05
Apr
Take Action: Major League Baseball Call-In Week, Tell Them to Go Green as the New Season Starts
(Beyond Pesticides, April 5, 2010) Baseball should be green, not sending a toxic green message to homeowners. The first pitch of the new baseball season will be thrown this week under a cloud created by Major League Baseball’s (MLB) new partnership with Scotts Miracle-Gro, which promotes seed and treatment products that are unnecessarily chemical-intensive and undermines sound environmental principles. The partnership sends the wrong message to homeowners.
The National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns and its allies are asking individuals, as baseball season officially starts, to call or email Tim Brosnan, MLB Executive Vice President for Business, at 212-931-7800, ext. 7501, [email protected], and tell him there is serious concern regarding the partnership, both in the way MLB fields are being managed, and more importantly, with the message MLB is sending to homeowners that they should treat their lawns with the same toxic chemical products.
Make your voice heard! The nationwide MLB season begins today. Call during MLB’s opening week, April 5 — 11, 2010.
Background
A coalition of 28 environmental groups sent a letter to MLB chastising its new alliance with the Scotts Company. Scotts introduced newly branded products, which it will promote with the logo of Major League Baseball, alongside its chemical “weed and feed” and insecticide products. Weed and feed products contain herbicides and synthetic fertilizers that are tied to adverse health and environmental effects. In its letter to MLB, the coalition told officials that associating the organization with Scotts Miracle-Gro and allowing the company to use its name to promote a chemical-intensive philosophy to homeowners sends the wrong message —that toxic chemicals are necessary to have a beautiful green lawn.
The coalition says homeowners are learning that turf can be managed effectively utilizing organic methods that are safer for children, families, and the environment. In this critical period of history when we are shifting to “green” practices around the home and in our communities, Major League Baseball can and should be an environmental leader, rather than advancing toxic products with well documented deleterious health and environmental impacts.
After you call or email Mr. Brosnon at MLB, join the Coalition in signing-on to the petition: Oppose Baseball’s chemical lawn care deal with Scotts.
Thank you – National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns and Allies
Beyond Pesticides, Biological Urban Gardening Services, Californians for Pesticide Reform, Casco Baykeeper, Clean New York, Emerald Coastkeeper, For A Better Bronx, Friends of Casco Bay, Friends of the Earth, Galveston Baykeeper, Grassroots Environmental Education, Greenpeace, Healthy Lawn Team, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Maryland Pesticide Network, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Oregon Toxics Alliance, Pesticide Action Network North America, Pesticide Watch, Pesticide-Free Zone, Project Ladybug, SafeLawns.org, Safer Pest Control Project, San Francisco Baykeeper, Sassafras Riverkeeper, Toxics Action Center, Watershed Partnership, Inc.
For more information on the Major League Ball – Scotts campaign, including the petition letter to Mr. Brosnan, see the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns alert webpage. For more information on organic land care, see Beyond Pesticides Lawns and Landscapes program page or watch see the Organic Lawns and Landscapes videos from Beyond Pesticides 2009 conference in Carrboro, NC.
