Earth Day’s Newest Sponsor? . . . ChemLawn

Jim Bartasavich of It’s Only Natural Organic Landscaping, Lawncare & Gardening brought this press release to our attention today: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/trugreen/42463/. Apparently ChemLawn, which now calls itself TruGreen, is the exclusive U.S. organic and sustainable lawn and landscape care sponsor of Earth Day Network.

First, Major League Baseball decided to make money from Scotts to re-ignite the “competition for the best lawn in the neighborhood” and now this. Earth Day is selling out to ChemLawn, the world’s largest lawn care company — and therefore the world’s largest purveyor of poisons around homes, schools and daycare centers. The press release actually states: “As part of its collaboration with Earth Day Network, TruGreen is also helping elementary and middle schools green up this year. Supporting Earth Day Network’s green schools project, TruGreen will help America’s youth enjoy green spaces, learn about the relationship between healthy turf and a healthy environment, and create gardens and landscapes.”

This is the same company that tried to sponsor youth soccer a few years ago, but that promotion was beaten back by activists and parents’ groups. How can it possibly stand to let ChemLawn anywhere near our schools?

As part of the promotion, the company is now touting “100 percent organic” fertilizers — which is obviously intended to make consumers to believe that all its fertilizers are organic. The truth is that the vast majority of the company’s fertilizers are 100 percent synthetic and that the organic fertilizers are just one option. We have heard hundreds of reports where the company’s salespeople actually discourage customers from using the organic option because they say “it doesn’t work as well as the chemicals, yet costs more.”

It’s all sickening, misleading and yet another example of an unfortunate sellout. Can the consumers see through this? Let’s hope so.