By You know something’s up when Santa is hanging out with orangutans in your corporate headquarters parking lot.
You know its something you are going to have to deal with when a team of environmental activists, labor organizers, and church groups bring a holiday present of 5,000 petitions to your doorstep.
And you know when dozens of people are singing hilarious Christmas Carols remixed to expose Cargill’s rainforest destruction, you have some serious work to do before your company’s reputation melts faster than our ice caps at the North Pole.
“Holiday Petition Delivery & Carols Video”
So why would all of these people brave the 15 degree snowfall to sing Carols from a parking lot? Well..
Minneapolis is home to Cargill Incorporated, the largest importer of Palm Oil into the US. Currently, the palm oil imported by Cargill often comes from plantations that were expanded into Indonesian rainforests, disrupting traditional livelihoods of indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, destroying some of the last bits of orangutan habitat, and seriously exacerbating climate change through deforestation’s huge carbon emissions. So, as part of the Seattle +10 Week of Action, you know we were going to be up to something!
The Rainforest Action Network is calling on Cargill to adopt a Global Forest Policy that respects rainforests, family farmers, and our global climate. And we’re teaming up with Twin Cities groups that are thinking globally and acting locally to do it! In the spirit of good will and holiday cheer, an intergenerational, inter-motivational group of approximately 25 Twin Cities activists delivered the thousands of petitions that call on Cargill to STOP clear-cutting rainforests to expand unsustainable palm oil plantations and adopt a responsible forest policy NOW!
You can add your name to the petition to Cargill here!
Stay tuned for our YouTube videos of our fabulous Christmas Carols, they are not to be missed! They hit the web on Wednesday, Dec. 9