The Industrial Lawn Complex

Imagine all the water you would save, chemicals you would avoid putting into the ground, and most importantly, free time you would have back if you didn’t have to worry about keeping your lawn perfectly green and manicured. Let’s face it, Americans' if nothing else have made the lawn industry quite profitable. Don't get me wrong, I love a green lawn, and the smell of freshly cut grass is hard to beat. But, we can’t overlook the fact that Americans' have over 20 million acres of private lawns to care for. Between energy, water, chemical, and manpower use, we have manufactured the industrial lawn. In the age of the green revolution, this industry surely deserves some scrutiny and its practices should be examined for sustainability.

Japan, on the other hand, finds little use for the lawn mower. Granted, we live in the city here, but most of the places we have traveled in Japan have similar landscape. For the most part, Japan chooses to live and build with nature and their native plants rather than manicure the perfect green lawn. There is one glaring difference between Japan and America – space. America has the great frontier and rolling plains – space-a-plenty. In Japan, however, that space is at a premium.

So, when you do see lawns or weeds that need maintenance here in Japan, it often looks like this:

Men or women yielding gas-powered metal weed-whippers to maintain the areas that need trimming. Personal lawns aren’t very common, but these weed-whippers are used to trim around rice fields, along roads by road maintenance, and in the case of the above picture, park maintenance.

Certainly, gas-powered weed-whippers aren’t much better than lawn mowers, but I think the key is the lack of lawns. Lawn space is more efficiently used for gardening, or native plants. A wise idea for those looking to reduce weekend chores and their carbon footprint!