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Update: Occupy Cargill’s Phone Lines on #F27
If you can’t physically occupy a Cargill facility (see below), here is a quick and easy way to make a big difference just by picking up the phone. If you’d like to go into greater detail beyond the script, check out our new Cargill factsheet.
1) Call 1 800 CARGILL (227-4455)
2) Ask: “May I please be connected to CEO Greg Page?”
3) You will probably be forwarded to an operator or voicemail. Tell the employee that you speak with that: “As part of the global day of action to Occupy Our Food Supply, I am calling to demand that Cargill stop the corporate takeover of our food system and stop undermining local, just food solutions. If you want to be proud of your company, then Cargill needs to stop destroying ecosystems and start respecting human rights. Thank you for sharing my message with CEO Greg Page. Thank you. Goodbye.
4) Leave a comment on this blog to let us know you called!
Original Blog Post:
On February 27, 2012 thousands of organizations and individuals will come together for a decentralized global day of action called Occupy Our Food Supply. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to resist corporate control of our food supply and work to create a more just and sustainable future for the food systems we all depend on.
On #F27, there are infinite ways you can Occupy Our Food Supply. We invite you to join us in standing up to Cargill, a global agribusiness giant touching every aspect of our food from farm to fork. United, our food movements can reach the scale required to challenge Cargill’s corporate food regime that has prioritized profit over health and sustainability for decades. Here’s how to Occupy Cargill:
1 Find a Cargill Facility In Your Area
View Cargill vegetable oil facilities in a larger map
2 Get Inspired
Use these great resources to plan your action and check out RAN’s recent Occupy Cargill action in the Twin Cities.
3 Sign Up
Register your event or join an already registered action in your area.
4 Report Back
Let us know what happened so we can track the scope of actions around the world and share your event.
Why Occupy Cargill?
There are many reasons why we should Occupy Cargill and their corporate domination of our food supply. Let’s look at palm oil as an example of just one of Cargill’s many commodities they control:
Cargill plays a leading role in palm oil markets, trading an estimated 25% of the global supply of this common food additive. But palm oil production comes as at a huge price for rainforests, human rights and the climate.
Palm oil production is tightly linked to the destruction of valuable rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia. Rapidly expanding palm oil plantations have already spread into millions of acres of rainforests, making palm oil a leading cause of deforestation and wiping out critical habitat that threatens the very survival of iconic endangered species like the Borneo Orangutan.
Cargill’s palm oil is also driving the displacement of Indigenous communities in Indonesia. Without proper supply chain safeguards in place, Cargill continues to purchase, trade and profit from palm oil grown on lands stolen from local communities and other palm oil plantation areas with active on-going social conflict and human rights violations.
Cargill is linked to human rights and labor violations in the palm oil sectors in Indonesia and Malaysia. The U.S. Department of Labor has placed Indonesian and Malaysian produced palm oil on its “Red List” of products produced by child and forced labor. Cargill has failed to implement meaningful measures to clean up its palm oil business and eliminate purchases from palm oil plantation companies using child or forced labor despite having repeatedly been made aware of these problems.
Occupy Our Food Supply offers us a special opportunity to stand united against Cargill and to fight for sustainable food systems that allow the lush rainforests of Indonesia, and all of Earth’s delicate ecosystems, to thrive.