Occupy Monsanto Rally

We occupied Monsanto yesterday when CFO, Pierre Corduroux, addressed top banking executives and investors at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Industrials conference.

We marched down Broadway in the middle of Times Square chanting, “Hey Monsanto! We don’t want your GMOs!” Once we arrived at The Crowne Plaza, the police had cordoned off a little patch of sidewalk for us to hold our rally. Many weren’t happy about being penned in, but we were able to exercise our First Amendment right — this hasn’t been the case at many OWS rallies.

We chanted and mic-checked Monsanto for over an hour. Many Times Square passers-by stopped to ask and listen in and we were able to reach people who might not have heard of Monsanto otherwise.

Here are some important facts to know about Monsanto:

• Monsanto brought Agent Orange to the world, a highly toxic, cancer-causing herbicide used in the Vietnam war. Veterans who were exposed to this herbicide have suffered terrible consequences such as rare cancers, skin diseases, multiple sclerosis, birth defects in their children and psychological disorders.
• The Mississippi River has suffered from the company’s pollution. Monsanto’s Illinois plant discharges an estimated 34 million pounds of toxins annually into the river. Its Iowa plant which produces alachlor and butachlor, releases at least 265,000 pounds of chemicals per year directly into the Mississippi.
• In 1990, Monsanto paid 648,000 dollars to settle charges that it allegedly failed to report significant risk findings from health studies to the EPA as required under the Toxic Substance Control Act.
• In 1988, Monsanto agreed to a 1.5 million dollar settlement in a chemical poisoning case filed by over 170 former employees of the company’s Nitro, West Virginia facility.
• Monsanto has made Roundup, its most successful herbicide. Human exposure to Roundup has resulted in nausea, skin and eye inflammation, bronchial constriction and nervous system disorders.
• Monsanto controls more than 93% of the soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in this country. And corn and soy are in everything! They’re in the animal feed in industrial farms and they’re in nearly every packaged and processed food and beverage. They are GMO crops. Read this for more on the health risks of GMOs.
• President Obama has put Monsanto’s own former VP, Michael Taylor, in charge of food safety. As of April 2011, 81 Transgenic crops have been approved by the USDA and not a single request has been denied.
• For more on the monopolization of the food supply and the connection between OWS and our food system, please read my article on Civil Eats. For yet another issue with Monsanto, read Tom Philpott’s article on Mother Jones published today.

URGENT ACTION: TOMORROW: PROTEST CFO OF MONSANTO IN NYC TIMES SQUARE

PROTEST MONSANTO CFO IN TIMES SQUARE TOMORROW 12/7 @ 10:45AM

PLEASE RSVP ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/186225294804080/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York — 12/6/2011 Occupy Big Food is organizing a protest this Wednesday when Monsanto CFO Pierre Corduroux, will address top banking executives and investors at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Industrials conference at 11:45 am. We will gather on the corner of 42^nd Street and 6^th Avenue near Byrant Park at 10:45 and march to the hotel together before his scheduled appearance at 11:45. The Crowne Plaza Hotel is located at 1605 Broadway near 49^th Street.

Because of the policies and practices of companies like Monsanto, 75 percent of Americans are obese or overweight and many are chronically ill with diet-related diseases. Americans are largely dependent on an increasingly unhealthful and contaminated food supply that is heavily controlled by corporate interests. Upending corporate control of the food supply is a fundamental change that must occur if the “99 percent” are to have access to real food and be healthy participants in a true democracy. Monsanto is the prime example of a corporate monopoly over the American food supply. It controls 93 percent of all soy and 80 percent of all corn grown in our country. Its GMO-contaminated corn and soy are in nearly every packaged and processed industrial food product sold in the United States.

Occupy Wall Street understands that Monsanto and corporations like it—whose driving force is profit not the health of the people, the country, or the environment—cannot be allowed to continue to control our political systems and unduly influence our elected officials. Occupy Big Food works to expose the ways in which corporations control the food supply resulting in an unsafe and unregulated food supply with virtually no oversight and a population in the midst of a dire health crisis.

Occupy Big Food’s goal is to expose the corporate take over of the American food supply. A few companies control the vast majority of food production in the United States and those unhealthy foods are making Americans sick. We urge Americans to boycott corporate foods and support local food and local farmers to take back our food and take back our health.

Contact:          Kristin Wartman

Occupy Big Food

occupybigfood.wordpress.com

949-370-7877

kristin.wartman@gmail.com

See You Tomorrow – OCCUPY BIG FOOD TAKE II

***PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION***

We have created a petition to tell Butterball—the number one producer of turkeys in America—that Americans are no longer going to purchase turkeys that are inhumanely treated, or support a factory-farm system that creates dire environmental and health consequences. Please sign the petition here.

Occupy Big Food and #N17

Occupy Big Food is heading to Union Square this afternoon for the International Day of Action in commemoration of two months of Occupy Wall Street.

This is a NON-VIOLENT mass assemblage and we encourage everyone interested in a better, more democratic food system to stand up today and participate with the OWS protestors.

Follow our Tweets today: @occupybigfood

And plan on seeing us SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 in front of 140 Broadway 1PM for OCCUPY BIG FOOD TAKE II.

Police Evict Zuccotti Park Protesters Today

Today the peaceful protestors of Zuccotti Park were evicted from what has become the heart and physical center of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

The eviction was implemented by the richest man in New York City — who happens to also be our mayor, Michael Bloomberg — under the premise that the park had become unsanitary as well as a fire and safety hazard.

It is imperative that we join with the greater movement on Thursday, November 17th for the Day of Action.

This movement is only beginning. Please plan on joining up on Nov 17th.

http://occupywallst.org/action/november-17th/