American Castles

     The majority of Americans are of European descent and have strong cultural links to Europe's past. The mixing-pot of America has blended the various European nationalities with African, Latin, and Asian customs to create a country of unique, unspecific specialty. Despite the influence of other groups, European's have been the strongest determinant on American culture and values.
     Americans use more water annually on lawn and ornamental grasses than any agricultural crop. A nation of wealth, abundance, and excess, a large portion of Americans live similar lives to ones of medieval nobles with a diet rich in red meats, varied entertainment, and large houses surrounded by endless fields of grass.
     In medieval Europe, castles developed as stronghold structures for militaristic and political purposes. As the importance of castles grew and military siege technology competed to overpower the defensive systems of castles, the landscape itself was often altered to accommodate a sound defensive architectural structure which including the clearing of nearby forests to increase castle's visibility of the terrain and approaching enemies. As castles became fixtures of the landscape more as statements of wealth and less as military strongholds, lawnscapes became flourishing testaments of the wealthy elite. Empty fields originally cleared for defensive purposes became trimmed lawns of cultivated grasses and ornamental plants.

     With the American assistance in both world wars and a large exposure to European luxuries, American suburbias adopted cultivated grass lawns in the 1950s. As American wealth grew, the opulence of the lawn accompanied the expansion of the middle class out of the cities into larger houses with lawns.
     The foolishness of lawns in an industrialized, environmentally aware society is one of the ridiculous paradoxes of the modern West. Lawn care in America is a $75 billion industry with over half a million businesses and a million employees, yet it is one of the most environmentally and ecologically taxing industries. Americans, increasingly opposed to unsustainable environmental treatments, have increased the size of the lawn care industry by over 3% annually for nearly four decades.
     While chemical fertilizer runoff and aquifer depletion are concerns for agriculture, similar techniques are followed by pointless, unproductive lawn care services. Grass is grown to cut and trash; conversly agricultural crops are grown and harvested to sustain the human population and its husbandry needs.
     America, a land of incomprehensible wealth and resources, squanders its time, fuel, space, money, and population to care and treat millions of hectares of a non-productive crops that erode water systems, hog resources, and exasperate the worthlessness of epitomized luxuries. To set an example for developing nations, ease the use of natural resources, and increase the functionality of land and working population, extensive grass lawns should be nether cultivated nor cared for. If humanity is to press forward, we must do so in a conservative, mindful, selfless fashion that enables the hopes of the futures for the good of all.
   
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Agatha Tyche