Were Those Cheerios Seeds That Bad? Investigation
Last month, we told you not to plant the wildflower seeds that Cheerios is distributing to help “bring back the bees” because they appear to contain invasive species that could harm the environment. Shortly thereafter, I received several letters about those seeds that took me into a much deeper story.
In short, the problem with the Cheerios seed mix is that no matter where you are, some of the flowers in the mix will be far from ideal for your area. For example, the California poppy is great for growing in California, but is a poisonous weed in the southeast. One of the plants on the forget-me-not list turned out to be a species banned in two states. If you are going to ask people to plant flowers to help the environment, why not send them flowers that are not harmful to the environment?
It turns out that in my post I was mistaken about one fact. I heard about the error via email from Lance Bentley of the Bentley Seed Company . “My company is the packer of this promotion,” he said, and stated that there were no invasive forget-me-nots in them.
It turns out that several seed companies were involved in assembling this promotional seed package. Cheerios advertised that they were partnering with Vesey’s, another major seed distributor, but Vesey received bags from Bentley’s and Bentley’s used another company’s seeds to fill their bags. Lance Bentley wrote that he had a confidentiality agreement with a seed supplier, whose name he could not disclose, but that they were “the most respected wildflower seed growers in the United States.” He said the mixture was formulated there by a “woman with an environmental degree,” and he assured me that neither Bentley nor the mysterious supplier would ever intentionally ship harmful species.
So how did forget-me-not even make it to the list of wildflowers on the Cheerios website? This list above includes both the (relatively harmless) Chinese forget-me-nots and the common forget-me-nots below. At first Bentley thought I had confused the Chinese for other species, but then I noticed that both of them are on the list. After a few letters, he said that he confirmed that adding a second forget-me-not was a “typo” on the part of his supplier. But no, he couldn’t tell me who the supplier was.
I posted a fix to my article stating that I was informed that the forget-me-nots were not actually in the package and contacted again Katherine Turner, an invasive plant expert, who explained the seed mixture issues when I first wrote this article. … This time I asked her if the mixture was still problematic even without the invasive forget-me-not. Here’s what she said:
I still think that sending non-native seeds all over the country is not the best option. The real forget-me-not was the worst [on the list] of course, but there are still non-native natives and the Californian poppy in the southeast is littered. In all fairness, it is probably impossible to create a single set of plants that would thrive across the United States, even if they were all from somewhere in North America. So why not have 5 or so for specific regions? Xerces.org is already doing this.
The funny thing is, Cheerios worked with Xerces , a nonprofit wildlife conservation, on another project to plant native wildflowers near their oat farms. Why not use preferred Xerces flowers to promote seed packs? I called a Cheerios representative when I was doing my initial research for the piece, but he declined to tell me anything about the species they include, or why they chose this particular blend.
But maybe he can help me figure out how the wrong forget-me-not appeared on the Cheerios list. I answered him, and in three emails that day, he said that he was “looking into it,” “still collecting information,” and that he would return to me the next day. Call it a guess, but I think Cheerios was not aware of the error until I told them. In the end, the official had no explanation. He simply wrote that they would update the site because they “accidentally listed Forget-me-nots twice.”
What was Cheerios thinking?
My article on the Cheerios Wildflower Seed Project has received 2.7 million views, more than anything I have ever written. The day it was published was the most visited day for Lifehacker. I received an email from our CEO congratulating me.
A few days later, articles began to appear on the Internet about the “backlash” on Cheerios. All articles cited my post and many reached out to Cheerios for comment. So I don’t think I am wrong in suggesting that maybe, just maybe, this issue was on the Cheerios radar.
Yet they never once contacted me about this. Lance Bentley, the seed packer, cared about correcting the records and wanted to protect his reputation and that of his supplier. Cheerios didn’t seem to care.
I looked at the page Cheerios in Facebook and looked answers to their Promoted Tweets about drawing wildflowers . Many people pointed out that the seeds were non-native and possibly invasive. Many of them have linked to my article. And some poor intern must have been given the job of copying the boring answer to all of them. In fact, this was the same answer I got when I first asked Cheerios about their seed mixture. And it didn’t help at all.
While I rolled my eyes at Cheerios’ dull response, the news site PR Daily complimented him . Alex Slater, himself the director of one of the PR companies, wrote:
“In response to growing pressure from both digital retail outlets and individuals on social media, General Mills has focused its response on Facebook and Twitter audiences. The company has developed a set of three small response messages designed to solve problems and prevent further interrogation. ”
Trying to work with reporters to eliminate misinformation is “unnecessary escalation,” he said. Better to come up with a statement that “mixes technical language with empathy” without touching the gist of the article, and stick it over and over until it’s gone.
Someone cares
However, not everyone took this approach. Diane Wilson is sure not.
I don’t know who Diane really is, but I have a guess. She emailed me shortly after Lance Bentley did it and demanded a correction (although I just contributed it) for including invasive forget-me-nots in the seed mixture. “I have seen with great dismay the damage you have done to the posting of the bee mix that Cheerios is giving away,” she wrote. Regarding the forget-me-not, she bluntly stated: “This species was not the only one in this mixture.”
How could she know? I was wondering if she works for an unnamed seed company. I tried googling, but even if that was her real name, in the USA 1692 Diane Wilsons . Her name appeared on the seed company website, but there was no way to be sure I had the right person. I wrote back and asked her if she had any additional information to share with me.
She dodged the question. “My point was that too many people make assumptions about common plant names. You have to get a scientific name to know exactly what you have … I’m a botanist, so this is an important point. “
I asked her point blank: did you participate in the preparation of the seed mixture? She dodged again: “When I see a red flag, I examine it. This is a simple conclusion. “
I tried it one last time: “To be completely clear, are you saying that you were not involved in this particular seed mixture?”
I never heard of her again.
I even wrote back, offering to let her talk in the background, suggesting that she might not want her employer to know that she was reaching out to me. I gave her my mobile number. I suggested talking privately on Whatsapp or Signal. No cubes.
In the meantime, several more familiar messages were coming in. Some anonymous comments on my article contained statements similar to those of Diane. So did the e-mail my source, Catherine Turner, received signed by Citizen Concerned. Cheerios may not have cared about bad press, but someone – or a few people – did.
I seemed to be at a dead end. Cheerios didn’t tell me why they sent out these seeds and not the natives, and they either couldn’t explain or didn’t care why Forget-me-not made it onto the list. Diana didn’t look like she was going to call me and I had no way of confirming who the upstream seed supplier was. I could call Vesey’s, the seed company whose name was on the Cheerios seed bags, but now I knew they were just middlemen. Only one player in this drama could speak to me: Xers.
Backstage with Cheerios and Xerces
The Xerces Invertebrate Conservation Society has an impeccable reputation. Environmentalists and entomologists I spoke to praised the work Xerses does for bees and butterflies, helping everyone from mega-corporate farms to gardeners to contribute to the preservation of this tiny wildlife. They protect endangered species , issue conservation guidelines for gardeners and farmers, and coordinate citizen science programs .
Cheerios quotes Xerces experts and advertises their contributions to Xerces on their web page explaining why “we need bees”, which is why I had questions. Were the people in Xerces okay with the seed mixture, or did the Cheerios promote the seeds without asking their advice?
“This [should be] an educational moment for Cheerios and General Mills,” Scott Black, CEO of Xerces, told me over the phone. Unlike Chirios or Diane Wilson, Black was happy to talk in detail. We had a pleasant, twisty conversation – did you know that the largest known pollinator is the lemur in Madagascar, which gets pollen on its face as it licks nectar from flowers?
Xerses worked with parent company Cheerios for years prior to the ill-fated seed distribution. “General Mills was one of the first to start thinking about keeping pollinators in their supply chain,” Black said. In 2010, the company approached Xerces asking how they could do better and ended up donating millions of dollars to the nonprofit, part to fund pollinator research and part to create a pollinator habitat on farms that supply their organic brands Muir. Glen. and the Cascade Farm. The fields that grow oats for the Cheerios will soon be adopting these responsible farming practices as well.
Farmers take part in voluntary participation, so Xerses approaches them and offers to plant wildflowers near their fields – of course, relatives. They also help farmers find ways to reduce their use of pesticides. This is because chemicals that kill insects on crops can also be toxic to bees and butterflies, especially if they are persistent, systemic types such asneonicotinoids . They are found in all parts of the plant, including nectar and pollen, and can persist in the environment for many years. They enter the environment not only from farms, but also from gardens, backyards and parks.
When Cheerios mentioned that they were considering a seed raffle, the guys at Xerces gave them an idea. “We recommended… well, recommend is a strong word. A few months ago, in a conversation, we offered organic sunflower seeds, ”Black said. Aveda, a beauty products manufacturer, has followed this advice and has used sunflowers in similar advertising in the past.
Black said the beauty of sunflowers is that they are easy to grow and highlight in the garden. Wildflower mixtures, whether native or not, often germinate in weeks and people don’t always plant them properly; they tend to scatter seeds and hope for the best. With a sunflower, you can help your child plant a large seed in some warm ground in the garden. Soon after, it will sprout and by the end of summer it rises above the child.
“You don’t have to be a gardener for [sunflowers] to take root. They are big, they are interesting for children. ” And they are sure to feed the pollinators. “I don’t think I have ever seen a blooming sunflower without bees and butterflies.”
Sunflowers only bloom for one part of the summer, so they don’t provide a year-round bee buffet like a wildflower mix. Black echoed what I have heard over and over from environmentalists and entomologists: if you want to create a truly efficient, eco-friendly habitat for bees, the best way is to plant aborigines. At the same time, he understood that gardens and backyards are “something like a human structure.” For example, he has roses and tomatoes in his yard. Choosing plants with care doesn’t mean aliens are a terrible thing; but the wildflower distribution company can certainly do better.
Even if the Cheerios seed distribution was a dull PR stunt, Xerses happily uses it as a conversation starter. “People ask us about it,” he said. “This story allowed Xerses to talk about what really matters.” This includes planting native flowers that bloom at different times throughout the season and redefining how you use pesticides in your yard. And he stresses that people can help at any level: you can plant a garden in your city’s courtyard with a postage stamp, or you can write to the man in charge of your nearest park and ask them to use less of the most toxic pesticides.
A shot in the dark reopens the cold case
At this point, I was ready to submit my story and only a little disappointed. I found out that Xerses actually recommended Cheerios: the opposite of what they did. And I’ve heard arguments from both sides about whether a bag of wildflower seeds without forget-me-nots can actually be harmful. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the mysterious seed supplier. Why did they list invasive weed on their packaging?
I went back to Lance Bentley’s emails, one of which contained a photograph of what he called a “published” description of the mixture. It was called Bee Feed Mix, product code BEEF. A Google search for these words brings up a bunch of seed sellers touting more or less the same mixture. Some list forget-me-nots, others don’t. One such seller is the Applewood Seed Company of Colorado. In fact, I’ve become a little obsessed with Applewood because one of their employees shares his first and last name with my now-missing friend Diane.
This was all circumstantial evidence, and it is possible that Applewood was not the seed supplier I was looking for. But even if they didn’t, they could still help me understand how such seed mixtures are made. I carefully wrote an email to their sales team trying to sound innocent:
Hey,
I noticed that the Bee Mix on this page has a “forget-me-not” (in addition to “Chinese forget-me-not”). Is it an invasive real forget-me-not or a different kind?
I’ve seen similar mixes elsewhere, but without forget-me-nots, so I’m just curious. Was this blend developed at Applewood or elsewhere?
Thank you,
Beth
The answer came quickly. It was signed by Norm Poppé, CEO, and began like this: “I learned your name from the emails that circulated in the flower seed industry because you misrepresented Forget Me Not in the seed trade as Myosotis scorp [i] oides … “
Misidentification case
HOLY SHIT. I had a live one. I was jumping for joy because the letter, written several sentences below, answered the puzzle of forget-me-nots. But I was also shivering with nervousness because I could have gotten more information from this guy if I was careful with my next move. So in general it seems to be trembling with excitement.
Instead of attacking another email, I took a deep breath and answered the phone. “Can I speak to Norm Poppé, please? We’ve been emailing, and I just want to clarify something. ” Soon, I was in touch with the angry manager himself. I said that I still have questions and in the end I just want to tell the story correctly.
“The story should be that there is no story,” he snapped. “Everything that was presented is exaggerated or not at all true.”
He had heard of the Cheerios seeds not only on the Internet, but “three or four times” in the local news, and he just heard that the story made it to the London Times . He objected to the claim that the mixture contained invasive species and called the idea “completely ridiculous.”
In particular, he thought about this forget-me-not. As Diana and her camp reminded me, over 20 plants bear this name. Using a scientific name was the only way to make sure you know what you’re talking about. Norm Poppé asked me why I chose the most problematic of all these plants?
When Katherine Turner, an invasive plant specialist, saw the name without an adjective, she thought the seed was probably Myosotis scorpioides , the infamous invasive “true forget-me-not.” This seemed like a reasonable assumption to me, since the others usually had adjectives ahead, such as “broadleaf forget-me-not” or “Asian forget-me-not.” Remember, I asked Cheerios about this view, but they didn’t give me a helpful answer.
Perhaps I should have pressed them harder. Poppe believed that the lack of confirmation of the scientific name is “not very good journalism.”
He told me that in the seed trade, “forget-me-not” without a modifier indicates a different species, Myosotis sylvatica . (This species is listed on the USDA database as a “forest forget-me-not.”) It is not classified as poisonous or invasive. Applewood developed the blend to include it, but it didn’t make it into the Cheerios packs. “We reserve the right to change the composition of the mixture due to lack of seeds and other unforeseen circumstances,” he wrote in an email. Forget-me-nots have been unavailable for the past few months. Someone at Cheerios must have seen the list of what was to go in, but didn’t know – or didn’t care – that the seeds in the package were something else.
What happens if your hands get dirty?
The next day I received another letter from Norm. He thought about my question, what is the real story. He thought I should write about whether a seed bag could change the world.
What can a flower seed bag do? Well, it can get the family involved in home gardening so that parents can teach their children, or in some cases, grandchildren, the relationship between plants and insects and the food we eat. This will definitely take the kids outside so they can understand that you need to plant the seeds carefully, water them and take care of them in order for them to grow. When insects arrive in search of nectar or pollen to be present, there may be discussion that insects are a very important part of the natural ecosystem, and without honeybees and other insects, most of the food we would like to eat would not be in availability.
Hmm, that’s the same as Director Xerces said about planting sunflowers. I also asked bee researcher Jeremy Hemberger what he thought of Cheerios’ intentions. “There is really no downside to convincing people to get their hands dirty,” he said, but anyone trying to raise awareness should provide people with “the best information and resources” to choose the right plants and avoid the most harmful pesticides. … (He also added a plugin for the Bumble Bee Watch where you can upload pictures of bees from your garden. Experts will tell you which bee you find and then include it in their research on bee populations.)
It took weeks to uncover this story, and during that time spring came. My four-year-old son noticed dandelions in our yard, and since he is now big enough to open the door on his own, he loves to run outside and pick “pretty flowers” for me. I had never really thought about dandelions before, but now I was curious as to how they fit into our local ecosystem. It turns out that dandelions are not native to our region, but they are here for a long time and are an important source of nectar for pollinators in early spring.
What else have I learned in the past few weeks? Well, I found out that Cheerios didn’t include the infamous true forget-me-not in their seed mix – although they probably didn’t know it until I pointed it out. From my point of view, it looks like they were more concerned with keeping their hashtag trend #bringbackthebees than fixing the entry.
I also learned that it is even more important than I thought to get the correct scientific name, because common names can mean different things in different specialties. Norm Poppe said he had never heard of Myosotis scorpioides until now; this is simply not the case in the seed industry. Meanwhile, this is notorious for people studying invasive plants.
We never knew who Diane was. “I’m a little disappointed that she didn’t meet you at the highway rest stop wearing a raincoat and hat,” my editor said.
And all this time, everyone had more or less the same goal: to get people to think about bees and to learn how a few flowers in the backyard can connect us to our common planet. While Cheerios was running its advertising campaign, the rust-stained bumblebees were only eight of our several thousand native bee species listed as endangered. He used to live in my area, but according to recent research, I would have to travel hundreds of miles if I wanted to see him. The decline is associated with loss of habitat, pesticide use, competition from honey bees and climate change.
I’m cynical about corporate ad campaigns, and Cheerios could certainly have done it more thoughtfully. But they make people think about pollinators, and if people who asked for seed management packs to get their seeds to germinate, the resulting flowers will feed the bees without destroying the environment too much.
And maybe some of these people will read a little more and think about planting something else instead. The other day I took my son to a garden store and they had a big exhibition of wildflower seeds. I read the list of species and said no thanks. Meanwhile, recently, an ad for Seedles “seed bombs” appeared in my browser, and it turned out that their wildflowers are presented in six different combinations of native species, corresponding to the region. In the end, I bought my son a bag of organic sunflower seeds, which turned out to be a domestic variety of a plant that grows in our area. He can’t wait until the weather is warm enough to plant them.