We got stuck into supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles when they launched their hypocritical plastic-piece-of-junk enticements.
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So it's probably only fair we give credit to Woolies' latest effort.
The "Discovery Garden" is a long way from Woolworths' recent movie tie-in Ooshies and the even more blatantly commercial Coles Mini Shop collectables.
For every $30 spent in store customers are handed a small pot with a seed paper and dehydrated soil pellet, all wrapped up in recyclable cardboard.
The pot itself is also biodegradable, made from plant fibres.
Once your herb, vegie, or flower starts to sprout, the whole lot can be replanted, pot and all, to keep it growing.
The latest inducement to shop with Woolworths also comes with an interactive website with gardening tips and suggestions on how to care for your various seedlings.
Not that we're suggesting you need to do your shopping at Woolies.
But if you do, and you end up with some of their Discovery Garden "pots of fun" you could definitely do a lot worse than spending time in the garden with your kids.
Anything that encourages families to spend more time together, preferably away from a screen (easier said than done), deserves kudos we reckon.
Here's hoping the initiative also helps educate children - and indeed adults - about the importance of farming and growing food for our future.
It would be particularly interesting to see how the promotion is received in city stores as opposed to in regional Australia, where our dependence on agriculture, and the challenges the sector faces, are much closer to home.
Many would argue the supermarket giants would do better by increasing their payments to producers such as dairy farmers, thereby improving consumer relations in the process (even if it does cost us a bit more at the checkout).
However, getting kids and families outdoors and their hands in the dirt, in some small way educating them about the source of our food, is a simple and positive move while we await that bigger move (but don't hold your breath).
And in a nice break from last month's plastic toys likely already in a bin or bottom drawer somewhere, something tells us this time around there won't be too many people taking to Facebook or eBay to complete their set of basil, viola and carrot seeds!
We will happily settle for what we get.
- Ben Smyth
