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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grass-Seed Farmers Spread Green Across Entire Region Letter Of The Week: From Oct. 4

One article this summer made mention of how “so few people benefit” monetarily from the grass seed industry.

What do they think grass farmers do with the income they make from their crops - sit on it?

Their grass-seed dollars are spent in their communities. Money goes to buy groceries (we eat too), gas, cars, clothing, entertainment, educations, taxes, etc. Of course, none of that goes to pay your salaries. Wouldn’t it be interesting to dye “grass-seed money” smoke gray and watch where all that money travels in a year’s time. I’ll bet some of it ends up in your pocket.

Another article said, “Asian markets benefiting from your ruined summers.” I’d like to ask, where did your lawn seed come from? How about the grass on your children’s school grounds, area golf courses, football and baseball fields, on the grassy swales that filter storm water runoff in the medians of our city and county roads?

Oh, that’s right, it all came off the shelf at the store.

Go visit with the water quality people. Where’s the purest water in the aquifer - under housing developments? I don’t think so. Homeowners are the biggest abusers of chemicals and fertilizers that are polluting the aquifer. Homeowners do far more harm than farmers do.

Yes, we’re all a bunch of yahoos who live in this area. I guess the gentlemen (“Give back the beautiful sky,” Letters, Sept. 25) who moved here from the East and didn’t do any research on this area before moving is the biggest yahoo of us all. Karleen Meyer Rathdrum, Idaho

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