SECOND ROUNDUP BEAUTIFICATION EFFORT, Michelle Thom, Sustainable Agriculture Week, April 11, 1994 Volume 3, Number 7, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, MN 

MONSANTO LAUNCHES SECOND ROUNDUP BEAUTIFICATION EFFORT

City officials in Albany, New York said they were recently approached by the Monsanto company about "a city beautification project." The company is reportedly looking for new cities to join its beautification effort, which began last year, called the Roundup Spontaneous Weed Attack Team -- or SWAT. A letter to Jane Schram, director of volunteer services with the city of Albany, from Holly Holman, an account executive with The Lawrence Company, a public relations firm, states, "The SWAT city beautification effort is in conjunction with a national promotion for Roundup grass and weed killer... The mission of the SWAT Team is to make residential neighborhoods cleaner, safer and more beautiful places to live." Operating in 15 cities around the U.S., the SWAT Teams, made up of local volunteers recruited by the company, will kill weeds using Roundup in addition to collecting trash, planting flowers, cleaning up graffiti and" other activities necessary to create a more beautiful neighborhood environment." 

One city official referred the company to an environmental activist who hesitated at the idea of spraying his neighborhood with Roundup. "They touted the product as totally environmentally friendly," said Tom Rowlands. "When I investigated with people who know more about this than I do, I was told it was not totally safe." Tracy Frisch with the New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, said, "The idea is to make people feel more weed-paranoid and to position Roundup as a socially conscious brand." The company has since decided not to pursue Albany as a SWAT site. Other cities listed as 1994 SWAT markets are San Francisco, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, Tampa, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Mobile, Minneapolis, Green Bay and Rochester, New York.

Source: Letter to Jane Schram from Holly Holman, the Lawrence Company, September 1993; METROLAND, January 1994.
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