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I'm always puzzled by the lengths that people go to rid their homes of pests. They douse their homes with unspeakable chemicals at the sight of a single ant despite the fact that, in most cases, there are non-toxic and far cheaper solutions. Tell that to my landlord who requires spraying my place every two weeks despite nary a sign of a bug in months. Lest I digress... a new certification for pest control has launched. It's called Green Shield and it's endorsed by the NRDC and others.

The basic idea is that it trains and certifies pest control professionals to seek a more holistic and thoughtful method for ridding a home of pests - largely by eliminating the source of a problem, rather than dousing the home in toxicity.

This all reminds me of a brilliant speech by famed mycologist Paul Stamets at last year's Bioneers conference. Paul has a patent on a fungi-based pest control system that is supposed to be more effective than any chemicals and is basically free. You can watch the portion of his speech below where he expressed his fear of the reaction of the pesticide industry. The good news, however, is that with certifications like Green Shield, professionals and small business people can still thrive economically simply by changing the way they practice their trade - it'll still be a lucrative business even if buying, selling, and deploying chemical warfare ceases to be a part of it.

 

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