The Story Of AstroTurf™
Astro Turf™, another name for artificial grass right? Wrong. Astro Turf™ is actually a registered trademark in the US. It is a specific type of early artificial grass created by The Monsanto Company. The same people who also manufactured Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
Let's have a brief look at the history so you can seem more knowledgeable and understand why we don’t use the term Astro Turf™.
A Brief History of Astro Turf™
All the way back in 1965, a company called Monsanto developed the first artificial grass. Initially being made famous by being installed in the Houston Astro Dome. Later in 1967, Monsanto Patented this product under the name "Chem Grass".
Being initially used in the Astro Dome, the term Astro Turf started to catch on and became what most people referred to it as. After a short time, it was re-patented officially as Astro Turf™. Which is what a lot of people still call it today. However as you now know this term is the name of a product and therefore the incorrect term for artificial grass.
We see this happen a lot, such as the Vacuum commonly being referred to in the UK as Hoover which is a brand name of one of the first Vacuum companies.
While the advantages of artificial grass have stayed the same, the quality and look is so much better than it was over to 50 years ago during its inception. We have so many people look at our Natural 42 mm grass and they can hardly tell the difference from real grass. Apart from its obvious lack of mud mess and need for mowing and watering.
Facts about AstroTurf™
The Monsanto Company also were a part of loads of other products to. Such as the popular weed killer “Roundup”.
They are also one of the world’s largest producers of genetically modified grass seed and the first company to mass produce LEDs in 1968.
Additionally, they were one of the leading producers of Agent Orange, a poison that was used by the USA during the Vietnam war. As we briefly mentioned above
When ChemGrass was first installed at the Astro Dome, Houston, the grounds keepers would dress up as astronauts between each inning and use vacuum cleaners to keep the turf debris free during the game.
Disclaimer: Artificial Grass Central are Not associated with the AstroTurf™ brand. While a lot of people use it as a term for artificial grass, it is a trademark as you hopefully now know the story of how it came about.