#F27: Occupy Our Food Supply Global Day Action
Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 23, 2012, 5:19 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy Our Food Supply on February 27, 2012 will be a major decentralized global day of food action and solidarity. Actions are planned in dozens of cities across North America, Europe, and the world. Occupy Our Food Supply is bringing together the Occupy, sustainable farming, food justice, buy local, slow food, and environmental movements for a global day of action on February 27, 2012. Inspired by the theme of CREATE/RESIST, thousands will come together to creatively confront corporate control of our food supply and take action to build healthy, accessible food systems for all.
As part of the F27 global day of action called for by our friends at Occupy Oakland, members and friends of the Occupy Wall Street in community will be participating in creative actions to challenge the corporate food regime that has prioritized profit over health and sustainability, and to promote alternative local food systems that practice fair and ecological principles and offer affordable fresh, healthy, and culturally appropriate food for all.
In NYC: SEED EXCHANGE AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE 11:30AM - Assemble at the Stock Exchange 12:00PM - Seed Exchange at Liberty Square
SEED BALL BIKE RIDE 2:00PM - Bike ride leaves from Liberty Square for seed bombing and an Lower East Side Community Garden tour
We invite you to join us for our actions throughout the day, or organize your own! Visit www.occupyourfoodsupply.org to register your action and view what other folks are doing around the world!
The best way to protest corporate food is to not buy it!.
It is kind of like moving to a credit union instead of a bank. You don't have to give the big corporate food companies your money.
..#ows Success! .. I dont know there Joe, that would be fine for vegetarians, or people who can eat baked goods without gaining weight, But what do i do? Go out to my Back Yard and Wait for the next opossum to shoot for meat?
... Problem is, we just need to back all the Small Businesses AND, use Credit Unions or Town Run Banks.
Otherwise.. you are right. TY.
There are also local suppliers of meat who treat the animals with dignity. My street goes in together to buy a cow every two months. We split the heavy cost of an animal that was fed well and allowed to walk around. It was family owned and run and they had the licensing to do everything. That place is in Kansas, so look around your area for something like that. Also I get my chicken meat and eggs from a local source, just a family who has a chicken farm outside the city, again licensed.
TY Dear, But i live near the Ocean.. in FL! .. the only Animals that people have around here Fenced in are Dogs.
And, eating Manatee is NOT allowed. :o{
But, you have the RIGHT Idea.. and i Back you up 100% for those who have the Access to what you suggest. Have a Great Week End..
...
and Get the Food out to those on the Front Lines!!
http://www.greenpeople.org/organic-meat-Florida.cfm
That link could possibly help you find a local meat market. Demand is growing and so are the available markets.
You can buy meat, poultry, milk and eggs from farmers.
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You just discovered this? Has someone been stopping you? It is like the banks. Dopey OWSers act like they've made some earth shattering discovery when everyone else knew all along that you have freedom of where to bank.
However, the L.A. Weekly newspaper did a fine article on farmers markets in Los Angeles. Found out that many large corporation farms were sending goods to the farmers markets to sell as local farm produce.
I am not at all surprised to hear about that. Diligence is required in researching our food sources. This is something the local Occupy website should advertise, if there is already a website out there that tells what the businesses are as far as large corporate or small business or family run.
Hi there- I am a young farmer living on 40 acres with 8 other young farmers. We work long days, run a 200 member CSA, speak to kids at schools, attend conferences, and host community events at our farm throughout the season to engage with the community and to encourage eating locally produced food and food products. We were all having a discussion the other night about OWS and one of the main concerns we had as a group, was how saturated these "global" actions have become- to the point where their impact has essentially been lost. For one, we, like most Americans, simply aren't checking the Internet constantly. I'll admit, we were glued to the live streams last fall when OWS first sprang onto the streets of NYC. But the reality is, that we work... we work a lot. I check into this site when time allows and it seems like every time I do, there are more and more of these flyers posted online for global actions, yet (to my knowledge) very few people catch wind of the events because they happen so frequently and of those few, many are simply unprepared and thus, uninterested. Not in the subject itself- but uninterested in putting down everything they're doing to shoot out to NYC to hold signs up with a few dozen people for a couple of hours. I can't speak for everyone here, but frankly, I'm tired of exchanging seeds right now. It's sowing time, spring is on the way! No offense.
I hate to complain but there has to be a better way to logistically handle these events. My immediate thought would be to plan more meaningful actions by A.) doing them less often and B.) planning them much further in advance so to gain a big head of steam as the action approaches. Farmers just arent sitting around checking the Internet everyday to see how they can participate in rallies to localize the food system. We are busy already...localizing the food system.
I would also encourage you folks to attend farming conferences. I attended NOFA-NY and the PASA conferences this year. It was the two moments I had to take a break and get off the farm. Thousands of others attended- so much knowledge was shared and the keynote speeches were so uplifting that they left people in tears. Yet, not a single table was organized by anyone from OWS. Not a single speaker addressed Occupy. So I ask, What gives? A perfect opportunity to meet farmers and plan your next day of action was lost.
Don't get me wrong, we are all for the work that you guys do and we encourage you to keep it up! But as a farmer, I can tell you that your format could use some tweaking. Part of me wishes that I could break off and help you guys directly but like I mentioned before- I'm already occupying the food system, and I do it 9 hours every day of the week.
Use these links and get in touch with people from the sustainable agriculture organizations- they'll open many doors for you. Attend a conference next year- we'd love to have you!
http://www.pasafarming.org/
http://www.nofany.org/
http://www.thegreenhorns.net/
Peace and love!!!
As one already dedicated to the organic food movement, I applaud your grounded direct action.
From what I see there are two tiers of action, the first being to increase awareness with the general public(actions like this) and a grounded working group that helps connect the dots and strengthens the organic farm movement. Occupy is a broad and diverse umbrella that is still young and maturing.
In your comment "I attended NOFA-NY and the PASA conferences.......not a single table was organized by anyone from OWS. Not a single speaker addressed Occupy. So I ask, What gives? A perfect opportunity to meet farmers and plan your next day of action was lost."
Thank You, this is part of the next step.......and........short notice spontaneous actions allow me and others unable to attend to spread the word of the action and to possibly introduce those folks unaware or pre-occupied with other matters and are ripe for an introduction. Occupy Movement is like newly planted trees. Some trees take seasons to bear fruit.
Thank you so much for providing your input! I think everyone really needs to hear what you have to say!
Buy heritage seeds, diversify your pesonal seed stocks. Grow your own!
Great actions, we all need healthy clean food! We have for too long just let the corporate giants take more and more control over our food supply, leading to monopolistic domination.
Invest in local organic food operations directly, when you take you savings out of the corporate bankster ponzi system. Not only does this help local farmers and food producers but it grows your savings while you benefit from good clean organic foodstuffs.
Permaculture, Degrowth, Relocalize, SlowMoney,. etc. The bright green future is easily possible, the solutions are already all around us. The biggest hurdle is learning the truth.
Yes! Perhaps Occupy's "tip of the spear" moment can be spreading these types of ideas wide enough so that it catches on in a major way. This could be more effective than any protest or list of demands to law makers (which is funny to even think about). When people are informed they can make the right decisions... Creating an informative campaign could be the next logical step in the movement. The term Genetically Modified Food is something that turns heads all by itself. Just create the awareness. Apply this idea to all industries of corruption more directly.
To critics I say look at the tobacco industry. It's been reduced to a much smaller shell of itself due to public awareness.
Vermonters are very supportive of local farming, and organic farming in particular. It is easy to find many of these VT foods in health food stores as well as super-markets in the NY metro area.
United States of Sustainable food
http://grist.org/food/this-is-what-a-more-sustainable-american-food-system-looks-like/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Weekly%2520Aug%252026&utm_campaign=weekly
Issues,Viking!
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Self planting and home gardening is a great way to go, been gardening for many years, before it was even cool to do so.
It's nice to know what is actually in your salsa and spaghetti sauces, let alone your own juices and jellies. Plus it's always neat to see what types of insects and birds show up once you provide a habitat that they can actually live in, other than a sterile green lawn.
Plus with all the instability with financial shocks and energy shocks, having a stable supply of safe food, eases the mind and wallet.
That's great. I'm from an area where the suburbs have huge green lawns and twice a year they get them sprayed with toxic chemicals (that make the lawns look blue). It's a status symbol to have the huge perfect lawn, but my family always thought it better to have kids and dogs running around and ransacking it. If those were gardens instead, and those huge roofs had solar panels on them, we'd be doing a lot of good for ourselves.
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For those who may not be able to attend a Seed Exchange you can join/ order seeds from : Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/
What a top idea,have you invited Monsanto.Then again maybe not,their seeds will not germinate after polluting everyones crops with their GM stock.They have done GM trials in South Australia and they have cross pollinated with local canola grower crops.Their own seed stock is now in jeopardy.Yet another corporate crime.
Boycott MONSANTO.
Their global record is criminal. Our food chain is being disrupted for MS corporate profit.
This is completely out of control and affects us all.
See the video " The World According to Monsanto" and there are many others.
Also Monsanto spend million putting out lies to counter the investigations and public reporting of the damage that are doing to innocent farmers and croppers as well as the damage to the future crops available for our children's children around the globe.
America has spawned this monster and is responsible for what it has done , is doing and the irreparable loss of traditional seed stock internationally at the hands of Monsanto.
Seeds are the future and a people controlled seed distribution is vital.
Boycott MONSANTO and foods grown from MONSANTO seed.
Amen to that brother.
A new day of action is needed!
Our food depends on healthy forest/planet.
http://www.ran.org/
Occupy our food supply!
http://occupyourfoodsupply.tumblr.com/
other action:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/
http://act.preventobesity.net/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9674&tag=9674e36240
New Action on food supply (ocean)
http://app.outreach.pewtrusts.org/e/es?s=814789524&e=6564&elq=680c1ee0ac4a4e5fa05936c5a164ce94
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Why We Must Occupy Our Food Supply
Our food is under threat. It is felt by every family farmer who has lost their land and livelihood, every parent who can't find affordable or healthy ingredients in their neighborhood, every person worried about foodborne illnesses thanks to lobbyist-weakened food safety laws, every farmworker who faces toxic pesticides in the fields as part of a day's work.
When our food is at risk we are all at risk.
Over the last thirty years, we have witnessed a massive consolidation of our food system. Never have so few corporations been responsible for more of our food chain. Of the 40,000 food items in a typical U.S. grocery store, more than half are now brought to us by just 10 corporations. Today, three companies process more than 70 percent of all U.S. beef, Tyson, Cargill and JBS. More than 90 percent of soybean seeds and 80 percent of corn seeds used in the United States are sold by just one company: Monsanto. Four companies are responsible for up to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. And one in four food dollars is spent at Walmart.
What does this matter for those of us who eat? Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, the destruction of soil fertility, the pollution of our water, and health epidemics including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even certain forms of cancer. More and more, the choices that determine the food on our shelves are made by corporations concerned less with protecting our health, our environment, or our jobs than with profit margins and executive bonuses.
This consolidation also fuels the influence of concentrated economic power in politics: Last year alone, the biggest food companies spent tens of millions lobbying on Capitol Hill with more than $37 million used in the fight against junk food marketing guidelines for kids.
On a global scale, the consolidation of our food system has meant devastation for farmers, forests and the climate. Take the controversial food additive palm oil. In the past decade, palm oil has become the most widely traded vegetable oil in the world and is now found in half of all packaged goods on U.S. grocery store shelves. But the large-scale production of palm oil -- driven by agribusiness demand for the relatively cheap ingredient -- has come at a cost: palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia are razing rainforests, releasing massive quantities of greenhouse gases and displacing Indigenous communities.
From the global to the local, nothing is more personal than this threat to our food. And nothing more inspiring than the movement that is fighting back. On Monday February 27, tens of thousands of people -- including farmers and food workers, parents and students, urban gardeners and chefs -- will participate in a Global Day of Action to Occupy our Food Supply.
Occupy our Food Supply is a day to both resist Big Food and highlight sustainable solutions that work for all of us. On February 27, more than 60Occupy groups as well as environmental and corporate accountability organizations are joining together. From Brazil, Hungary, Ireland, Argentina, the United States and beyond, people will be reclaiming unused bank-owned lots to create community gardens; hosting seed exchanges in front of stock exchanges; labeling products on grocery store shelves that contain genetically engineered ingredients; building community alliances to support locally owned grocery stores and resist Walmart megastores; and fighting back against industrial giants Monsanto and Cargill.
The call to Occupy our Food Supply, facilitated by Rainforest Action Network, is being echoed by prominent thought leaders, authors, farmers and activists including the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, Food Inc.'s Robert Kenner, and authors Michael Pollan, Raj Patel, Gary Paul Nabhan, and Marion Nestle, among others.
As Michael Ableman, farmer, author, and founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture puts it: "We need to focus on what we are for as much as what we are against; occupying our land, our soils with life and fertility, our communities with good food. We need to work to rebuild the real economy, the one based on seeds and sunlight and individuals and communities growing together."
If you eat food, grow food, love food, join us to Occupy our Food Supply.
Anna Lappé is author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork (Bloomsbury USA) and a board member of Rainforest Action Network. Willie Nelson is founder and president of Farm Aid.
Taking the control of food from 1% is a great and important achievement for the people which shall ensure their success.All of us should contribute to this movement as much as we should. Then success shall be ours.
Awesome!!! This is the best thing I've seen from Occupy yet.
I wrote "Occupy The Land" quite some time ago, glad to see the idea got through: http://freeindependentsun.com/permaculture/occupy-the-land-occupy-your-community/
If you can't grow your own and want organic the taste of that which is closest to home grown (nothing beats the taste of home grown, sun kissed tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, melons etc.) find your nearest food coop.
In Reno, NV for example we have Great Basin Community Food Coop http://www.greatbasinfood.coop/ and another excellent example complete with inspiring books and video to look into is Farmer John/Angelic Organics in the Chicago area. I watched the story of Farmer John on Netflix titled 'The Real Dirt on Farmer John' and was truly inspired, here's their site:
www.angelicorganics.com
Thanks a lot for this. I will look for food co-ops in my area.
Everyone should grow their own organic garden if they have the land or at least a fair sized yard. Even a half acre yard has enough room for a small garden. Doing so can not only improve your health to eat organic, healthy, fresh veggies without pesticides, but also help you save on your food bill as prices at the grocery stores continue to go up more and more all the time.
I am glad to see the Occupy movement getting involved in more worthwhile area's of concern that have a large scale apeal among the population in a way that unfies and not divides the community. We should reach out to other intelligent, worthwhile activist and unite to form a larger movement or at least a united front on common concerns.
For those with little to no land, container gardening is a possibility as is aeroponic gardening
http://theaeroponics.com/aeroponicstips/All-About-Aeroponic-Gardening-Basics-And-Benefits.php
Eeveryone should grow there own organic garden, if they have at least a half acre yard, if they can, for fresh ,veggies and fruit without any pesticides. You will greatly beenfit the nutritional value of your diet and help save some money at a time when food prices keep going up and up at the grocery stores.
Glad to se the Occupy movment reaching out into other intelligent areas of cocerns and joining up with more worthwhile activist in a larger movement in a way that unites instead of divides.
Isn't it true that some of the same corps. that sell their food world-wide have to change their ingredients for the European consumers as some of the crap that we consume is out-lawed over there? Could that be why they have longer life-spans in some cases...despite our supposed great health-care system? Just asking.
Yes.
For example, Europeans have banned the growth hormone for Dairy Cows. The Clinton Administration worked a "compromise" with Dairy Farmers who don't use the Monsanto created hormone in their milk. Places like Publix are allowed to market milks without it but must include a statement that the FDA has not proven that the hormone causes cancer or other illness.
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/rbgh/
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/02/14/22523/monsanto-lawsuit
There is a wealth of information on Monsanto on the internet - all of it proving that both Republican and Democrat parties are entrenched with that company but also the major influence of the company on the entire planet and its food supply.
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I know here in NJ that the regional super-market Shop-Rite does not have any milk that says the cows are not treated with the growth hormone rBST, but BJ and Costco's milk/cows are not treated with that hormone. Even the convenience store chain WaWA's milk comes from hormone-free cows....and I did tell the manager at SR that they are falling behind. Hmmmm......maybe I should do my protesting at Shop-Rite...as it would be quite convenient! :-)
I believe there are other things that are put in our food to increase shelf life that cannot be ingredients in food sold in Europe. I have already started looking into Monsanto's nastiness, and I will check out your links too. Americans don't realize how sheepish they have become. Thanks.
Grocery stores are a low margin business. They'll stock what you simply ask for, no protest necessary. My local ShopRite does stock milk that is from cows not treated with BST.
I didn't know that SR stocked different stuff at their stores. Thanks. I usually try and wait to buy my rBST free milk on my once monthly trips to Costco.
If it's on the inernet, it must be true.
Done the reading Kite? You can certainly make up your own mind about whether it is "true" or not, but surely....only after you have done the research on it yourself.
Generally the European health systems leave ours far behind. Our health system takes about 29% of GDP because it is inefficient and based on profit for corporate entities. More efficient systems are Govt run and tax funded without profit.
The best insurance is the collective insurance of Govt not private profit insurance with no public accountability. It is a no brainer.
We get sucked for private profit and if you are poor you get left out - abandoned - disregarded and abused for being there.
A society is judged on how it makes provision for its most vulnerable.
Europe has placed many restrictions of foods because the people have taken steps to protest and resist against corporate poisons.
They also have elected representatives who take notice of voters. Education is important and the Green movement is held in high regard.
For most EU countries election expenditure is far more controlled than here in the US so corporate money and bankers have less direct control of politicians.
Yes, I knew most of what you said as I have many European ties. The other thing that you could add to your list is that many European countries are leaders in alternative energy. I know in Sweden, you can't build a new home without having a geothermal unit. The average American does not realize how far we are falling behind, as our political institutions have been so corrupted from industries that are entrenched in the old destructive way of doing things.
Even in the Polish section of Brooklyn (Greenpoint) while there are still sausage and kielbasa shops...there is also high concentration of organic food and health-food stores, which originally catered to the young, but now more and more to the older generation as well. In southern Sweden, there is a place called Ytterjarna that is experimenting on alternative solutions to a whole plethora of enviromental and social issues..including care for the elderly and alternative medicines...young people go there from all around the world. I did not understand exactly what it was about though, and unfortunately our friends who brought us there didn't either. According to a friend there in southern Sweden...where the organic food movement is quite big.......the rest of Sweden looks at them as being weird, not much unlike people here. heee
Partisan food? .App for that-
http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/08/31/does-your-favorite-food-have-political-agenda-heres-how-find-out?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-09-01
Wow, best tool for boycotts
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Not in OUR food!!
https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=A02E99C58EE8B31BC50F94E6B54D1855.app226b?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=2935&autologin=true
Just sayin!
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I have a favorite website that I would love to see everyone here visit. This site helps those in agriculture grow organic via an east Indian vedic fire ritual. After the fire is out, the ashes can be added to soil and crops. The benefits are endless. Pay a visit to http://www.agnihotra.org and let me know what you think. When I do the ritual it resets my circadian rhythm. (I have insomnia some nights.)
Check it out on www.geneethics.org
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I have never seen as many people complaining about things that they have control over. Control the things you can control and let god take care of the rest.
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A local food supply is a lovely and romantic notion.
It is not, however, sustainable. Nor is it efficient or without incredible risk.
Famine was a regular occurrence when all calories were sourced locally. One disease, draught or hurricane would lead to disastrous consequences. I'm not arguing against support for local anything, only pointing out reality. You won't grow oranges in upstate NY and you need some Vitamin C to protect against scurvy. It's a good thing that this fruit can be imported from Forida, Mexico and California. Olive oil is good for you, and it isn't a bad thing to get it from Mediterranean countries.
You have very valid points. We are in an extreme situation, but our solution should not be extreme as well. I think we can both agree that GM produce needs to go, so I'll skip that point. I think the local issue is that my food needs to be closer. I can go to Starbucks (in the US) and buy coffee grown in East Timor. That land should be used to grow food for the East Timor people, and I should get my coffee from Mexico. It is completely unnecessary to spend the money and expel the oil into the ocean to transport that coffee to me.
Imports that are driven don't necessarily have a worse carbon footprint than those that arrive by ship. World trade isn't ending, nor should it. Most of the globe experiences a higher standard of living when we specialize and make the most of natural resources. If East Timor grows good coffee, why shouldn't they get some US dollars from the people who want to drink it? Your body needs potassium which is naturally found in melons and bananas. I can grow a few melons in NJ that will be edible in late August. I can also buy imported bananas, which will never grow in NJ. If I buy bananas, the countries that grow them easily can buy coffee and cows and textbooks and medicine. And I can get those bananas year round.
We've got to do something about fossil fuel, but using it to ship food around isn't wasteful. Driving to the mall? Yeah, that's wasteful. Heating a McMansion? Wasteful. Coffee from East Timor? I wouldn't know, depending on where you are if that's worse than Mexico. I do know that on the Eastern seaboard of the US, wine from Europe has a lower carbon footprint than wine from California.
Evolution doesn't just happen to animals, it happens to systems. The global food supply evolved over the past century to be far more efficient than it was. I'm not glossing over the risks of monoculture and a corn based diet, but nor should anyone think a return to pre-industrial revolution style agriculture will feed the number of people currently alive. A mature garden 25X100 feet could supply food to feed a family but there aren't a few million plots that size in NYC. Tending that garden is nearly a full time job and a single pest or hail storm can wipe the yield to nothing.
I garden because I can and because I want to. I also appreciate the cheap and abundant food supply that modern farming and imports make possible.
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I do appreciate your point of back up food having to travel.
Local vitamin C can come from many plant based sources as can most other nutrients needed for a healthier life diet which can be far superior to the processed junk distributed by the supermarkets and fast food outlets owned by the corporates who want a stranglehold on the market. A bit of land and some cooperative planning of diversity within and area should give security of food supply if planning is right.
At present a ton of grain takes 4 ton of oil to produce, transport and process. That is completely un sustainable and leaves us very vulnerable. Local low tech cropping is more efficient and can be sustainable and cheaper in the long run.
We are told many foods are "healthy" by the corporate food industry. Check out the myths. It is not a myth that heart disease is the number one killer. The western diet is responsible. http://www.heartattackproof.com/huffpost.htm