Garden variety
Why mow the grass when you can harvest salad greens?
Posted by Tom Philpott

Lawn grass is the largest irrigated U.S. crop. "Even conservatively," notes NASA researcher Cristina Milesi, "I estimate there are three times more acres of lawns in the U.S. than irrigated corn."

Wow, that's a lot of ornamental grass -- about 128,000 square kilometers worth, roughly equal in size to the state of Wisconsin. According Milesi, keeping all of that grass green requires about 200 gallons of fresh, typically drinking-quality water per person per day. (Interestingly, Milesi does find that lawns are net carbon sinks, but she doesn't mention emissions associated with mowing.)

Happily, people are increasingly finding more productive -- and delicious -- uses for their little patches of land. From the Wall Street Journal lifestyle section:

LINK TO CON.