Message-ID: <01I3B5LPYMJQ99EJ36@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU> Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 19:11:30 -0500 From: Michael Johnston <mailto:MJOHNSTON@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU> Subject: Monsanto sustainability award... To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Along the lines of some recent postings urging a more tolerant view of the Monsanto sustainability award: I suspect that Monsanto will sell tons of Roundup with or without the award program. If it becomes clear to them, and to corporations like them, that any sustainability initiatives on their part will be prejudged and rejected just because of their source, and without our waiting to see what the company really intends by such moves, they will get a very strong message not to bother with sustainability concerns at all. I have no love for Monsanto or for other corporations like it, but overly hasty condemnation of such awards will send a very strong message that they might as well go back to selling Roundup, and that there is no incentive to be (or even appear to be) concerned about sustainability at all. It may well turn out that the awards program is an utter sham, but that's the sort of conclusion that comes from close examination of what they actually do with this program.Just $0.02 from still-snowy upstate New York, where the most sustainable thing just now is winter...
Michael Johnston Colgate University mailto:MJOHNSTON@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU