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Sunday, January 29, 2012

NWF says bye, bye to ScottsMiracle-Gro

Well, that partnership sure didn't last long. Last week the National Wildlife Federation had announced a partnership with ScottsMiracle-Gro on a project to get kids outdoors and enjoying the world of Nature and gardens. (I blogged about it here.) The garden blogging world went nuts over the news, accusing NWF of selling out by partnering with a non-organic garden products company. Now NWF has announced that the partnership is being terminated. Here is their joint statement:

The National Wildlife Federation has worked together with ScottsMiracle-Gro over the past two years on programs to educate gardeners about global warming, connect children to the outdoors and help restore habitat following the Gulf oil disaster. Both parties recently announced plans for an even broader partnership that was based on our common interests.
Since that time, Scotts announced a pending legal settlement related to events in 2008 that predate our partnership, which has made it clear that the partnership is not viable. Therefore, NWF and Scotts will work together to end the partnership in a friendly and mutually beneficial way.
The "pending legal settlement" referred to is a lawsuit against Scotts for selling bird seed that had a chemical added to prevent insects from eating it. The problem was that the chemical was toxic to birds. Did they not see that that might be a problem? And did NWF truly not know about this before? What happened to due diligence?

Anyway, partnership terminated. Maybe all those bloggers' knickers can get untwisted now, but I suspect there may be more announcements forthcoming from NWF. Resignations, anyone?

2 comments:

  1. I also blogged about the partnership and it's quick dissolution. I hadn't heard what the law suit was about. I sure hope that's not the No-Mess Patio Blend they're referring to. I've been feeding that to my birds since I moved in here!

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  2. I'm not sure about the name of the birdseed involved, Jayne, except that it was made by Scotts, but apparently the time period in question was 2005-2008 and the birdseed in question is no longer being sold. Here is a link to the story about the settlement:

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/01/27/scotts-to-pay-4-5m-in-fines.html

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