snake oil salesman

bill@palmbeachfertilizer – posted 24 July 2001 21:29

The snake oil saga begins with turf nematode lab reports that recommended several products for home lawn nematode control, Ditera, Nema, and cyclewise were listed.

My quest for information concerning these products was typical for many of the fertilizer and biological products I have needed to research in the last 20 years.

The Nema people, the defunct “Down to Earth Fertilizer” people, were now with Hoodrange Fertilizer in Parkland, Fl. The salesman “John Bagley” verbally discussed the positive qualities of his Nema product for turf nematodes. He claimed that a local ag lab had done several hundred “before and after nematode assays” on golf course turf sites in South Florida and had positive results from their product. Neither John nor the other office help could provide any literature on the efficacy or any label information for the Nema product. After several calls requesting the literature to support their telephone claims, and no response, either a return call or supporting documents as promised, I knew I was once again wasting my time with the “snake oil salesman”. I discussed the before and after testing with the lab owner and was told that he had done testing, but was not familiar with before and after comparison or tracking of results. Again “John” misrepresented his Nema product concerning the before and after claims from nematode assays and the lab owners involvement. Also, when John was with the “Down to Earth Fertilizer” he never followed up after a sales call to my nursery site, never sent info that he promised at that sales call. The wild claims that he made concerning the ‘Harmony Organic fertilizers” and remission cancer patience was so off based and emotional with no support for his claims, I knew I was being “snake oiled” once again.

The Cyclewise source ( the same product as Nema), Steve Macleod, also gave me the pep talk about their product and promised to mail literature. I haven’t received any info from Steve, even after a follow up call again requesting what he had offered to send initially.Steve Macleod informed me that some of his products (Organicide fish oil) were tested by Ft. Lauderdale researchers concerning the sago scale problem. When I told him I was familiar with Dr. Howard’s research and the findings on scale control with oil were positive for Organicide brand oil as well as the other hort oils tested. Hence, no reason to use the expensive stinky fish oil when other cheaper oils worked well. He didn’t agree with me. Later I reread the sago article, it appears I’m right about the oil, based on the literature and my field experience with the sago problem.

The “snake oil salesman” are bold with the talk, but never send or represent their products with any written literature. Must be, that no provable fraud occurs for misinformation provided verbally. Hence, no written material at all, ever.

This note is to provide information to “Green Industry” people concerning the common practice of wild unsubstantiated claims about “snake oil” products. Both of the above salesman provided bad and misleading information. Neither returned phone calls.

seed – posted 31 July 2001 17:52

The gullibility of humanity may arise from basic goodness, but the consequences are not. Honest people expect that others are honest. People who believe in the basic goodness of the world also have faith that good comes out of good, that organically based products will tend to work well. And be safe. I want to believe this, but believing it does not make it true. Clink-clink go the cash registers.

A few years ago I met a respected sod producer who had allowed his likeness to be placed on magazine ads for a root enhancing elixir. When I saw this, I have to admit that I gave the product a second thought, even though there was no stated mode of action, and I even tried it out to no avail, and heard other sod growers saying, “so-and-so is using this stuff; it’s real interesting what it does to enhance root systems.” Clink-clink went the cash registers.

In the July-August 2001 Athletic Turf magazine is an article (pages 30-32) which clusters the testimonials from sports turf managers on various biological and organic products. In the midst is a side-bar where Dr. Bill Knoop, UF graduate and retired from Texas A & M University, asks, “Can you back this up with research?”

Dr. Knoop says that many of the products, “present testimonials by people you may or may not know. They all say the new product works just fine.” In addition to advocating third-party research, such as from the universities, you can still do your own testing, says Dr. Knoop.

Make sure to include an untreated control plot, something that is usually absent from most of the testimonials. And what about products that are “backed” by university research? Be skeptical if a salesperson flashes in front of you a mimeo copy of a preliminary report that, chances are, if you read back home you would find doesn’t really say anything. If it’s even halfway valid, you’ll be getting the information straight from the university.

Phil