallons of gasoline are simply spilled when refueling mowers. This is an extreme overuse of valuable non-renewable resources just to set a social or political statement in the front yard of your house. In turn, this contributes significantly to the global climate change crisis, as excess greenhouse gasses are shoved into the atmosphere, increasing annual temperatures, changing weather patterns, damaging ecosystems and threatening human health across the globe.
The problem of the American lawn is contracted from the ignorant over-usage of water, fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and gas powered lawn equipment; perpetuated by our social and political ideals to live the American Dream. In the process of living this constructed dream, we sacrifice not only the environment in which we call home, but we jeopardize the health of ourselves and those we love. However, it is not too late; there is something people can do. As it's difficult to change people's minds, and stop them from purchasing certain products such as glyphosate-based pesticides, one of the most effective ways to attack the problem of the American lawn is through legal means.
Recently California had developed a law to reduce the harmful effects of the American Lawn, AB-1572. This law focuses on restricting practices such as irrigation and pesticide-based product usage on “non functional turf,” or any platform of grass that serves only ornamental purposes. On the other hand this law supports the sustainability of functional grass areas that we rely on such as parks, where we have public gatherings and social events, as well as sports fields and areas of recreation. As such, this law is effective in reducing the negative impacts of lawn maintenance as the American lawn would be categorized, under these means, as non functional turf.
The solution to this American lawn problem is not out of reach. Inform the people around you about this problem and the negative impacts their lawn maintenance may be having. Lobby for new law and legislation to hinder negative lawn maintenance activities. And if you enjoy it, start writing. You don't know who you might help.