Literately Speaking - Beyond Schenectady

Scotts Miracle Grow; the Orwellian antithesis of the US Constitution; liberty, pursuit of happiness

Let;s start with an example of what everyone has heard about lawn care chemicals--thanks to Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog.
“Scotts Miracle-Gro Company advertising this season is particularly misleading because it suggests practices such as sweeping chemical granules off driveways and pavement after lawn application to protect local waterways, while the program they are selling introduces unnecessary health and environmental hazards given the viability of organic non-toxic practices,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. Chemical lawn pesticides are linked in the scientific literature to cancer in people and pets, and are known to be toxic to the nervous and immune system, endocrine disruptors, and tied to respiratory effects such as asthma. Organic practices rely on maintenance techniques and soil health that prevent unwanted insect and weeds."

We all have been clued into the concerns of chemicals in the groundwater, but that is not all that concerns us about Scotts.
Recently our local newspaper and the USA Today carried a column by Lisa Cornwell, pulled from the AP, informing us that Scotts charges employees $65 a month for not reducing what Scotts' considers health risks. According to Cornwell, Scotts no longer hires people who smoke and reserves the (what only can be unconstitutional) right to fire employees who smoke. Scotts charges $40 more per month for health insurance for those who do not complete an annual risk assessment; in other words, if you smoke in the privacy of your own home in your free country, then the only way a person can be found to be smoking is by invading the privacy of their body to take samples, and if you don't give up your right to privacy, they effectively charge you for what is already yours. One wonders just how discriminatory this Scotts --which claims, "We pride ourselves on maintaining high ethical standards and a culture that values honesty, integrity and transparency in all that we do."-- is with this campaign. Is it a level playing field? Do you pay more if you drink, get speeding tickets, use power-tools without safety equipment, have homosexual sex--leading cause of AIDS (~$70,000 a year for medicine alone), sky dive, race cars, have unprotected sex with multiple partners, or......use Scotts chemical products on your lawn?!!
It seems Scotts is worried about the good health of the public when it comes to the perceived cost to the company, but the rest of us, well, they don't seem very concerned when it involves profit.
But it's not that, just common business sense I suppose, it's the Nazi type infringement on Americans' rights to privacy and pursuit of happiness.
Some states allow them to do these things, so blame could be placed on our representatives who do not seem inclined to let us know what they've done. But to supersede the rights of the people by use of corporate power and lobby places the guilt equally on the business.
I confess to have used Scotts' products, but having seen this, I have removed any I had from the house. No more Scotts for me and I'll be spreading the word, we all should, for life, liberty, and the right to pursue happiness in our private lives, without discrimination and bigotry qualifying our jobs.

posted by Smith @ 12:45 PM