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- To: bdnow@igg.com
- Subject: Seeds of Change
- From: John Spencer <JSPENCER@FCC.GOV> (by way of BD NOW!)
- Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 06:54:40 -0500
- Reply-to: bdnow@igg.com
<This report appeared in the Food & Water Journal. Does anyone have further info? --John Spencer> <Steve Badger, long time president of SOC, is an heir to the M&M fortune. SoC has always had a favorable relationship with M&M, to my knowledge. Unfortunately, SoC has been struggling financially for some time now. The recent attempt to incorporate the catalog approach of Mr. Smith of Smith and Hawkin with SoC is one of the most visible examples of their struggling. Let's hope for the best. Above all else, IMHO, SoC deserves our support. -AB> M&M-Mars buys Seeds of Change Nowhere is the trend toward the industralization of organics more disturbing than in the flurry of recent corporate mergers between traditional food giants and smaller organic corporations. Take, for example, the recent M&M-Mars, Inc. acquisition of the once idealistic Seeds of Change. Seeds of Change, founded by the eco-entrepreneur Kenny Ausubel, began in the late 1980s with a noble goal: to "restore biodiversity and revolutionize the way we think about food." According to Ausubel's introduction to the book Seeds of Change, the new company was "value-driven" and "intent on preserving and spreading a diversity of organic seeds through the gritty, caring hands of backyard gardeners in living gardens." But when push came to shove and its primary crop increasingly became money, Ausubel and his clan at Seeds of Change traded in the "gritty" hands of the gardeners for the well-heeled hands of the folks at M&M-Mars in an unprecedented sellout of its original "values." The M&M-Mars acquisition of Seeds of Change gives us the needed resources to operate over time," explained Seeds of Change vice-president Steve French in an interview with Food & Water. To add insult to injury, French went on to confirm our suspicions that the company's ideals (and common sense) had indeed given way to profits and corporate double-speak. Consider this bit of reasoning from French: "Quite honestly, I don't think there are any real differences between Seeds of Change and Mars. I think there are actually quite a bit of commonalities . . . and regardless of whether it's a Mars product or it's a Seeds of Change product, the product benefits are very, very similar if we're talking about nutrition here." So much for the food revolution - - - - - From Food & Water Journal, Spring 1998 published by Food & Water, Inc. 389 Vermont Route 215 Walden, Vermont 05873 -- Capitol Macintosh, Austin's Mac User Group -- TCP Port 3000: online.capmac.org -- or by modem +1.512.440.0025 (6 lines) ------- http://www.greenbuilder.com telnet://fc.greenbuilder.com:3000 modem: 512.462.0633 ------- Green Building Professionals Directory at http://www.greenbuilder.com/directory/
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