Seeds of Change, a New Mexico seed company acquired by a corporation that used its brand for a line of health foods, is moving to California.

The Mars Corp., which bought Seeds of Change in 1997, is in the process of closing its Santa Fe warehouse and its El Guique farm along the Rio Grande north of Española — resulting in the layoffs of 17 employees, about half of whom have been offered jobs in California.

Some of them say Mars has used a common corporate technique of buying up a small company, using the good will behind its brand to burnish its image, then abandoning the original operation.

"It was a seed company, and then Mars with its clout and its money and seeing a market potential, they started Seeds of Change foods division," said an employee who asked not to be identified. "As is very common with these consolidations, large corporations buy up small companies and then green-market their image by virtue of usurping the integrity of the original company."

The employee said the seed operation will be consolidated into the same warehouse with Seeds of Change foods in Los Angeles.

The Mars Corp., started in 1911 as a candy company in Tacoma, Wash., has grown into a California-based multinational with more than $28 billion in annual sales. In addition to candies such as Mars, Snickers, M&Ms and Dove bars, the company makes pet foods and other pet products, Uncle Ben's rice, Wrigley's gum and soft drinks.

The packaging for Seeds of Change salad dressings, salsas, pastas and grains — now surpassing seed sales — invites customers to visit "our farm" in New Mexico. But in reality, a company spokesman confirmed, ingredients for the food products are grown elsewhere and the El Guique farm has been used only for research.

Only a small amount of seeds sold by the company have been produced on the El Guique farm. Most were grown at locations in California, Oregon and Washington.

"I'm not going to allege that it's unethical, but you could draw the line," said the New Mexico employee, who said the company has offered severance packages to workers contingent on not talking to news media about the situation. "You read that packaging, they're promoting the farm. The reality is the farm is being shut down."

Alice Nathanson, a spokeswoman for Seeds of Change, disputed the characterization. "The comments on the packaging are designed to invite people to learn more about Seeds of Change, sustainability and permaculture," she said.

"We understand that there's definitely some emotion around all the changes and we respect that. We worked to limit the impact to associates by offering them opportunities to remain with the company and help it grow by accepting positions in California. ...

"Mars has done everything possible to support the business and the decision was made to ensure the long-term success of the business, and the change continues to support the philosophy of Seeds of Change as well as organic seed growers around the country."

Nathanson said that in addition to foods, Seeds of Change continues to offer more than 1,500 varieties of organic seeds.

Seeds of Change was started with a "missionary zeal," according to one former employee, as part of the "biodiversity" movement that aimed to provide farmers with open-pollenated, nonhybridized seeds from crops grown for generations in the same area.

"There was a vision from the beginning ... to really much more greatly distribute what we call 'backyard diversity,' to use the market of backyard gardeners as a vehicle to get agricultural diversity much more widespread," said Kenny Ausubel, a founder of Seeds of Change who left in 1994, before the Mars Corp. takeover, to help start the Bioneers organization in Santa Fe.

Ausubel said he has not stayed in touch with Seeds of Change enough to know if the company has remained true to its original goals, but he said he realized early on that the company needed to expand into food products — such as an heirloom-tomato sauce — and that there were some serious business challenges to profiting from seed diversity.

"One of the perspectives I came to after leaving the company is that in many ways the seed business itself is better handled in a nonprofit context," he said. "If you actually want to preserve diversity, there are many seeds that are never going to be big enough sellers to, quote, justify their existence, and so it became problematic if it's a purely bottom-line goal because it immediately subverts that mission of diversity."

Originally, Seeds of Change produced its seeds from crops grown on farms near Gila in southwestern New Mexico and in southern Oregon. It sold them through a catalog and a retail store in Santa Fe.

The 11-acre El Guique farm had been owned by Mars Corp. executive Howard Shapiro, who sold it to Seeds of Change after Mars purchased the company. But company employees say the El Guique farm was used for only a small portion of the production of seeds of rare perennial herbs and flowers; for breeding work; evaluation of seeds and other research; and for special tours for customers and growers. The Santa Fe Permaculture Institute has been holding a seminar there this week.

Some Northern New Mexico growers associated with the Santa Fe Farmers Market say they hope to acquire the El Guique farm. But Nathanson said she had not heard of that and that Seeds of Change has yet to decide what it will do with the property.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.