NWF and ScottsMiracle-Gro? No!
I interrupt the scheduled.... um - recent silence - of my blog to put up a quick rant. As many of you know, many years ago we certified our small farm as a National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat (certified habitat #71074) as a way to raise awareness of the ways we can all (homeowners, farmers, patio gardeners, and foresters) help birds and other at-risk wildlife in our backyards. I've always been proud to support the NWF for their efforts to reconnect people with nature and to help gardeners support wildlife in backyards. However, I heard something yesterday that was very disappointing... the NWF has formed a partnership with the ScottsMiracle-Gro company.
Huh? Did I miss something? Isn't "Eliminate Chemical Pesticides" and "Eliminate Chemical Fertilizers" in the NWF's very own manual for certifying a backyard as a habitat? Where exactly do ScottsMiracle-Gro products, including Roundup (a weedkiller linked to fetal cell malfunction and several cancers in people and animals), and the chemical lawn fertilizers which destroy soil life and the health of our lakes and ponds, fit into a mission of "inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future"? No matter which way they are spinning this, the NWF has sold out....
Let the NWF know that they are betraying their own values by accepting money from the corporation that profits the most from selling the chemicals that are poisoning our farmlands, our water supplies, and our own health! Carole Brown's Ecosystem Gardening blog suggests some ways to contact NWF to express your disapproval:
Call NWF: 1-800-822-9919
Post your thoughts on NWF's Facebook page (make sure you click the tab that says "Everyone" under the photo bar)
Leave a comment on their website
Tweet your message to NWF on Twitter, including @NWF in your message
Thank you for listening!
Ellen - thanks so much for posting this. And I love your book- so much work on your part to make things easier for others.
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National Wildlife Federation has long believed that America works best when we work together. We fail when we divide. We have a 75-year history of collaborating with people and organizations from across the spectrum on the most important issues facing wildlife.
Much of our conservation work focuses on making changes on Capitol Hill, but more and more I believe we must all do what we can to change corporate and individual behavior when it’s incongruent with a healthy, sustainable world. We have carefully considered the pluses and minuses of working with ScottsMiracle Gro in an objective way, knowing that our friends in the organic gardening world have legitimate concerns about the company. I am sure the staff at Scotts had their own set of concerns about National Wildlife Federation.
I looked very carefully at not just where Scotts is at the moment, but more importantly where the company is going. While National Wildlife Federation is not endorsing any of the products that organic gardeners and others find objectionable, we will be encouraging Scotts to develop products that will lead to a more sustainable world.
I believe we can do more for wildlife by working to move corporations with a large environmental footprint in the right direction. Here are three important indicators of where Scotts is taking a new approach to lawn and garden products.
REDUCING PHOSPHORUS:
Lawns are a significant feature in the American landscape and what happens in our lawns doesn’t stay in our lawns. NASA has a great website that depicts the significance of lawns in and around aquatic ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay
Chemical runoff from lawns, particularly phosphorus which is a limiting nutrient, has a major impact on a number of lakes and fresh water portions of estuaries. Excess phosphorus stimulates "dead zones” by stimulating algae blooms that cause oxygen depletion in lakes, reservoirs and tidal fresh estuaries.
National Wildlife Federation has been promoting efforts to regulate non-point pollution under the Clean Water Act for decades with little real progress. It is clear that to make progress in this cause we need to work with companies that can make better product formulation decisions that will have a positive impact on millions of lawns and gardens across America. By working with Scotts, we can give voice to the need to curtail the use of phosphorus in lawn and garden fertilizer. As a result of a recent court decision, Scotts will phase out phosphorus in all of its fertilizers at the end of 2012 (with the exception of it plant starter products). This will create a market shift, as Scotts is a dominate player in the residential lawn care world. National Wildlife Federation supported this decision and we will work with Scotts to continue to encourage further improvements in the company’s fertilizers to protect fish, wildlife and their habitats.
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Third: TURNING LAWNS INTO CARBON SINKS:
Scotts’ scientists recognize that carbon storage in our lawns can be an important component for recapturing carbon pollution. They are studying various lawn management strategies and seed mixes to optimize carbon storage in our lawns. As we know and understand more about how to optimize carbon storage and how to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from our lawns, NWF will attempt to communicate meaningful solutions that gardeners and other homeowners can adopt. More information on this work can be found here.
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Larry - nice of you to actually post some facts but the logic is way, way off. So Scotts takes phosphorus out of its product, the fact is concentrated lawn chemicals are still not needed and still cause harm. What the NWF seems to be saying is that you're tired of getting run over by a freight train, so if you're really, really nice, in the future they are just going to run you over with a diesel truck but you have to say "thank you". This "I'm OK-You're OK" doesn't really work when the other's behavior is simply not OK. At this point, NWF sounds to me like a battered spouse making excuses for her husband.
I think the NWF has totally underestimated the brain power of its current support base. We are not the people who have been lulled into putting RoundUp on their lawns. We are not, as you suggest, just some silly organic gardeners. The NWF really needs to rethink what it is doing.
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Please understand that I have been an organic gardener since I first read Ruth Stout's wonderful book "How to have a Green Thumb without having an Aching Back" many years ago. I got rid of my rototiller and have never looked back.
Organic gardeners and other gardeners who plant native wild plants are key to educating the next generation of wildlife supporters. I also have a deep interest and commitment for native wild plant protection. Many years ago, I wrote a bill to create a wild plant protection program in Pennsylvania and later headed an organization that provided the science and oversight for wild plant protection. See: http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/conservationscience/wrcp/index.htm
My hope is to get more people growing their own food, creating or restoring habitats and advancing the best practices to create a more sustainable future.
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Larry - That's nice that you like organic gardening, are encouraging grow-it-yourself, and have actually written a state-level bill. What you are not getting is who we are - please stop with the pigeon-holing as it's working for you.
The people who currently support the NWF and whose voices you've heard today are doctors, lawyers, farmers, engineers, midwives, bee keepers, teachers, contractors, entrepreneurs, authors, landscapers, people from every walk of life brought together by our common desire to save ourselves, this planet, and the wildlife on it. We are people who don't wait for someone else to do it or tell us how to do it. We are independent adults who think for ourselves and try to act responsibly. We don't buy the puffing and rationalization, so stop -- it's not helping.
Many of us collectively believe in changing behavior - we know that fat-free food don't work. We know that what we need are less lawns - not carbon-sink turf grass (GMO?), and the reduction of one harmful chemical out of the enormous stew Scott is pumping out.
Face it, if NWF clings to its alliance with Scotts, it will lose the supporters who have made it what it is. Over time, this alliance will cause the NWF to lose its values. Look what happened to organisations like the AARP when they took similar course; they became marginalized, losing their relevancy and their power to make change.
We have seen corporate corruption of many of our institutions. We can not stand by and watch the same happen to our environmental guardians and advocates. So once again, please rethink this.
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Larry, I appreciate you taking the time to post here - but you have to understand that no amount of rationalization about your decision is going to change the fact that you have formed an alliance with a company who profits from the chemicals that are polluting our soil and water in the name of "a green lawn". Please understand that many of your loyal followers consider ScottsMiracle-Gro to be the antithesis of a healthy environment, representative of all that is wrong with the way that we manage our homes and farms! I had been researching your Schoolyard Habitat and Community Habitat programs with an aim to register as a NWF ambassador - I've cancelled those plans. There is no way I will represent a program that would proudly display ScottsMiracle-Gro alongside the NWF on its signage. I understand your aim for public awareness but to partner with SMG is to endorse its products and its mission - which is, quite simply, to profit from the sale of chemicals. Please consider me an ex-supporter of the NWF. I hope your talented staff will move to another organization that is true to its values of protecting wildlife and the environment we all share.
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