General Mills angers environmentalists over inclusion of invasive species in ‘save the bees’ seed mix

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Environmentalists are buzzing about a new campaign started by General Mills to promote awareness surrounding the world’s declining bee population.

[T]]he cereal giant removed Honey Nut Cheerios’ mascot—Buzz Bee—from cereal boxes. In addition, the company also mailed out free flower seeds as part of its “Save the Bees” campaign.

That campaign, General Mills claimed, would provide additional nectar for the pollinating insects. And within just a week, the cereal company had already distributed 1.5 billion packets of seeds– ten times more than the original goal.

Planting flowers might sound like a beautiful, and environmentally friendly activity but the problem with all of this, according to Lifehacker, is that the seeds sent out by the cereal giant may actually damage some recipients’ local ecosystems.

Instead of shipping native flower species to specific locations, General Mills utilized a basic mix of hyssops, lavender, daisies, poppies, forget-me-nots and others. But some of those flowers aren’t native to America. And others are actually banned.

Poppies, for instance, are regarded as an “invasive exotic pest” in the southeast. If planted in the wrong region, environmentalists say the flowers could both compromise available space and resources and even potentially spread disease.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: General Mills’ bee blunder: Environmentalists call foul on company’s seed campaign

For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia

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