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Subscribe to RSSThe Environmental Protection Agency on Friday slapped $12.5 million in fines and penalties on Scotts Miracle-Gro after the company admitted it had added pesticides to its wild bird food in order to protect the product while in storage.
The EPA stated that, in an earlier plea deal, Scotts acknowledged the pesticides Actellic 5E and Storcide II were applied even though EPA had prohibited their use for that.
"Scotts admitted that it used these pesticides contrary to EPA directives and in spite of the warning label appearing on all Storicide II containers stating, 'Storcide II is extremely toxic to fish and toxic to birds and other wildlife'," the EPA said in a statement.
Scotts sold 70 million units over two years until 2008, when it voluntarily recalled them. Six months before the recall, the EPA added, "employees specifically warned Scotts management of the dangers of these pesticides."
"As the world’s largest marketer of residential use pesticides, Scotts has a special obligation to make certain that it observes the laws governing the sale and use of its products," Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno said in the statement. "For having failed to do so, Scotts has been sentenced to pay the largest fine in the history" of the federal insecticide act.
Scotts CEO Jim Hagedorn said in a statement that "new people and processes" in the company would prevent a repeat.
"It's important for all of our stakeholders to know that we have learned a lot from these events and that new people and processes have been put in place to prevent them from happening again," he said. "Our consumers are at the heart of our business, and I hope they'll see our openness, cooperation, and acceptance of responsibility are all a part of our commitment to provide products they can trust and rely upon."
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Guess Scotts Miracle-Gro is taking lessons from Chinese companies.
Yeah like screw the environment and the animals all at the same time.
Slap on the wrist, employee fired, large wads of cash handed over to PR wonk...onward and upward.
Scotts did not care then and if it was looked at deeper today you would find the same result. Conglomrates and huge company's care nothing about anything except for the bottom line. Trust and rely on any product today, let the buyer beware because they ALL are out for the almighty buck.
A 12.5 million fine isn't too bad considering the money they made!
Doesn't our system work wonderfully?
$99.4 million PROFIT!! In just one quarter!
Remember this when you read propaganda telling you what a rough time business has due to the overbearing regulations they have to satisfy.
So you are pissed that all the individual people that own shares in Scotts earned $1.60 per share. Do you have any money invested for retirement? Any mutual funds? Then you are funding these evil corporations and making money from it.
I find it funny how corporations made up of people running them, people investing in them and people working for them are supposed to automatically be evil no matter what. And none of those people should be making a profit.
How about all the people working at them work for free? They shouldn't be making money right? How about no one invest anymore? How dare they get a return on their investment. No companies mean no jobs.
I'm all for sticking it to Scotts for doing something wrong. But to berate them for making money is stupid. I guess everyone who thinks there shouldn't be a return on what you do will turn down their next raise? I didn't think so.
That's great. People were feeding birds and instead of doing them a favor, they were unknowingly poisoning them and putting themselves in danger by handling the feed. I've purchased Miracle-Gro fertilizer in the past but I won't be buying any Scotts products for a while, bird seed or not. I don't believe they'll change their ways after the FDA turns their attention elsewhere. Whatever creates more corporate profits, I guess.
BOYCOTT sCOTTS!!!
Hi Chef, goon one " Scream it from the Roof!! TOP!! " :-)
HEY EAGLE!!!
and yes they are goons, too!!!
^v^
Lets see, they sold 70 million Units, lets say at 2$/unit, so they made 140Mill, and what was that HOT fine they had to pay :-) lol, Who are the " GOONS " ??
We will be seeding our back lawn in a few weeks. It will not be done with Scotts products. We regularly feed the birds and I am sick thinking that we actually may have caused death or injury to them.
I used miracle gro plant food when it was owned by STERNS for over 35 years. It was a GREAT FORMULAR,my plants always looked good and flowered greatly! Now that Scotts bought them out,they changed the formular and the results aren't as good.This is the first season using the new formular and it will be the last!! I e-mailed them and told them so. They said that they feel that it's a better formular.They are entitled to their opinion!!
Bird seed from a pesticide and fertilizer company? What could possibly go wrong?
"It's important for all of our stakeholders to know that we have learned a lot from these events and that new people and processes have been put in place to prevent them from happening again," he said. "Our consumers are at the heart of our business, and I hope they'll see our openness, cooperation, and acceptance of responsibility are all a part of our commitment to provide products they can trust and rely upon."
Excuse me?? You knew and you just didn't give a @!$%#. Nice. So people are going out and purchasing your product, feeding it to innocent birds thereby killing them, and you guys have learned a lot??? I will now make an effort never to purchase a Scott's product of any type again.
The jury composed of Black women would find OJ not guilty even if they had him on tape committing the murder. The Black jury was so racist its discusting.
Darden had no chance going up against seasoned pros and the state should have known that at the outset. They wanted a black lawyer even if he was incompetent.
George: Again with the racist comments? Enough already. ONCE AGAIN this isn't about race.
NEWSFLASH: This isn't about OJ either. Stop with the over-generalized racist comments.
There was no video of OJ. Believe me if there was it would have ran on the news 50,000 times.
Maybe we have found the reason for all those mysterious blackbird deaths we keep hearing about.
Dave: I wonder how much of this is getting into the water. We might have some explanations for some of the dead fish.
Uh-huh and just why do we want the government to stop regulating big business? All income from their bird feed section for the time they used poisons should be taken and given to environmentally friendly causes.
First things first, if you are using Scotts anything it's junk and poison. Monsanto & Scotts = control of your grain and pesticide market, that's a very deadly combination. A company that makes GM plants that requires you to use one of their products as the only safe way to manage pests? ROFL.
it even gets better. You wonder why thinks like west nile virus and other viral vectors are popping up. Bat populations have been decimated , due to the white nose (fungal) disease , and , if we have been poisoning wild birds and fish, who might also have a varied diet including insects, that is a problem. If we have affected predators further up the food chain that have mice has a diet, that would explain , in a small part, hanta virus and the spread of other rodent diseases.
Take 2 tax cuts, throw out some regulations & call me in the morning.
Tell me again how companies don't need any oversight because they will act responsibly on their own. Who knows how far the effects of these poisons have spread in the natural world. And when they affect human health, nobody wants to pay for somebody else's medical costs! Somebody please tell me why this is a good environment for humans, animals, and plants to live in? The desire for money is the root of all evil.
Here Here!! Pattie well said we are indeed getting to the point of being ' animalistic " sorry to the animals because I think they are a lot more " moral " then many humans
How sad it is that we do not have a culture of living in reverence for our fellow creatures, human, animal, and plant. Is acquisitiveness the only goal of the human as we live on this planet? And yet we speak constantly of "morals" and "morality." I am not Native American, but I can relate totally to their tradition of reverence for the earth and its creatures. What are we doing?
Yes, what a shame, many times in many different threads so many have ridiculed and said that " Morality is a hindrance " so much for their " evolution " since as you have stated and I have backed it up, animals have " morals " that we seem to have " breed out of humanity " and what have we left? without a Working ecosystem we are as " dead as a dodos! "
After reading this I will not buy anymore of their products which includes lawn care products.They should be put out of business for doing all of the damage that they did.Fines and a slap on the wrist is not sufficient.
This is exactly the type of thing that we need government regulation for, because companies' agenda is first and foremost PROFITS over safety and effectiveness.