Almost a year to the day, someone in the Yahoo! group for the ma-eppc recently asked about last year's diatribe by Burpee Seed Company President George Ball, regarding "botanical xenophobes" and how we're all misinformed and overreacting to non-native plants. Ball was wrong on so many accounts...read my original post for details.
After sending Burpee a passionate email (to which they never responded) I pledged last year to boycott the company, and it saddened me to bypass Burpee seeds, always my favorite in the past, for other seeds when I started my garden this season. Ah, the bad memories! Well, if they're getting dredged up for me, they're getting dredged up for you too:
- A link to the original Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, and the later posting on Burpee's website (the content was the same last time I checked). (3/19/2006)
- My original post on the subject, including links to the two opposing views printed in the Times Letters to the Editor section. (3/19/2006)
- An update with links to bloggers blogging about Ball. (3/26/2006)
- Queries and protests about the Op-Ed piece by searching the ma-eppc listserver for "Burpee."
- "George Ball - Deceitful, Greedy, Inept?" An excellent fresh blog post and comment thread on the subject from the appropriately named Garden Rant. (3/8/2007)
- A great response to George Ball over at Invasive Notes. (11/14/2006)
1 comment:
As a group, the seed propagating branch of the horticulture industry has been late to the party on invasives and far less willing to engage on finding meaningful responses to the problem of invasive species. The national leadership of this group really only confronted the issue after Clinton's Executive Order in the late 1990s. There has been real leadership, however, from some state and national leaders within the American and National Nursury and Landscaping Associations. One would hope that these green industry leaders would inspire their doubting colleagues in the seed industry.
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