A major sell-out!

[Paul n Shelley]

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