How The Government Got in Your Backyard: Superweeds, Frankenfoods, Lawn Wars, and the (Nonp

Jeff Gillman loathes advice that is given without concern for the consequences. He wrote a tell-all book after hearing self-proclaimed experts spouting things such as feeding syrup to plants, and lectures on a variety of topics including homebrewed remedies and organic pesticides.

Gillman and Heberlig take a nonpartisan approach to existing environmental laws and consider how each political sphere would like them changed. They use an interesting conceit, highlighting a topic, providing background, then relating how it is received by the Right and the Left. This clarifies dense material, making for an accessible title that also explains why it is so difficult to alter existing laws. Members of Congress, they write, would be perfectly happy if scientists came before them and all agreed that ‘this pesticide is safe, allow it’ or ‘this pesticide is unsafe, ban it.’ But anticipating that level of consensus from the scientific community makes Waiting for Godot look like an afternoon’s diversion. Therefore, politicians are forced to take sides on issues they know little about, resulting in frustration all around. Gillman and Heberlig also wade into private-property rights and home-owner associations and pose the question of just what a good yard means. In all, their discussion illuminates environmental confusion on a national scale and offers help in making the far-ranging debate easier to understand. --Colleen Mondor