Tag Archives: class

Front Lawns: Mowing & Growing the American Landscape, A Brief History of an American Obsession

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Link to original Story Map

The Story Map Text:

From the suburbs of Chicago to the suburbs of New York, our obsession with lawns spans America.

But, why? Why do these spaces carry so much value? How did our obsession begin?

The following events illustrate the story of how lush front lawns— and the devices and practices used to create them— reflect the American Dream of home ownership.

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1700

America owes the physical creation of the lawn to landscape designers in England and France. The first lawns were grassy fields enveloping English and French castles — the logic being that castle grounds free of trees allowed soldiers guarding the castles a clear view of their surroundings. Further into the 1700s, European landscape designers began experimenting with concepts of closely, clean-cut grass areas within gardens. Lawns quickly become an indicator of class. Just like today, those with lawns are those who have the financial means to maintain it.

1757

Language matters. The word “lawn” was introduced to the English dictionary in 1757 as a “large clump of dirt with grass.” The creation of this word gave a name to this phenomenon.

1806

Among the first to replicate the European lawn in America was U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. In front of his Monticello estate, Jefferson had a large front lawn designed, simply for his viewing pleasure.

1830

Englishman Edwin Bear Budding invents the mechanical lawn mower in 1830. The design of the lawn mower sets the foundation for quick, efficient lawn management that we know and “love” today.

1841

The desire for lawns to look like putting greens begins in 1841 when Jackson Downing published the first ever American landscape-gardening book. Downing’s popular book told readers that if they ‘improve’ their cookie cutter front lawns, they would ‘improve’ themselves.

1868

Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, commonly known as the ‘Father of the American Lawn’, accepted the task to design Riverside, a suburb of Chicago. In the design, Olmsted required that each house be set back 30 feet from the road to allow room for one or two trees and a lawn that would connect to the neighbors’ yard.

1871

With the invention of the lawn sprinkler in 1871, homeowners— the elite few who had running water in 1871— no longer had an excuse not to have a lawn.

1935

Missouri mechanic Leonard Goodall crafted the first power rotary mower in 1935. Caring for a lawn became easier and faster than ever.

1938

Passed in 1939, The Fair Labor Standards Act makes the dream of a 40-hour workweek a reality. With newfound weekend time, many Americans filled their Saturday’s with lawn mowing and watering. While it was not explicitly said, the condition of the front lawn reflected your status and value to your community.

1945

The end of World War II prompted the federal government to finance low-cost mortgages, encouraging builders to construct low-middle class housing. Lawns are used in these new housing developments to recreate upper class suburban residences, drawing more residences into the neighborhoods. Before this, front lawns are reserved for the upper class. Intentional efforts by the government denied housing loans to many people of color, excluding them from living in suburban communities.

1950

The development of new forms of pesticides makes a weed-free lawn possible.

1962

The first prominent anti-lawn advocates emerged after the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, detailing the harmful effects of the pesticides (being used to keep lawns weed free) have on people, wildlife, and the greater environment.

1966

The Masters Golf Tournament is televised in color for the first time, allowing viewers to see the manicured, bright green grass fields displayed on their TVs at home. In a Sports Illustrated issue following the tournament, the author writes, “having seen what is possible, millions of homeowners feel compelled to go and do likewise.”

2005

Turf grasses, grass used for lawns, become the single largest irrigated crop in America. Lawn irrigation uses more water than corn, wheat, and fruit orchards combined.

2009

Americans spend a record $20 billion in 2009 on lawn care.

2016

In the small town of Cahokia, Illinois, authorities arrested a woman for failing to mow her lawn in accordance with strict municipal lawn-care rules. Both before and after this arrest, there have been other mowing-related legal cases, emphasizing the importance of lawns in American culture.

2020

Compared to state park sites in the U.S. occupying 14 million acres of land, lawns now cover 50 million acres of land in the U.S. That’s a lot of grass.

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The legacy of the American front lawn is one we are all familiar with.

Front lawns tell us that with hard work, determination, and sacrifice, anyone can achieve a life of prosperity. Front lawns tell us that we, too can have that perfect, pristine patch of grass.

Front lawns may look perfect, but they obscure a long history of exclusion and environmental damage.

Seeds of Justice: 4 Ways You Can Support Sustainable, Community-Driven Food Systems

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Five white men and women with tools tend a community garden.

U.S. industrial agriculture causes an estimated $34.7 billion worth of environmental damage each year, yet 49 million Americans still live in households that can’t count on having enough food. It’s clear that our food system is not meeting our social and environmental needs – solutions, on the other hand, aren’t quite so straightforward. When you think about better options for the food system, do you imagine buying local and organic? Do you picture urban farms and community gardens? Are you dreaming of artisan coffee and a stroll around the farmer’s market right now? (Yeah, me too.) Can you envision these actions making it harder for certain communities to access healthy, sustainable food? Hold up – what?

It’s true: many popular approaches to the “food problem” tend to push privileged and disadvantaged groups farther apart, which is especially troubling given the demographics of food access. Food insecurity intersects – perhaps obviously – with lower household income, but it also reflects significant racial disparities: while 11% of White households experienced food insecurity in 2013, a quarter of Black and Latin@ households faced barriers to food access in the same year. These patterns ring true in the long-term effects of food access, too, putting racially, culturally, and economically marginalized populations at greater risk of diet-related disease. Latin@ and African-American children are 1.7 times more likely than White children to be diagnosed with diabetes by the time they turn eighteen; Native American children are diagnosed at more than twice the rate of White children.

A graph showing the prevalence of diabetes among adults, by race/ethnicity. Graph shows Black non-Hispanic, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native at a far higher prevalence than White non-Hispanic.

A graph showing the prevalence of diabetes among adults, by race/ethnicity. Source: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/mead_racialethnicdisparities_chartbook_1111.pdf

If you grew up thinking that farmers’ markets, urban gardens, and natural food stores offered the best options for your health and the planet’s, it can be hard to grapple with the unintended social consequences these resources can have. But the environmental movement needs people like you to engage in thoughtful action – in fact, our collective future depends on it.

If you are ready to make social equality a core part of your food ethic, read on:

  1. Examine your own place in the food system. Start by thinking about what kind of foods make you feel physically and mentally nourished, as opposed to just full – how often do you have these foods around? List the parts of your identity – such as class, culture, race, gender, age, geographic location – that you think have made it easier or harder for you to get the foods you need. Taking a moment to reflect – alone or with a friend – on your experience with food justice will help you identify your own unique position, and develop a more thoughtful approach to action.
  2. Understand food justice in your community. Who lives on your block, in your neighborhood, in your city? Talk to the people who live nearby to see how they feel about their food options. Then, take what you have learned and zoom out: try comparing your grocery stores with those of a friend in a different neighborhood or part of town. How might the resources you have align with resource gaps somewhere else? Talk about ways you and your community can leverage these resources to make healthy, sustainable food more accessible.
  3. Get schooled. Young people face some of the biggest risks that stem from food in Reach out to your local school board about your concerns – or better yet, see how you can support a student-driven movement for sustainable, nutritious, and culturally relevant meals in the cafeteria. If you need inspiration, look no further than the New Orleans-based Rethinkers, an organization that used youth participatory action research (Y-PAR) to transform the way cafeterias sourced food after Hurricane Katrina devastated local public schools.
  4. Sow your support. If your area already has community gardens, take a moment to learn about their history: find out how they were established, who tends to use them, and how they fit into the picture you’ve been developing of food justice in your area. Then pitch in a few volunteer hours! Many urban farms – especially those that lead youth and community programs on the side – could use the extra set of hands, whether you end up harvesting, weeding, or sorting papers in an office. Not exactly a green thumb? Ask if they could use your help with upcoming fundraisers or events. No community gardens? No problem! Talk with your neighbors to gauge interest, look for existing organizations that could sponsor you, and check out some potential sites.

Structural inequality and environmental problems often go hand in hand. Few examples show this more clearly than the American food system. Luckily, this connection is true of our potential solutions, too: one small step towards a more sustainable food system can often start a cycle of positive social impact that benefits everyone. And the best news? This cycle of growth starts with you.