1. Maybe you don’t need this toxic food monster’s money to clear some ground and plant some tomatoes, but maybe they did need the money. I never fault a group for using tainted money until they start to stink themselves.

2. I trust them completely. They will do whatever it takes to increase market share. Even if it kills me.

If it’s the former, I would be worried about the lack of investment from the community. When Kraft becomes bored with the community garden movement, will the garden simply collapse?

If it’s the latter, I agree that it is an underhanded and disingenuous move on the part of Kraft. But, having been in situations myself where big, dumb companies are throwing around their money, it is hard to turn down much-needed resources.

Maybe somebody should run a homemade cracker making workshop in somerville and advertise it around the garden. It’s not as hard as you would think, and it’s certainly better for you than anything Kraft makes.

And, as you alluded to somewhat, in 1989 Philip Morris (now Altria) completed a $12.9 billion merger of Kraft Inc. (adding it to the ranks of Oscar Mayer meats, Maxwell House coffee, Kool-Aid, Jell-O) “to lessen its dependence on tobacco,” adding Nabisco to the fold in 2000 which is how you get a Nabisco branded Kraft Triscuit. I only mention it because I think it draws out the irony even more: A tobacco giant “tossing a fraction of its fortunes towards urban plots…”

And since I’ve mentioned Jell-O, I’ll just add one final tangent. Your neighbors in Woburn have some gripes in their backyard (see Paul Meaney, What’s an odor between friends? Neighbors fretting over Kraft smells, Boston Globe, Aug. 28, 2008, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/08/28/whats_an_odor_between_friends/) .

That’s been going on/known about/reported on since at least 1992 when the Toxics Use Reduction Act of 1989 (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 21I (West 2010)) began requiring companies that “use more than 10,000 pounds annually of about 250 chemicals on the federal Superfund list [to] make annual reports on how the substances are stored, processed and disposed.” (Andy Dabilis, State: Local Firms Increased Use of Toxic Materials, Boston Globe, Sept. 25, 1994).

“The biggest user of toxic materials in the area”? Yeah, surprise.