Soon afterward, I received some emails about those seeds that pulled me into a much deeper story.
The California poppy, for example, is great in California, but a noxious weed in the southeast.
It turns out I had one fact wrong in my post.
I learned about the error through an email from Lance Bentley of theBentley Seed Company.
It turns out there were several seed companies involved in putting together this promotional seed packet.
So how had forget-me-not gotten onto the list of wildflowers on Cheerios website in the first place?
But no, he could not tell me who that supplier was.
This time I asked her if the mix was still problematic even without the invasive forget-me-not.
So why not have 5 or so region-specific ones?
Xerces.org already does that.
Why not use Xerces preferred flowers for the seed packet promotion?
But maybe he could help me understand how the wrong forget-me-not appeared on Cheerios list.
Call it a hunch, but I think Cheerios didnt know about the error until I told them.
In the end, the spokesperson didnt have an explanation for me.
He just wrote that they would update the website, because they had inadvertently listed Forget-Me-Nots twice.
What Was Cheerios Thinking?
My article about Cheerios wildflower seed project got 2.7 million page views, more than anything Id ever written.
The day it was published was Lifehackershighest traffic dayever.
I got an email from our CEO congratulating me on it.
After a few days, articles started popping up around the internet about the backlash against Cheerios.
The articles all cited my post, and many reached out to Cheerios for comment.
And yet they never contacted me about it.
Cheerios seemed not to care.
I peeked at CheeriosFacebook pageand looked at the replies to theirpromoted tweets about the wildflower giveaway.
Plenty of folks were pointing out that the seeds were non-native and possibly invasive.
A lot of them linked my article.
And it was not helpful at all.
While I was rolling my eyes at Cheerios tone deaf response, public relations news sitePR Dailywaspraising it.
SomebodyCares
Not everybody took this approach, though.
Diane Wilson sure didnt.
I dont know who Diane really is, although I have a guess.
Of the forget-me-not she stated plainly: That species was not the one in the mix.
How could she know?
I wondered if she worked for the nameless seed company.
I wrote back and asked her if she had more information to share with me.
She dodged the question.
My point was, too many people make assumptions about common plant names.
I asked her point blank: were you involved in making the seed mix?
She dodged again: When I see a red flag, I research it.
Its a simple deduction.
I never heard from her again.
I gave her my cell number.
I offered to talk privately on Whatsapp or Signal.
It seemed I was at a dead end.
There was only one other player in this drama who might talk to me: Xerces.
Behind the Scenes With Cheerios and Xerces
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a sterling reputation.
Theyadvocate for threatened species, publishconservation guidesfor gardeners and farmers, and coordinatecitizen science programs.
Unlike Cheerios or Diane Wilson, Black was happy to talk at length.
General Mills was quite an early adopter in thinking about pollinator conservation in their supply chain, Black said.
Xerces had been working with Cheerios parent company for years before the ill-fated seed giveaway.
General Mills was quite an early adopter in thinking about pollinator conservation in their supply chain, Black said.
The fields that supply oats for Cheerios will soon employ these responsible farming practices as well.
They also help the farmers find ways to reduce their pesticide use.
We recommendedwell, recommend is a strong word.
In a conversation some months ago, we suggested organic sunflower seeds, Black said.
It will sprout shortly afterward, and tower over the child by the end of the summer.
You dont have to be a gardener to get [sunflowers] to establish.
Theyre big, theyre exciting for kids.
And they definitely feed pollinators.
I dont think Ive ever seen a sunflower in bloom without bees and butterflies visiting.
I dont think Ive ever seen a sunflower in bloom without bees and butterflies visiting.
That said, he understood that gardens and backyards are somewhat of a human construct.
He has roses and tomatoes in his own yard, for example.
People are asking us about it, he said.
This story has allowed Xerces to talk about whats really important.
I had found out what Xercesreallyrecommended to Cheerios: the opposite of what they did.
But I couldnt stop thinking about the mysterious seed supplier.
Why had they listed an invasive weed on their packaging?
It was called Bee Feed Mixture, product code BEEF.
Googling those words pulls up a bunch of seed sellers, all advertising more or less the same mix.
Some list forget-me-not, others dont.
One of those sellers is Colorado-basedApplewood Seed Company.
Is this the invasive true forget-me-not, or a different species?
Ive seen similar mixtures elsewhere that dont include the forget-me-not, so Im just curious.
Was this mixture developed at Applewood or somewhere else?
Thanks,
Beth
The response arrived swiftly.
A Case of Mistaken Identity
HOLY CRAP.
I had a live one.
I was jumping with joy because a few sentences down, the email answered the forget-me-not conundrum.
So, in total, sort of vibrating with excitement.
Rather than blow my move on another email, I took a deep breath and picked up the phone.
Can I speak with Norm Poppe, kindly?
Weve been emailing and I just want to clarify something.
Soon I was on the line with the disgruntled manager himself.
I said that I still had some questions and ultimately just wanted to get the story right.
The story should be that there is no story, he snapped.
Everything thats been represented is overblown or isnt true in the first place.
He objected to the assertion that the mix contained invasive species, an idea he called completely ridiculous.
The story should be that there is no story, he snapped.
He was thinking, specifically, of that forget-me-not.
As Diane and her camp had reminded me, over 20 plants share that name.
Using the scientific name was the only way to be sure you knew which one you were talking about.
Remember, I had asked Cheerios about the species but they didnt give me a useful answer.
Perhaps I should have pressed them harder.
Poppe felt that failing to confirm the scientific name was not very good journalism.
(This one appears in theUSDAs databaseas woodland forget-me-not.)
Its not recognized as noxious or invasive.
Applewood designed the mix to include it, but it didnt end up in the Cheerios packets.
Forget-me-nots had been unavailable for the last few months.
What Happens When You Get Your Hands Dirty?
I got another email from Norm the next day.
He had been thinking about my question, about what the real story is here.
He thought I should write about whether a seed packet can change the world.
What can a packet of flower seed accomplish?
Hmm, thats the same thing the Xerces director said about planting sunflowers.
I had also asked bee researcherJeremy Hembergerwhat he thought of Cheerios intentions.
What can a packet of flower seed accomplish?
This story took weeks to unfold, and during that time, spring happened.
What else had I learned over these past few weeks?
Meanwhile, its infamous to people who study invasive plants.
We never did learn who Diane was.
All along, everybody had the same goal, more or less.
Im cynical about corporate ad campaigns, and Cheerios certainly could have executed this more thoughtfully.
And maybe some of those folks will do a little further reading, and consider planting something else instead.
I read the species list and said no thanks.
He cant wait until the weather gets warm enough to plant them.
