Warning: General Mills Destroys Rainforests! Uh-Oh Cheerio!

Hello!

It’s been a very fast-paced, epic few months in preparation of our General Mills campaign launch! And we finally did it on Tuesday, January 19th in the company’s HQ city of Golden Valley, MN, outside of Minneapolis. It was such a huge success! It was SO inspiring to see FOURTY TWO people show up at 8:45am on a Tuesday morning, missing work and school,  in the freezing 18 degree weather, to deploy a banner at General Mills HQ! It made my heart so warm to feel the amazing community support! Go RAN Twin Cities! It’s so important to have a solid local group on the ground in the city where both Cargill, Inc. and General Mills – our two targets – are located.

General Mills: Take Action Now!

Right after the action I posted this on my RAN blog:

My alarm went off at 6:15am this morning and the excitement of butterflies in my stomach reminded me that the launch date had finally arrived! After four hours of sleep and months of preparations, I met up with 41 local Twin Cities community members concerned about palm oil’s contribution to tropical deforestation, global climate change, the rights of indigenous communities, and the survival of threatened species like the orangutan. Specifically in question: the corporate ethics of one of the most trusted American food giants based right here in Minneapolis, MN – General Mills.

Why is the maker of such powerful brands as Cheerios, Haagen Dazs, Progresso soups, Betty Crocker and Pillsbury – that cater mostly to parents and kids across the U.S. – stalling on taking action to protect our world’s forests increasingly threatened by big Agribusiness’ industrial palm oil plantations?  What will it take to get them to listen?

I know of one thing that got their attention- a massive, bright yellow 30 x 70 ft. banner getting unfurled in the snowy, wintery morning light at their Headquarters in Golden Valley, MN! At 11:11am 42 people inspired by the prospect of getting General Mills to wake up and be a leader in the food industry held the huge message: “Warning: General Mills Destroys Rainforests” up high in the air for General Mills executives watching from their desks above to see. And that they did!

General Mills: Take Action!

Our campaign launch was an effective way to inform General Mills that we don’t have any time to waste – we need them to take action now as a company with a unique ability to affect the palm oil marketplace, both by changing its own consumption habits and by publicly taking a stand against rainforest destruction from palm oil.

So why General Mills, you may be asking?

General Mills has a very close relationship with Wayzata based Cargill, Inc. and purchases all of their palm oil from them, among other commodities. Cargill is the most powerful agribusiness and commodity trading group in the world, and as the largest privately owned corporation in the U.S., it’s also among the most secretive companies on earth. It owns plantations in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, where it grows oil palm on freshly cleared rainforest land. It is also a major global trader of palm oil and the biggest importer of palm oil into the United States.

Over 100 of General Mills’ products in total contain palm oil. By purchasing from Cargill, General Mills is directly contributing to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests. We’re asking General Mills to stop buying palm oil from Cargill and we need your help – please take action by sending an email to General Mills CEO Ken Powell!

General Mills at a Crossroads

Be part of the solution: Join RAN in pressuring General Mills to become an advocate for change in the palm oil industry!

General Mills has definitely felt the fire we just lit under their ass. In fact, they put out a press release in response to our action and the 9,000+ people that sent letters to the CEO Kendall Powell on Tuesday as a result of our action alert!  Our Agribusiness Campaign Director Leila posted a response to the GM press release on the RAN blog – it’s awesome. Also as a result of our pressure, Cargill updated their palm oil commitments.  Leila says, “While these commitments are still not up to par, they’ve definitely improved since last year.”  Our campaign is definitely making an impact on the world’s largest privately owned corporation!

If you want to see some great photos taken by Brian with Indymedia and his fantastic article, look here.

If you want to follow some awesome press hits from our action, check em out here:

Star Tribune:  http://www.startribune.com/business/82160837.html?elr=KArks:DCiUUUUr

Examiner.com   http://www.examiner.com/x-13344-Wildlife-Conservation-Examiner~y2010m1d20-General-Mills-controversy-your-breakfast-cereal-may-be-linked-to-rainforest-destruction

Food Navigator  http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Financial-Industry/Campaigners-attack-General-Mills-on-palm-oil-policy

Pioneer Press  http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_14227098?nclick_check=1

Blogs:

Green Right Now  http://www.greenrightnow.com/minneapolis/category/earth-nature/forests-earth-nature/

Care2  http://www.care2.com/news/member/193692282/1363757?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20c2nn%20(Care2%20News%20Network)

Mongabay  http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0119-palm_oil.html

Cool Earth  http://www.coolearth.org/306/news-32/rainforest-news-155/general-mills-linked-to-unsustainable-palm-oil-1172.html

For more info on palm oil, visit www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org, our super amazing and updated website!! And stay tuned for a truly AWESOME YouTube video we’re about to post of the action, including sick aerial images taken from the helicopter of our huge banner and all our activists on the ground. General Mills (and Cargill) is going to LOVE it!

On a more personal note, I went to Walker Church for service in Minneapolis with my colleague Hillary. Their social justice chapter has taken on our campaign for the year so we wanted to see what they are all about. The community there is vibrant, open, progressive and lovely. Their Welcome Ceremony was so moving and resonated with me so much, I wanted to share it with you. They read the following aloud from the stage where all the children sat in a circle:

Center (Spirit Candle)

The flame in the center, the core and the heart
Is the source of all beauty, peace, joy and art,
Unfailing, eternal, lighting the way,
It’s the love and compassion I share every day.

East (Yellow Candle)
The East holds the promise that each day is new,
That fresh new beginnings await me and you;
Although I don’t know what tomorrow may bring,
I have courage and hope and my own song to sing.

South (Red Candle)
The South kindles fire of passion and power
To make the heart race and open the flower;
It’s a flame that can warm or burn out of control:
Desire that moves me, makes me human and whole.

West (Black Candle)
The West welcomes darkness, invites me to dream,
And reminds me my fears may not be what they seem;
I offer the tears of my grief to the earth
To water the seeds that wait for rebirth.

North (White Candle)
The north offers silence, shelter, and rest;
it’s the home of the stillness that comforts distress;
I can go to this place, because it lives within me;
When I’m quiet and still, I can just let it be.

Completing the Circle
From the east and the south, from the west, north and center,
We welcome each other and bid all to enter
Our circle of joy, of love and of light;
We walk together in beauty to make the world right.

And lastly, here is an inspiring quote sent to me by the lovely Pete Huff:

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

– George Bernard Shaw

Community Support of Changing General Mills!

Opening Day of COP15: In Solidarity, We Shut Chevron(wrong) Down!

Today was an epic day in the world of activism! Protests happened at Chevron World HQ in San Ramon with 31 arrests (including me), a massive banner unfurled at the White House by Greenpeace activists, and ongoing protests in Copenhagen, Denmark. Today’s US protests coincided with the first day of the largest United Nations climate change conference in history, which opened this morning!

Why were we protesting Chevron? Or, why weren’t we protesting them? Well, for one, they are blocking science-based climate solutions and targets at COP15.  As one of the biggest and most profitable corporations in the world, Chevron should not be allowed to lobby at the climate talks, interfering with climate policies and solutions!

Secondly, their Richmond oil refinery is the biggest Green House Gas polluter in the entire state of California and is destroying communities and the environment.

Chevwrong, stop obstructing justice!

Today was pretty intense. I woke up at 4:30 am, dressed in 5 layers of capilene and wool, and after eating an egg with arugula on sprouted flax toast went to pick up my crew of activists and drove out to San Ramon in the pre-dawn hours, passing by snow on the ground! Yes, that’s right it snowed in the East Bay!  I met up with my affinity group, Rising Tide, and prepared equipment for the lock down. We deployed in under a minute at the main gate as other affinity groups deployed and locked down gates 2 and 3, just down the road. But the group at gate 3 didn’t deploy fast enough so they got plucked up by police and arrested right away! Bummer. However folks from gate 2 moved and blocked the 3rd gate off after all, so we shut Chevron down for 3 hours and traffic was backed up to 680!

Seven women (me included) locked down the main entrance to Chevron’s HQ from 7am until just past 10am when we  escalated things to produce the final arrests of the day. Since all of the activists blocking the other two entrances were already arrested, we decided to try to get in. The 100 people had dwindled down to around 60 by then but we were so supported with food, water, media liaison, police liaison, medical, legal, you name it!

My crew of seven sisters got up with our lock down equipment from the road walked over to the front of the main gate and sat down, staring right into the eyes of the security and police team, chanting “Let us In!” so that we could deliver a letter to the Chevron CEO inside. After several inspiring speakers and personal speeches from all of us with our bodies on the line, we got up one by one and tried to enter the gate. That’s when it got fun. It turned into an activist vs. police push and shove game, but the police were beginning to use brutality pulling the fence shut as hard as they could, knocking activists over in the process and banging people. I managed to hold onto the fence inside the property with Carling and sat down so as to not be moved. They cops were pushing and pushing us out but we stayed so we got arrested along with one of the men trying to hold the gate open for us.

The police then did something verry strange: lined up with their batons out front and did this “HOO HOO HOO” marching militant tactic to push people back from the gate. It looked very scary and awkward at the same time. In that process they arrested 3 more who were “resisting arrest.”  They put all 7 of us into a paddy wagon, then searched us, and drove us down to this taped off site nearby where they processed all of us, concluding the days 31 arrests. We entered the big Contra Costa police bus where all the cold and hungry activists cheered and welcomed us aboard. Shortly thereafter, they let all of us go except the 8 who were taken to the Martinez jail to be processed since they had more severe charges. As the final 2 were put into the van going to jail, our legal team shouted “What’s your name?!” and the activists yelled back as they were shoved into the van.

I must say having my hands in hand cuffs was quite an experience, especially when they put on the waste chain and attached my hands in front – I felt like a real inmate from the movies in the orange jumpsuits.

I am quite exhausted but feeling so empowered to take action and so supported by the amazing Bay Area community here. Mobilization for Climate Justice, Rising Tide, RAN, Greenpeace and others all share a special place in my heart! I feel so blessed to be able to put my body on the line using peaceful direct action in support of my beliefs and values.

I can’t seem to upload the AP photos here, but you can see some photos on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=341993&id=514120440&l=32d19ffb05

And the links above go to local news coverage of the protest!

Woot! Shut them Down! Clean Up, Pay Up Chevwrong!

Press Release:

Mobilization for Climate Justice West

For Immediate Release: Monday, December 7, 2009

Contact: Ananda Lee Tan, (415) 374-0615

Gopal Dayaneni, (510) 847-3592

31 Arrested for Interrupting Business as Usual at Chevron Headquarters

Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron, California’s largest climate polluter, on first day of United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen

San Ramon, CA – As Chevron employees arrived to work early this morning, they were met by nearly 100 people who gathered in protest of Chevron’s global destruction of communities, the environment and the global climate.  Protestors interrupted business as usual at Chevron, by blocking the main entrance to the corporation’s headquarters, as well as two additional entrances for several hours. 31 people were eventually arrested.  By noon, most of those arrested were cited and released.

The protest and non-violent civil disobedience was organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice West – a coalition representing more than 30 local social justice, environmental, labor, and human rights groups – today to coincide with the first day of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Similar protests are taking place nationally and globally.

As the largest and most polluting corporation in the state of California, Chevron was targeted locally for undermining efforts to combat global warming and expanding its operations into more environmentally destructive and polluting forms of crude oil like the Canadian tar sands. And, as the 3^rd largest corporation in the U.S., Chevron is using its immense financial resources to influence federal environmental policy. In the first half of 2009, Chevron spent nearly $13 million lobbying the federal government, more than twice the amount it spent during the same period in 2008.

David O’Reilly, Chevron’s outgoing CEO, and John Watson, who will succeed O’Reilly on January 1, have sharply criticized domestic global warming legislation and robust long-term targets for reducing climate pollution. Their arguments, rooted in corporate self-preservation at the expense of the health and safety of people and the planet, fly in the face of a scientific consensus that calls for rapid, drastic action to reduce climate pollution.

“By working to derail effective climate change policy in the U.S., Chevron is undermining the UN climate negotiations where other nations are looking to the U.S. to make binding commitments to reduce emissions,” said Cathy Kunkel of Mobilization for Climate Justice. “Chevron’s opposition to significant action on climate change is in line with its history of environmental and human rights abuses in communities all over the world.”

Chevron’s global operations, from Ecuador and Nigeria to Burma and the Philippines, have had disastrous impacts on local communities and ecosystems. Those impacts have also been felt closer to home. Last month, the California Air Resources Board ranked Chevron’s Richmond oil refinery as the state’s single largest climate polluter, emitting 4.8 million tons of greenhouse gasses in 2008 alone.

Local residents in Richmond have been fighting for decades to get Chevron to clean up its act. In addition to global warming pollution, the refinery emits toxic air pollution that has driven high rates of asthma and cancer in the surrounding community. Rather than address the effects of its operations on the health of the local community, Chevron recently attempted an expansion of its operations in Richmond that would have allowed the company to process heavier crude oil.

According to Jessica Tovar, community organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, “Chevron’s Richmond refinery is the number one greenhouse gas polluter in the state.  Now is the time to make a green transition, rather then lock in dirtier crude refining in Richmond.”

“Chevron is a bad neighbor, and the community of Richmond has suffered as a result. We want Chevron to take responsibility for the environmental damage it has caused here in Richmond and abroad,” said Mari Rose Taruc, State Organizing Director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. “We want green jobs for Richmond and a healthy community, neither of which Chevron has provided.”

“Chevron has to know that we’re not going away.  We’re breathing and feeling the effects of Chevron’s pollution every day.  While we go to the graveyard, Chevron goes to the bank. We’re determined let Chevron know that they’re killing us in the process of making money.  This has to change,” said Reverend Kenneth Davis from North Richmond after being arrested this morning.

Mobilization for Climate Justice West and more than 20 allied groups signed a letter to incoming Chevron CEO John Watson, calling on him to take three immediate actions:

1.  Support equitable, science-based emissions reduction targets and climate solutions in international climate change negotiations and domestically.

2. Pledge not to support fake “grassroots” campaigns against national climate change legislation.

3. Cap the crude and stop expanding into heavier, dirtier sources of crude oil.

Read the full letter at: http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/resources/open-letter-to-chevron/

Mobilization for Climate Justice West is taking action on the first day of the international climate negotiations in solidarity with allies in West Virginia who are confronting the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer, Massey Energy to demand an end to destructive mountaintop removal coal mining (http://savecoalrivermountain.org)

For more information on the Chevron protest and nonviolent civil disobedience, visit: http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/upcoming-events/december-7th-chevron-protest/

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Happy December!

In my research linking climate change to agribusiness & agriculture, I came across a great blog by Stephen Knight (webmaster of Volunteer Latin America). and wanted to share the piece about how a ‘meat free’ diet is better for your health – fresh evidence from the largest study to date to investigate dietary habits and cancer has concluded that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood than meat eaters and are 12% less likely to develop cancer overall.  And, that switching to a vegetarian diet would reduce your carbon emissions by a colossal 50% and going vegan results in an even greater reduction. Wow!  If you love meat and can’t go without it, get the grass-fed, cage-free, hormone free, cruelty free, local version, and try cutting it out one day a week at least!

Here is a blurb from his blog:

“Although soy is one of the main drivers of Amazon destruction the cattle industry is the single biggest cause of deforestation in South America. The Brazilian cattle industry is the leading cause of deforestation and it is estimated that cattle ranchers destroy at least one acre of Amazon rainforest every 8 seconds. Over the past decade more than 10 million hectares ? an area about the size of Iceland – was cleared for cattle ranching as Brazil rose to become the world’s largest exporter of beef. Brazil is currently the fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, 75% of which stem from deforestation.

Forests are vital to stabilizing the world’s climate because they store such large amounts of carbon. It is estimated that the Amazon alone stores somewhere between 80 to 120 billion tons of carbon. If the Amazon were destroyed, it would release some 50 times the annual greenhouse gas emissions of the United States. A fifth of the Amazon rainforest has been lost since 1970.

As the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is linked to a handful of the world’s largest food companies and commodity traders [LIKE CARGILL], you can help protect it and combat climate change by refusing to purchase factory farmed and imported meat products from supermarkets, fast food restaurants and other outlets (the UK is the second largest importer of processed Brazilian beef in the world – 50,000 tonnes in 2008). This will put pressure on supermarkets and high-street brands to clean-up their supply chains. You should also boycott goods made from cattle that have been linked to rainforest destruction (e.g. leather products and cosmetic ingredients) and the multinational corporations (global brands) behind these products. Better still, why not switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet as what the soy and cattle industry demonstrates more than anything is that meat consumption is bad for the environment and simply not sustainable. Switching to a vegetarian diet would reduce your carbon emissions by a colossal 50% and going vegan results in an even greater reduction.

The ‘Meat Free Mondays’ initiative recently launched by Paul McCartney and his daughters highlighted the impact of meat production on climate change. Cutting down or giving up meat is the single most effective act anyone can take to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. A ‘meat free’ diet is also better for your health. Fresh evidence from the largest study to date to investigate dietary habits and cancer has concluded that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood than meat eaters and are 12% less likely to develop cancer overall.”

Although this is talking about soy and cattle in the Amazon, the story is frightfully similar in Indonesia and Malaysia where palm oil is ravaging the forests so that huge commodity traders like Cargill can sell cheap veggie oil in the US! Join us in holding Cargill accountable and urging them to adopt a socially and environmentally responsible palm oil policy as an incremental step in a comprehensive global forest policy.

Introspection, Vegan Acai Cheezecake Recipe and Sailor Estrella

It’s a beaaaaaauuuutiful day in Mendo, at the Sunhawk. Windy with a mixture of clouds and sunshine breaking through to illuminate the hills.  I’ve come up for Thanksgiving with the family and to recharge the batteries.

Driving northbound was such a treat.  Sipping in the deep blues and greens of these magical mountains like healing medicine, I became nostalgic, heavy-hearted and peaceful all at once.  Whenever I have the opportunity to come home, back to my roots, I get overwhelmed by the power of the land that draws me closer.  I feel the pull to settle down and create a space of my own with a loving partner, to build a family and a  home with a garden, great big oak trees and a treehouse, a swing, many stones and water nearby.  Of course this is a dream that will take a long time to manifest, but I feel those maternal instincts pulling me every time I come to the country.

Dedicating my life to activism and the environmental movement is no small feat. Giving myself to this line of work is both meaningful and necessary, but sometimes I wonder if I should be getting out more, traveling like I used to, and enjoying the world since as we all know the natural world and its life support systems are failing due to climate change.  And that means my work is that much more important, yet at the same time increases my desire to enjoy each day like it’s the last.  Each day is a blessing, a new opportunity to create, enjoy, achieve, explore. But sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in a rat race, work work work and no time to play.

It’s so easy for me to feel lost in this huge amazing world. I get so caught up in my emotions. My 4 pillars must all have solid foundations – friends/family, work, passions/hobbies and romantic relationship.  They’re all feeling pretty solid these days except the latter.  Three years of a long distance relationship is wearing on Pete and me.  He craves his independence and personal freedoms, I long for a co-creation of space and life.  I am more in love than I have ever been, like a book lying dangerously open in a rainstorm. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m trying to stay strong and remember that everything happens for a reason.

The good news is that my sister just had a gorgeous little baby girl!!!! One week ago today! She powered through a 40 hour birth gracefully and gave birth to a 9 lb. 1 ounce baby girl, Sailor Estrella, in the water at home. We are all so proud of her and Tyler, and incredibly excited. I’m such a stoked auntie and god mother!!!

In other sweet news, my job and new community at RAN are truly wonderful. I’ve been busy working to ensure the protection of our remaining tropical rainforests from U.S. agribusiness. I have some exciting field updates to share, as well as big news to report regarding our campaign’s direction.

After two years of pressuring the ABC’s of Rainforest Destruction, ADM, Bunge, and Cargill, we’ve made a strategic decision to focus our energy on Cargill until they agree to adopt and implement a global forest policy. Cargill is the largest privately-held company in the United States and the largest importer of palm oil. The growing threats Cargill poses to the world’s rainforests merited urgent action and a change of direction: setting our sights on one company until we win a concrete victory.

I recently spent a week with our Grassroots Action Manager, Hillary Lehr, in Cargill’s hometown of Minneapolis, building the new RAN Twin Cities chapter and garnering support for the campaign. We sat at the table with Cargill for the second time in a month to discuss a framework for a global forest policy as thousands of our activists made phone calls to their corporate headquarters. This powerful grassroots pressure convinced Cargill to begin considering the environmentally and socially responsible palm oil policy that we suggested. You can still call Cargill and ask them to adopt our proposed policy!

Meanwhile, things on the ground in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia heated up as NGOs and corporate stakeholders determined they would not commit to decreased carbon emissions from palm oil plantations at the yearly Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil meeting. The lack of progress and dialogue around the production of sustainable, fully segregated palm oil brought up critical questions about the legitimacy and intentions of the RSPO, including key members such as Cargill. Our representative at the meeting, David Gilbert, reported that Cargill refused to meet with impacted community members and that one of Cargill’s supplier, Sinar Mas, actually tried to block the only resolution that passed in favor of much needed forest protection.

Last month, we accompanied Papua New Guinea (PNG) human rights advocate, Matilda Pilacapio, to meet with Cargill in Wayzata, Minnesota to talk about how palm oil has led her once-thriving community of traditional Malaysian family farmers into slave-like servitude to Cargill’s palm oil plantations. As part of Matilda’s U.S. delegation, we attended the Natural Products Expo East in Boston where Seventh Generation publicly announced their signing of our pledge to protect rainforests, communities and the climate, along with a bold action plan. I hope you will join us in escalating our pressure on Cargill. Please join our Facebook group and our new Twin Cities Chapter MeetUp group to find out about upcoming events!

Get ready for some exciting news in January announcing our next move to pressure Cargill’s customers. In the meantime, please check out our latest video, “A Legacy of Destruction: Cargill’s Plantations in Borneo.”

AMAZING Raw, Vegan Acai Cheezecake Recipe:

CRUST

1 1/2 cups pecans

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates

2 tablespoons shredded coconut

FILLING

3 cups cashews

3/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup liquid coconut oil

1/2 cup agave syrup

1 package frozen acai smoothie pack

1 banana, sliced

To make the crust, combine the pecans and salt in the food processor and gently pulse to mix. Add thet dates and pulse to break the pecans into small pieces. Avoid overprocessing into a powder or butter.

Sprinkle the coconut onto the bottom of a springform cheesecake pan. Add the pecan mixture and press evenly to form a crust.

To make the filling, combine the cashews, lemon juice, coconut oil, agave syrup, and acai in the high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Add small splashes of water if the mixture is too thick and needs help moving in the blender.

Scoop half the filling into the crust. Arrange the sliced banana on the top. Top with the rest of the filling. Place in the freezer until firm – a few hours.

This dessert will rock your world, and your guests’!!!

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, Cargill and Upcoming Travels!

Bom dia!

It’s my final few days of vacation and I’m loving every minute of it! I have been feeling so incredibly present and grateful for all the blessings in this beautiful life since the master cleanse.  Combined with my soul-rocking yoga studio Laughing Lotus, I couldn’t be happier!  The abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables right now is magical!  I’ve been devouring fresh fruits and veggies since the cleanse, right out of my dad’s garden and from the CSA box – pounds of glowing, deep red tomatoes, asian pears, strawberries, apples, water melon, broccoli, greens, beets, carrots….I am in love!

Speaking of food, something very important caught my eye recently: the USDA’s new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” program.  On September 15, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan  announced the new initiative to begin a national conversation to help develop local and regional food systems and spur economic opportunity. To launch the initiative, Secretary Vilsack recorded a video to invite Americans to join the discussion and share their ideas for ways to support local agriculture. The video, one of many means by which USDA will engage in this conversation, can be viewed at USDA’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/usda . You can also provide comments on this initiative by e-mailing KnowYourFarmer@usda.gov.

According to Vilsack, “Reconnecting consumers and institutions with local producers will stimulate economies in rural communities, improve access to healthy, nutritious food for our families, and decrease the amount of resources to transport our food.”  Sounds great, right?

The ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative, chaired by Deputy Secretary Merrigan, is the focus of a task force with representatives from agencies across USDA who will help better align the Department’s efforts to build stronger local and regional food systems. This week alone, USDA will announce approximately $65 million in funding for ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiatives.

But, what does this all really mean? Tom Philpot on Grist helps debunk any myths about the USDA’s real actions here. In his own words:

First, let’s be clear on what the USDA is up to here. It is not committing new money to local and regional food systems. As Wright confirmed in a brief conversation after her talk, “Know Your Farmer” is really about publicizing programs laid out in the 2008 Farm Bill—prodding local food activists and entrepreneurs to apply for already available funds.

Thus local and regional food systems, in dire need of infrastructure investment, will likely receive less than “several hundred million” dollars over the life of the current farm bill, which ends in 2013. By contrast, industrial-scale corn producers routinely grab between $4 billion and $9 billion in crop subsidies each year. Overall, payments to producers of “program crops”—corn, soy, cotton, rice, etc.—reach as high as $24 billion some years. “Know Your Farmer” won’t change that huge imbalance. (For starters, $4.8 million will go to projects in 14 states, USDA announced today.)

So it’s hardly a revolutionary program.

Even so, it’s remarkable and to my knowledge unprecedented that the USDA is making a major effort to publicize these programs and ensure that at least some federal money flows into emerging alternative food systems.

USDA leadership can’t change the structure of the Farm Bill, but the agency does decide how farm bill programs play out. And the Obama USDA seems determined to do what it can to use existing rural-developent programs in a progressive way.

Of course, USDA also remains capable of playing its time-tested role or promoter and protector of Big Ag. Consider that in the current fiscal year, the agency has spent $151 million in taxpayer cash on mass-produced meat to bolster the struggling pork industry. For perspective on such meat-industry bailouts, see this lucid and important post from Elanor Starmer on Ethicurean.

Tom Philpot knows what’s up.  This is all crazy fascinating to me given my new job, which begins Monday! I’m going to help take down Big Ag with RAN.  The Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign is targeting Cargill, the largest privately-held company in the United States, for its role in rainforest destruction for soy and palm plantations.  Cargill is the #1 importer of palm oil from Southeast Asia into the United States.  We are working to get Cargill to adopt and implement a comprehensive global forest policy to hold the company to account for its palm and soy operations in tropical rainforests.

First week on the job I’m flying to Boston for the FairTrade & Sustainable Certification Program at ExpoEast – a trade show all about alternatives to palm oil and other products being grown in a way that is harmful environmentally and socially.  The IBD EcoSocial Certification program at the Natural Products Expo East 2009 trade show: EcoSocial is an increasingly popular Fair Trade certification program, a guarantee seal that promotes Human, Social and Environmental development in developing countries. EcoSocial empowers small farmers and the food industry around the world. To learn more, please visit our website at www.ecosocial.com.

Accompanying us to Boston and Minneapolis is a delegate from Papa New Guinea who’s coconut farm is surrounded in palm oil plantations. She will share her personal story through lectures and panels in Boston and then to Minneapolis, where she will meet with Cargill.  We will conclude our public engagements and speaking tour there.  I’m excited!

From Canada to Alabama, Indiana to Kauai, it’s been a Beautiful Summer

Hello beautiful!

It sure has been a whirlwind summer of travels, learning, campaigning, vacationing and cleansing! Whew!  Since my last blog post I:

1. My Greenpeace students and I won our short-term goals in the Trader Joe’s campaign  – TJ’s agreed to work with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in developing a sustainable seafood policy and to discontinue the sale of “most” red-list fish species! Our California state-wide campaign and the DC Greenpeace Organizing Term’s campaign on the east coast proved incredibly effective and fruitful!  http://traitorjoe.com/

2. Spent a week in Alabama at Pete’s lovely family’s beach house, which was so wonderful minus the all-night rural Alabama hospital visit for a nasty kidney infection that was mal-treated

3. Went to my sister’s wedding in Kauai! It was magical! Two huge rainbows and a blessing of rain during the ceremony.

4. Spent several days in Calgary with one of my best friend’s and favorite Canadian’s in the whole wide world – Heather Hendrie! Living in the “Texas of the North” was eye-opening; I had never realized how severely the oil and gas industry holds that part of the world by the balls. From Calgary I took a train north to Edmonton where I met up with the 30 GOT students and coordinators for our Greenpeace Canada Expedition! I’m going to write some insightful information and personal reflections on what I had the opportunity to witness first hand there below.

5. Made it through my last week of the Greenpeace Organizing Term – concluding my 5th and final semester with Greenpeace as a GOT Coordinator.  Although I will always cherish the organization, my GP family and the 63 students I trained, I am just elated to be moving on to work with the Rainforest Action Network as their Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner! http://ran.org/campaigns/rainforest_agribusiness/   I am so honored and excited to be a campaigner at last, a position I have been working towards for the past 5 years since graduation and interning for Amazon Watch.  I have the opportunity to work with Leila Salazar-Lopez (Campaign Director), who was my boss and mentor at Amazon Watch and is the one who in large part inspired me to be where I am today.  It will be a steep learning curve for sure, but I’m up for the task after almost a month of glorious vacation!

6. Post final week on the job I traveled to Indiana with Pete to spend a fantastic and relaxing week with his beautiful family. We celebrated his grandparents’ 60th Anniversary in southern Indiana near Bloomington in the woods with his entire extended family and then the rest of the time in Noblesville hanging out with the sweet Dorothy Day and Oliver, 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 years old!  Since returning Pete helped me pack up my old house and move into a new place just 3 blocks from Dolores Park and my yoga studio, straddling the Mission, Noe Valley and Upper Market in the Castro. My walls are turqoise, all the ladies in the house do yoga regularly, we’re getting a CSA veggie box and a kitten!! Life is good.

The Master Cleanse: http://themastercleanse.org/

After the big move I cruised south on the 1 to Big Sur to get blissed out on my Master Cleanse! http://themastercleanse.org/  I’d always wanted to try a cleanse like this and figured with some vacation time it would be perfect, so I dove right in. Lemon squeezed into water with maple syrup and cayenne pepper for 10 days though some do less or more. Each website offers something a little different, but I’d stick to Stanley Burroughs’ little yellow book which you can get at the health food store.  Since my sister’s big baby shower BBQ party is Sunday, which I’m coordinating, I decided to do 7 days of the cleanse, not including the phase-out diet, which would put me in in line to eat regularly by Sunday, Day 11 Master Cleanse.

I’d say that overall, I’m on the fence as to how effective the cleanse is for actually getting the nasty “stuff” out.  I was disappointed I never eliminated anything impressive, like all the crap that is stuck on the lining of our intestine walls inhibiting us from absorbing the vitamins and minerals in the food we eat.  However, I have not eaten refined sugar in 8+ months, I have not eaten meat since age 8 and hardly eat dairy. Perhaps I just didn’t have that much to get out.  But as far as slimming down and sloughing off excess weight, mucus, disease and unhealthy tissue, it works like a charm.  I lost 14 lbs. in 7 days! The average is 2 lbs. a day, and I did just that!  And I feel GOOD.  People tell me that my eyes are clear, I look more vibrant than usual, and look slimmer.  But don’t expect to feel good during the cleanse. Some people feel great throughout and claim they have more energy than usual, but I felt moody, irritable, hungry, and low energy.  The first couple days I continued biking all over the city but became weak.  However, my energy level today, Day 9, is superb!

If you are going to do the master cleanse, make sure you take a lot of personal, meditative, quiet time for yourself. I found that when I did yoga daily, meditation, writing, reading, sunbathing, and hot spring soaking, I felt wonderful, really blissed out and high.  But when I was around a lot of people, watching folks eat meals, working at farmers markets and in big social scenes I became irritated and grumpy.  Seriously, this can make or break your cleanse. I think your will power and discipline to push through the hunger pangs and bad moods is directly correlated with your mind set, and that is 100% linked to your surroundings and actions during the cleanse.  So make intentional choices and you’ll enjoy the greatest benefits!  Don’t freak out if you notice an insanely sharp sense of smell developing!  I became so sensitive to smell that I found people’s breath incredibly offensive (even my partner who almost always smells like peaches and puppies) and had to resist vomiting in yoga smelling the body odors and breath circulating throughout the room.  Trash, cellars, car air conditioning, exhaust – all things you will smell more acutely than ever, almost like a dog!  Enjoy these special powers!!

The Canadian Tar Sands: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text                     http://ran.org/campaigns/freedom_from_oil/

To switch gears from cleansing to polluting, I’d like to take a minute to share my thoughts and some important information about the Tar Sands, the largest and most destructive industrial project on the planet right now. As a US Citizen, I feel incredibly invested in stopping the tar sands as it’s not only the most environmentally harmful way of extracting oil possible, but it’s turning a 10,000 year old ancient forest into a desert as we speak!  The Boreal contains 35% of Canada’s wetlands and stores 47 Billion tonnes of carbon!  If you are from the US, you should know that we import more oil from Canada than any other country, second to Mexico.  Canada has been the #1 exporter to the US for 7 years! As peak oil is becoming more and more of a reality, corporations and industries that rely on it are becoming increasingly desperate.  This has led them to a remote, pristine swath of Ancient Forest in the Boreal – Alberta, Canada – to dig up our world’s last remaining 20% of ancient forests in the name of oil.

In August I visited a town called Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, the door-way into the Tar Sands.  Fort McMurray is a community in northern Alberta that attracts migrants from all over Canada and beyond with a ’sort of’ facade of lucrative work.  ‘Sort of’ because although the work is lucrative – people make triple digits starting day 1 to dig up the earth in search of bitumen, the most energy-intensive form of oil in the world – but the toll on the workers’ health over-shadows any real promise of wealth.    Not to mention the environment.  The Athabasca and Mackenzie River Basin encompasse 1/4 of Canada’s water supply and over 11 million liters of toxic sludge is seeping into the Athabasca River basin EVERY SINGLE DAY.  The species that once thrived in this water basin now have overwhelmingly high rates of cysts and tumors, rendered inedible for the First Nations people that for thousands of years have relied on them for sustenance.  The 1.5 barrels of toxic waste created from the production of each barrel of bitumen has effectively contaminated this entire river basin.  The children of Fort Chipewyan are told to no longer swim in the rivers and there are many cases of diagnosed bile duct cancer in that community.  You would think that we could at least be sensitive to the First Nations people living there, but hegemony and development, as always, blind us to the simple tenants of human rights!  Canada, the US and New Zealand are the only countries that have not signed the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights! Just disgusting.

As we toured a few sites of extraction, processing plants, and drove through the muddy maze of dirt roads and three story trucks in under cover Greenpeace vans, silence broken by sporadic sobs and moans of the students filled the air. Inside the vans.  Outside the vans, the smell of sour, putrid toxicity filled my nostrils.  It burned my nose and my lungs.  The yellow, brown haze in the air was disgusting, and sadness brewed within me thinking about the workers and communities who inhaled this every day. But the workers have a choice, so I don’t so much pity them; the First Nations people have inherited this problem unwillingly.

By 2020 production in the Tar Sands is expected to quadruple! The Tar Sands covers one quarter of Alberta; if all this is developed it will destroy a land mass the size of Florida.  The Tar Sands are mined over 300 metres deep; the trucks used are three stories high!  And what’s most unbelievable about this process – they use natural gas to get the oil (bitumen) out, incredibly GHG intensive.   To add insult to injury, this whole process releases the 47 Billion tonnes of carbon stored in the forest floor!  Bitumen is the most heavily processed form of oil, compared to oil crude (the lease processed and most readily-usable form of oil) or natural gas.  70 – 90% of the oil goes to, who else, but the United States.  Tar Sands oil is 3-5 times as energy intensive as a conventional barrel of oil.

Solutions/Resistance:

Mike Hudema, the lead Greenpeace Canada Tar Sands campaigner, taught us all of this and also spoke a bit about sustainable agriculture and how that is linked to Canada’s use of fossil fuels.  Apparently between 2001 and 2006, Canada lost 17,500 farms!  And the average grocery store product travels 1,500 miles between farms and the grocery store isle!  This is obviously a huge problem.  The gross misuse and waste of fossil fuels in Canada to quench the thirst and greed of the United States is leading us down a deadly path.  We need to spread the word about the Tar Sands and speak out!  There is a coalition of 72 groups working on halting this project in Canada, organizing and executing actions on a regular basis, working with US mayors and Canadian premiers.  But the Canadian premiers are just as bad as the industry.  Although 71% of Albertans want a moratorium on Tar Sands development, the Canadian Government has approved 100% of the proposed projects!!!

We need to see that 2 out of 3 tar sands jobs are in construction, which will be over once the project is done.  These are not sustainable, green jobs!  Alberta is the sunniest province in Canada and has the potential of creating 112,000 jobs in solar, according to Hudema’s research.  We need to push for renewable energy investments in Alberta and STOP the US from importing this dirty Tar Sands oil!!

What we’re working to protect:

Traitor Joe, One-Stop-Shop for Ocean Destruction!

Hi!

Join us in California for our ruckus-raising Sustainable Seafood Road Show! From San Francisco Bay Area through Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, we’re raising hell not only in CA but around the nation hitting up almost all 300 Trader Joe’s store locations with a unified message: Stop selling the most endangered, red-listed fish species on your shelves, enact a sustainable seafood procurement policy, and start informing your customers through labeling and transparency in your seafood section so they can make informed decisions!

We had two amaaaazing events today! The North Beach event was a bit slower in the morning, but fantastic.  We deployed our team in 2 minutes flat and 3 TJs staffers came out immediately, quite angry (including the store manager), however after a bit of successful de-escalation and showing her our legal letter

, the store manager Cassi seemed fine with us out front as long as we didn’t block the entry.  Besides the constant reminder that we were too close to the wall and an interesting discussion about which red list species they don’t sell (she read the whole report!), it was smooth. We generated 150 postcards in a little less than 1.5 hours.  Two students delivered the citation before leaving, which Cassi loved.

Event two on Mason St. was even more of a splash.  The store manager went from being oddly friendly in the beginning to so angry in the end he would not accept the citation and I was forced to leave it on the table.  Our photographer got some great shots of me engaging with him out front, though the camera made him quite upset.  We generated 149 postcards in a bit less than 1.5 hours (almost exact same as first event) but our visibility was fantastic: we were decked out in grass skirts, flower leys, hawaiian get-up, 2 orange roughy costumes, great big banners, generated hundreds of honks, chanted a ton, had the voting booth occupied almost the entire time, petitioned people in cars as they waited in line to pull in, and a few volunteers even showed up for this one!  Our most successful engagement tactics were the voting booth, the fish sample platter and our kiddie pool where people could fish out an endangered fish with facts on it.  The store manager again demonstrated that he was doing his homework inside when he came out and announced that we were targeting the wrong store because they carried few red list species.  After explaining that it was a national, company-wide issue, his store was still Trader Joe’s, and that they needed to do a better job informing their customers, I told him that the best thing he could do was to express his outrage of our actions to his HQs; he huffed and walked away.

After tripling our day’s petition goal and ending Day 1 on a very exciting but exhauasted note, we’re all ready to go kick some more CA butt!  I am so proud of our students — all our messaging drills have paid off and they are representing GP so well out there!

Rock on everyone! Thanks for the support, we couldn’t do this without all of you.  Only 8 more days of raising hell….

Visit www.traitorjoe.com and send your store manager a singing fish telegram!

1) Trader Joe’s sells many unsustainable seafood items.
We want them to discontinue their red list items; it is not necessary to sell fish like orange roughy and Chilean sea bass in order to have a profitable seafood section.

2) Trader Joe’s has no sustainable seafood policy.
The company needs to develop thoughtful and strict purchasing standards that will preclude them supporting environmentally damaging fisheries and farms.

3) Trader Joe’s does not provide customers with the information they need to make informed seafood purchasing decisions.
The lack of transparency in the Trader Joe’s seafood section needs to be addressed.  The company must begin labeling their seafood with necessary information (like catch or farming method) so their customers do not unwittingly contribute to the demise of the ocean through their seafood purchases.

Proposed Bill Won’t Cut It! Congress, Get Back to Work

MAY 15, 2009

WASHINGTON—In response to the climate and energy legislation released today by the Energy and Commerce Committee, Greenpeace USA Executive Director Phil Radford issued the following statement:

“Despite the best efforts of Chairman Waxman, this bill has been seriously undermined by the lobbying of industries more concerned with profits than the plight of our planet. While science clearly tells us that only dramatic action can prevent global warming and its catastrophic impacts, this bill has fallen prey to political infighting and industry pressure. We cannot support this bill in its current state. We call on President Obama and leaders in Congress to get back to work and produce a bill, based on science, which presents a clear road map for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, transforms our economy with clean, renewable energy technology, generates new green jobs and shows real leadership internationally.”

To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, the best available science suggests the United States and other developed nations together must achieve emission cuts of at least 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95 percent by 2050. But this legislation only sets a domestic target at approximately 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Even with additional measures elsewhere in the legislation, the U.S. effort would still fall far short of the science.

“With this weak start it is clear that achieving the needed reductions would be impossible. To shirk our responsibility to control greenhouse gas emissions is a perilous gamble and an invitation to developing countries that they, too, can shirk their responsibilities–all but guaranteeing catastrophic climate change.” Rapid emissions reductions in the short-term are critical to avoiding catastrophic climate effects because global warming has already triggered a series of negative feedback loops such as Arctic melting in the North and raging wildfires in the South that are accelerating the crisis. What’s more, new information about the threat global warming poses to the world is reported on nearly a daily basis. The World Bank, for example, just released a report that shows increased flooding due to global warming has put 52 million people in coastal areas throughout the developing world in danger and poses a $122 billion risk to the GDPs of these nations.

At first read the following provisions of the bill are particularly egregious in light of the urgency of the global warming crisis:

-Greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by less than 4 percent below 1990 levels, or in the best case by only 7 percent;

-Polluting industries will receive hundreds of billions in subsidies in the form of allowances over the life of the bill;

-A dizzying array of carbon “offsets” offered to dirty industries could be used to effectively eliminate real reductions of greenhouse gas emissions for over a decade;

-A new generation of dirty coal-fired power plants will be supported through some $10 billion in ratepayer subsidies for carbon capture and sequestration (or CCS);

-A renewable electricity standard that would achieve less than states are likely to accomplish on their own.

“Ultimately, with people in the U.S. and around the world looking for him to lead, President Obama needs to step in now and demand meaningful, science-based policy capable of addressing the climate crisis.”

Frightening News for the Climate and our Future…

I have so much anxiety in my stomach right now! Greenpeace US has been pouring 75% of our budget into our global warming campaign for the past 4 years trying to get a bill passed to re-engage the US in a strong climate agreements this December in Copenhagen, and now, on the brink of a huge Congressional decision, we could be facing the worst news yet: a Waxman-Markey bill that was once promising now so watered down from Coal industry lobbyists we have to oppose it.  And there is no way we can get another bill out in time, before Copenhagen….

The Science:

* Sciences says we need 25-40% below 1990, which is roughly 35% below current levels.

* The initial bill proposed a target of 7.7% below 1990 (20% below 2005), plus additional measures such as international forest funding that would get overall reductions in the range of 19-20% below 1990. The substantial offsets in the initial bill seriously undercut these targets, and would have led to no real emission reductions until 2026.

* The target has been further weakened in the new draft to 17% below 2005, which represents less than 4% below 1990 levels. This is far weaker than science and the international community demands and it will not lead to a strong agreement in Copenhagen.

* The massive giveaways to the coal industry in the CCS provisions, already a serious concern for GP and many other groups, have been expanded even further, encouraging the construction of “capture ready” CCS plants that will lock in dirty coal power (and the centralized transmission system needed to support it) for another generation.

* The combination of the offsets, the massive giveaways of emission allowances and outright cash to polluting industries, and the weakening of the RES will undermine the market signals necessary to spur the needed transition away from dirty energy and impair the development of renewables.

The Global Politics:

* Ironically, the bill was weakened even as Sir Nicholas Stern told the EC today that US targets are completely inadequate to achieve the goals of Copenhagen, and IPCC Chief Pachauri said the only glimmer of hope was the somewhat stronger legislation working its way through Congress.

* It also comes as World Bank economists release a new study showing that increased storm surges caused by global warming will expose 52 million people worldwide to the risk of catastrophic storm floods and create $122 billion in losses to developing country GDPs.

“We are extremely troubled by the reports coming out of the Energy and Commerce Committee last night on additional compromises to the already flawed American Clean Energy & Security Act. The world needs real leadership from Congress and the Administration to address global warming – action that will enable us to transform our economy with clean, renewable energy technology, new green jobs and show leadership internationally. If reports are true, the compromises being struck on the bill undermine these goals.” — Joint Statement from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and Public Citizen on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Climate and Energy Bill

Swine Flu = NAFTA + Pig Abuse

Swine flu aka NAFTA Flu…do you still want to eat bacon?

How “The NAFTA Flu” Exploded

Smithfield Farms Fled US Environmental Laws to Open a Gigantic Pig Farm in Mexico, and All We Got Was this Lousy Swine Flu

By Al Giordano

http://www.narconews.com/Issue57/article3512.html

April 29, 2009

US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the “swine flu” outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5. The daily La Jornada reported:

Clouds of flies emanate from the rusty lagoons where the Carroll Ranches business tosses the fecal wastes of its pig farms, and the open-air contamination is already generating an epidemic of respiratory infections in the town of La Gloria, in the Perote Valley, according to Town Administrator Bertha Crisóstomo López.

The town has 3,000 inhabitants, hundreds of whom reported severe flu symptoms in March.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting from Mexico, has identified a La Gloria child who contracted the first case of identified “swine flu” in February as “patient zero,” five-year-old Edgar Hernández, now a survivor of the disease.

By April 15 – nine days before Mexican federal authorities of the regime of President Felipe Calderon acknowledged any problem at all – the local daily newspaper, Marcha, reported that a company called Carroll Ranches was “the cause of the epidemic.”

La Jornada columnist Julio Hernández López connects the corporate dots to explain how the Virginia-based Smithfield Farms came to Mexico: In 1985, Smithfield Farms received what was, at the time, the most expensive fine in history – $12.6 million – for violating the US Clean Water Act at its pig facilities near the Pagan River in Smithfield, Virginia, a tributary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The company, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dumped hog waste into the river.

It was a case in which US environmental law succeeded in forcing a polluter, Smithfield Farms, to construct a sewage treatment plant at that facility after decades of using the river as a mega-toilet. But “free trade” opened a path for Smithfield Farms to simply move its harmful practices next door into Mexico so that it could evade the tougher US regulators.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect on January 1, 1994. That very same year Smithfield Farms opened the “Carroll Ranches” in the Mexican state of Veracruz through a new subsidiary corporation, “Agroindustrias de México.”

Unlike what law enforcers forced upon Smithfield Farms in the US, the new Mexican facility – processing 800,000 pigs into bacon and other products per year – does not have a sewage treatment plant.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Smithfield slaughters an estimated 27 million hogs a year to produce more than six billion pounds of packaged pork products. (The Veracruz facility thus constitutes about three percent of its total production.)

Reporter Jeff Teitz reported in 2006 on the conditions in Smithfield’s US facilities (remember: what you are about to read describes conditions that are more sanitary and regulated than those in Mexico):

Smithfield’s pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouse-like barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty fully grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth. The floors are slatted to allow excrement to fall into a catchment pit under the pens, but many things besides excrement can wind up in the pits: afterbirths, piglets accidentally crushed by their mothers, old batteries, broken bottles of insecticide, antibiotic syringes, stillborn pigs—anything small enough to fit through the foot-wide pipes that drain the pits. The pipes remain closed until enough sewage accumulates in the pits to create good expulsion pressure; then the pipes are opened and everything bursts out into a large holding pond.

The temperature inside hog houses is often hotter than ninety degrees. The air, saturated almost to the point of precipitation with gases from shit and chemicals, can be lethal to the pigs. Enormous exhaust fans run twenty-four hours a day. The ventilation systems function like the ventilators of terminal patients: If they break down for any length of time, pigs start dying.

Consider what happens when such forms of massive pork production move to unregulated territory where Mexican authorities allow wealthy interests to do business without adequate oversight, abusing workers and the environment both. And there it is: The violence wrought by NAFTA in clear and understandable human terms.

The so-called “swine flu” exploded because an environmental disaster simply moved (and with it, took jobs from US workers) to Mexico where environmental and worker safety laws, if they exist, are not enforced against powerful multinational corporations.

False mental constructs of borders – the kind that cause US and Mexican citizens alike to imagine a flu strain like this one invading their nations from other lands – are taking a long overdue hit by the current “swine flu” media frenzy. In this case, US-Mexico trade policy created a time bomb in Veracruz that has already murdered more than 150 Mexican citizens, and at least one child in the US, by creating a gigantic Petri dish in the form pig farms to generate bacon and ham for international sale.

None of that indicates that this flu strain was born in Mexico, but, rather, that the North American Free Trade Agreement created the optimal conditions for the flu to gestate and become, at minimum, epidemic in La Gloria and, now, Mexico City, and threatens to become international pandemic.

Welcome to the aftermath of “free trade.” Authorities now want you to grab a hospital facemask and avoid human contact until the outbreak hopefully blows over. And if you start to feel dizzy, or a flush with fever, or other symptoms begin to molest you or your children, remember this: The real name of this infirmity is “The NAFTA Flu,” the first of what may well emerge as many new illnesses to emerge internationally as the direct result of “free trade” agreements that allow companies like Smithfield Farms to escape health, safety and environmental laws.

NAFTA in clear and understandable human terms.

The so-called “swine flu” exploded because an environmental disaster simply moved (and with it, took jobs from US workers) to Mexico where environmental and worker safety laws, if they exist, are not enforced against powerful multinational corporations.

False mental constructs of borders – the kind that cause US and Mexican citizens alike to imagine a flu strain like this one invading their nations from other lands – are taking a long overdue hit by the current “swine flu” media frenzy. In this case, US-Mexico trade policy created a time bomb in Veracruz that has already murdered more than 150 Mexican citizens, and at least one child in the US, by creating a gigantic Petri dish in the form pig farms to generate bacon and ham for international sale.

None of that indicates that this flu strain was born in Mexico, but, rather, that the North American Free Trade Agreement created the optimal conditions for the flu to gestate and become, at minimum, epidemic in La Gloria and, now, Mexico City, and threatens to become international pandemic.

Welcome to the aftermath of “free trade.” Authorities now want you to grab a hospital facemask and avoid human contact until the outbreak hopefully blows over. And if you start to feel dizzy, or a flush with fever, or other symptoms begin to molest you or your children, remember this: The real name of this infirmity is “The NAFTA Flu,” the first of what may well emerge as many new illnesses to emerge internationally as the direct result of “free trade” agreements that allow companies like Smithfield Farms to escape health, safety and environmental laws.