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Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 3/20/2012 5:28:23 AM

angelikaJ

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COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 14, 2012 (ENS) - Ohio lawn and garden care company Scotts Miracle-Gro has pleaded guilty to breaching federal pesticide laws by using an unapproved insecticide on bird seed sold nationwide for two years.
In Columbus, U.S. District Court Judge James Graham accepted the company's guilty plea on Tuesday.
Scotts is proposing to pay a $4 million fine and give $500,000 to help support wildlife conservation and study. Judge Graham said he will issue his decision on the plea agreement at sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.
The government alleges that beginning in 2005, Scotts produced a line of wild bird food products under names including "Morning Song" and "Country Pride" that contained insecticides.

The government says the insecticides, which are toxic to birds and other wildlife, were not approved for use on bird food.
According to court records, in 2008, Scotts distributed 73 million packages of bird seed coated with the insecticides Storcide II, containing the active ingredient chlorpyrifos, and and Actellic 5E, containing the active ingredient pirimiphos-methyl, intended to keep insects from destroying the seed.
The company continued to produce and market the insecticide-coated seeds despite being alerted to toxicity dangers by a Scotts staff chemist and ornithologist.
Storcide II is labeled as "Toxic to birds. Toxic to wildlife," and that "Exposed treated seed may be hazardous to birds."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's own fact sheet on pirimiphos-mehtyl states that "Ecological risks are not of concern to the Agency." Yet the same fact sheet also states "Although pirimphos-methyl is highly toxic to birds and fish, these risks are not of concern based on the use pattern of pirimiphos-methyl."
This would seem to indicate that the EPA did not anticipate this chemical to be used on anything intentionally fed to birds, says the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy.
"EPA needs to amend the use label for Actellic 5E and any other pesticide containing the same active ingredient, pirimiphos-methyl, to agree with their own fact sheet, and ensure that no other birds are poisoned by seed dosed with this toxic chemical," said American Bird Conservancy President George Fenwick.
"This highlights a key problem that it is the pesticide registrant that writes the labels on pesticides, not EPA," Fenwick said. "In some cases, it would seem that EPA is not effectively checking that the labels encompass the agency's responsibilities for birds."

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2012/2012-03-14-091.html

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RE: Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 3/20/2012 9:52:22 AM

outlier

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quote:

ORIGINAL: angelikaJ

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 14, 2012 (ENS) - ........
The government alleges that beginning in 2005, Scotts produced a line of wild bird food products under names including "Morning Song" and "Country Pride" that contained insecticides.

The government says the insecticides, which are toxic to birds and other wildlife, were not approved for use on bird food.
According to court records, in 2008, Scotts distributed 73 million packages of bird seed coated with the insecticides Storcide II, containing the active ingredient chlorpyrifos, and and Actellic 5E, containing the active ingredient pirimiphos-methyl, intended to keep insects from destroying the seed.
The company continued to produce and market the insecticide-coated seeds despite being alerted to toxicity dangers by a Scotts staff chemist and ornithologist. (emphasis added)
Storcide II is labeled as "Toxic to birds. Toxic to wildlife," and that "Exposed treated seed may be hazardous to birds."

.........."This highlights a key problem that it is the pesticide registrant that writes the labels on pesticides, not EPA,"

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2012/2012-03-14-091.html

They knew, they didn't give a damn as long as they were making money. And the government which is
supposed to be a regulatory body is saying, It's not my job!

Question: How long do you think it will be before the people in the EPA quit to go to work for Scotts?

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RE: Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 3/20/2012 10:28:27 AM

kalikshama

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Sorry, no Scotts/Government Venn but you get the picture:

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RE: Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 5/2/2012 4:31:41 AM

kalikshama

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/mar/21/2

But it is my opinion that neither of these penalties are substantial or severe enough. According to my calculations, even after paying the proposed fines, the company will have earned a profit from their sales of poisoned birdseed and lawn care products to an unsuspecting and trusting public. In fact, even if a penalty of $73 million -- merely $1 for each poisoned bird food item sold -- was levied against the company, Scotts Miracle-Gro will probably still earn a profit from sales of all their illegal products. For this reason, I view this penalty as a small slap on the wrist for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a publicly-traded company (NYSE: SMG) with an excess of $3 billion in annual worldwide sales.

Unfortunately, when an entire company engages in criminal activity, imprisonment is not normally an option. But in my opinion, the outrageously inflated salaries paid to corporate chairman and chief executive officer (Jim Hagedorn) and president (Barry Sanders), who were in those positions in 2008, should be justified by holding them personally and criminally liable when the company knowingly commits criminal acts under their leadership, since presumably, this is partially what these outsized salaries are intended to compensate them for.

It is my hope that the judge will ensure that the maximum fines and penalties will be levied against the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. This is the least that can be done in view of this egregious betrayal of the public trust, the damage to the environment and the terrible loss of wild birds and other wildlife -- all due to the criminal activities of this corporate giant.

At this point, it is likely that the government's lawyers are feeling pretty good about this outcome: they got an admission of criminal liability and a record-setting monetary fine without the years of litigation and thousands of man-hours that a prosecution would require. Yet I can't help but wonder what millions of dead finches, sparrows, doves, cardinals and other songbirds might say about this, if only we could understand them.

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RE: Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 5/2/2012 10:17:29 AM

FrostedFlake

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73,000,000 poisoned bird feeders?

Sold to those who care enough to want to feed the birds?

"Soul-less corporation".

Y'know, the kind that can spend anything at all in any political race you can shake a stick at. Because they're Citizens.

Ain't it great to be an American. One of the good guys. Or so goes the myth.

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RE: Scotts Miracle Grow sold poisoned bird seed - 5/2/2012 11:51:42 AM

Karmastic

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yep yep yep to all of the above, ditto

just confounding - bird seed that kills birds. huh?

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