Push to sow wildflowers backfires, brings criticism to General Mills

MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills has been stung by its own national pollinator protection promotion.

Native plant lovers in the U.S. are complaining that the 1.5 billion seeds the company gave away in the last week to encourage people to plant bee-friendly wildflowers are not so bee-friendly. In fact, native plant experts said some of the 20 different species in the wildflower mix could be unwelcome weedy interlopers in some places and not especially attractive to bees and butterflies in others.

“At worst, these things can potentially introduce weedy plants where they might not currently exist,” said Eric Mader, a native plant specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which advises General Mills on pollinator conservation. “At best … I don’t know if there is a best.”

The seed supplier, Veseys of Prince Edward Island, Canada, said the seed mixes are not invasive and were selected for their attractiveness to pollinators. It’s a rare stumble for General Mills, which is widely acclaimed by conservationists as a model for what the corporate world could do to protect the insects that play a critical role in the nation’s food system. The company has given $4 million to the Xerces Society for pollinator protection, has established thousands of acres of pollinator habitat around its suppliers’ growing fields across the country, and is reducing their reliance on pesticides.

The seed packet promotion “is an insignificant part of what they are doing,” said Mader.

The episode began last week, when General Mills’ U.S. Cheerios division joined an ongoing campaign with its Canadian sibling. The food company, headquartered outside Minneapolis, took “BuzzBee” off its cereal box and asked its customers to help “bring the bees back” by ordering free packets of wildflower seeds that they could plant for pollinators to feast on.

“The goal was to raise awareness of pollinators,” said Mike Siemienas, spokesperson for General Mills.

It was hugely successful. Canadians ordered 134 million seeds. Since March 9, when the program launched in the United States, customers have ordered 1.5 billion seeds – 500 million more than the original goal – depleting the available supply.

But alarm bells started going off on social media and listservs among native plant advocates across the country. Then the website Lifehacker posted a story citing their concerns, which multiplied across other media sites.

The problem, plant experts said, is that there is no good one-size-fits-all seed packet for Canada and the United States, with their vast array of ecologies. The packet contains California poppies, for example, which are fine in California, but can be aggressive growers in other parts of the country.