The Lorax Does Not Speak for Coal-based Fertilizers

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-02-03 06:00:00 UTC
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A Massachusetts company that runs a chemical production facility and plans to transform high-sulfur coal into farm fertilizer — which the company claims it can do without pollution — is appropriating the name of the beloved Dr. Seuss character, The Lorax, for its own moniker, according to EcoSalon.

The Lorax famously spoke for the Truffala Trees, which a businessman was chopping down to manufacture Thneeds. LoraxAg president Mike Farina defends the company's use of the name, saying that dealing in "green" coal technology puts LoraxAg in the same league as Dr. Seuss's defender of nature.

"We think this is the greenest use of coal," he told Mass High Tech. “Gasification uses the worst coal in the world; it is the coal no one wants to use. We’re buying the garbage coal.”

Since when is using a leftover natural resource an environmentally friendly action? And since when is making fertilizer out of anything other than manure a "green" agenda? Boy, these people are conniving. Either that or insane.

The one bright spot here is that the company may get its just desserts for trying to sully The Lorax's name. LoraxAg is not only using the name irresponsibly, but also illegally.

“We had never heard of it until we heard from you,” a lawyer for Dr. Seuss Enterprises told Wonk Room. "We did not give permission for them to use the Lorax, which Dr. Seuss created."

And the rest of us refuse them permission to ruin the reputation of a beloved folk hero and the fields of our nation's farms at the same time.

Screenshot: LoraxAg.com

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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