My orthotics - They cost $500, but I'm happy to get rid of them.

“I know you probably paid a lot of money for them, but the research says that those don’t work, and all I can go on is the science and the facts.” That’s what my orthopedist told me as he looked at the orthotics a foot doctor made for me two years ago. I looked at the orthotics, which I hate, and then back at the Doctor and I told him, “Wow! That’s what I tell people all the time in my business too!”

I know you paid a lot of money for that herbicide and that equipment to apply it, and the time learning to use it, but years of experience and new research says, that those don’t work.”

I was at the Doctor’s office because my feet hurt, and my foot doctor couldn’t seem to figure out anything to help me. He said my orthotics were perfect, and maybe if I put a little cotton pad over my ankle, things would work out. But they didn’t. Now the orthopedist was telling me that the science didn’t support the expense and hassle I’d gone through. Instead he handed me a sheet of paper with some stretching exercises and sent me home.

I was skeptical. But the science said so, and I use science every day, so I tried the stretches. And it worked! I’m not 100% yet, and there’s a little arthritis and over-use that may keep me from having the feet I had when I was 20. But the benefits of listening to the science are that I don’t have to buy or wear special shoes or orthotics, and I get to spend an extra 5 minutes in bed doing my foot stretches.

The lesson for me was that sometimes it’s hard to trust the science and try something different, but the benefits of taking the risk can be great. My feet are one example, and herbicides are another. We’ve been creating and using herbicides since the late 1800s. When 2-4-D was developed in the 1940s, a noted weed scientist declared we now had the tool to win the war on weeds. Sixty years later weed populations are still increasing at 8-20% per year. And a recent peer-reviewed paper found that herbicides actually INCREASED leafy spurge! (Ask me for the reference and I’ll be happy to send it to you.)

Experience and science show that we aren’t being successful with herbicides. Science shows, and I’ve demonstrated that cows can learn to eat them. Maybe you can save a lot of money by turning a problem into a forage, and it might give you an extra 5 minutes to spend somewhere else too! If you’d like to learn more, visit my website.