Small "ethical" companies that are really owned by huge corporations

business is business...but how they present themselves is just advertising....ya do truly have to look beyond the label definitely.
all people should be knowledged shoppers and it takes some research to do this....those who want to know, look. (like we do lol)

This is nothing new.. they find the new "biggest thing" and buy it out and (most of the time) ruin it.
If you really want good seed.. find an heirloom community online, make friends and then start trading for seeds that you do not have, learn to grow and keep them pure and save your own and then trade with other people who also grow their own and keep it going.
Soon you will have a huge heirloom collection that you can keep going for many years if not indefinitely. I only had 5 different types of seed to trade my first year doing it and ended up with over 60 different types of seed for all kinds of stuff, just by doing about 20 trades. Sure it cost about $30 in postage but I used the money I had squirreled away for buying seed so I ended up with more than I knew what to do with.
I like to think of us seed savers as warriors against Monsatano. The more we can hide away and keep going the better the genetic pool will be when "they" try to kill the whole planet.

OrganicKale said:

The thought of buying my organic food from Cargill makes me queasy. Should I buy my heirloom seeds from Monsanto?

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If you are not careful you accidentally might be buying Monsanto seeds.

Here is a list of well known vendors of the Monsanto Seminis vegetable seed products.

According to Monsanto's own site:

"If youve ever tasted or grown Big Beef tomatoes or Valentino green beans, youve actually tasted a Seminis product. Seminis is the worlds largest developer, grower and marketer of vegetable seeds. Using traditional plant breeding techniques and modern science, Seminis develops innovative types of vegetables and fruits that offer greater nutrition, convenience and have better flavor. And when youre in the vegetable seed business, this is extremely important."

YIKES!!

I knew about Tom's, Burts, and Cascadian, but not about the others. Especially Seeds of Change! I was looking at them as a place to buy my seeds this year before I got them elsewhere.

I also knew that the picture on the labels rarely, if ever, matches the reality. It is sad though, especially that they buy these companies essentially to put them out of business and get rid of the competition. I agree that businesses change and grow, this is a part of the standard business maxim "we must grow to survive, no matter the cost". However, to take a business that stands for one thing, and have it bought by another company with completely different ethics and standards and not let your customers know in an obvious manner, not hidden in layers, that's just another example of poor business ethics.

JRmom said:

I knew about Seeds of Change. Burt's Bees is a big downer though. Love their products (well, I guess I'll be rethinking buying them).

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Why? If the products are still good and you think the price is right, does it really matter who profits from your sale? Now if the products change or the price goes up thats the time to switch. BTW Mars is not a huge corporation it is family owned by a very rich family!

If you want to boycott a corporation for some reason...then do it wholeheartedly. Find out all their product line and ban it from your life.
It is a personal choice obviously.

but truly, most corps are just a biz and they own many holdings...all over the world. That will never change.

huh. Now that explains why Burt's Bees lip balm switched to coconut oil products a while back, thus rendering my only know source of lip balm that did not make me hive out...

Seeds of change is a downer, but not a surprise since something obviously happened to their stuff.



It's not big vs. small. It's monopoly and stupid mega corp cuts ruining products and people, then HIDING it even more than usual
(oh, crap it's a rant..)

~gd said:

JRmom said:

I knew about Seeds of Change. Burt's Bees is a big downer though. Love their products (well, I guess I'll be rethinking buying them).

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Why? If the products are still good and you think the price is right, does it really matter who profits from your sale? Now if the products change or the price goes up thats the time to switch. BTW Mars is not a huge corporation it is family owned by a very rich family!

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From the Burt's Bees website: "We believe companies should be transparent." Really?

http://www.burtsbees.com/c/story/history/

Not a word about who really owns Burt's Bees. I don't have a problem with a company growing and expanding, but you'd think that selling the company to Mars would be part of the "history"? Especially since Burt's Bees is selling an image as much as a product. Of course, that's probably the exact reason you don't find it mentioned.

And on the Mars site, not a word about Burt's Bees.

So yeah, I will be doing some more research and rethink buying Burt's Bees products.

BTW, just because a company is family owned does not excuse them from scrutiny from their customers.

don't forget to bash the other side. the small local company owner THAT became big enough to be bought for TONS of cash --going from that little old fellow working out of his garage to being a multi-millionaire from his company sale!! HE is laughing all the way to the bank and living high on the hog after 'selling out to the big bad corporation!"



oh wait, that is the American dream right? :/

FarmerChick said:

don't forget to bash the other side. the small local company owner THAT became big enough to be bought for TONS of cash --going from that little old fellow working out of his garage to being a multi-millionaire from his company sale!! HE is laughing all the way to the bank and living high on the hog after 'selling out to the big bad corporation!"



oh wait, that is the American dream right? :/

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???? Hmmm, don't really see how I was "bashing" anyone, just stating an opinion on how I see it. Maybe you should go back and read my post again... s l o w l y. You seem to have missed my point by a country mile.