Take action on the BP disaster: protests near you (including national events on 6/12 and 6/26)

by: rossl

Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 18:47:26 PM PDT

Hello all - hopefully I can make this into some kind of a short series or get someone to help me with this, but if not you'll probably see at least one more diary on the subject from me.  Basically, here's a post where I'm trying to assemble all the information for protests that you need to know in order to take action against BP and for some kind of a clean energy future.

Go below the fold for a list of events/websites/facebook pages/etc.

(Just because of my own time constraints, I've only listed events in the US)

Boycott of Whole Foods Week 2

by: Curtis Abbey

Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 11:43:19 AM PDT

It's week two of the Whole Foods boycott, the Facebook boycott page has 28,157 members. It also now has a website called Whole Boycott Dot Com.

The boycott sprang up out of progressive resentment toward an article in the Wall Street Journal written by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. It's titled The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.

Mackey claims that the Rupert Murdoch owned WSJ editors wrote that title. It contains the annoying right wing slogan Obamacare. Which is an ironic term since the President has asked for Congress to write the bill, and to consider all ideas. We didn't call it the Bushraq War even though he didn't consider opposing ideas.  

Are your Skittles destroying the rainforest? Part 2

by: rossl

Sat Feb 14, 2009 at 17:44:04 PM PST

In Part 1, I introduced you to the palm oil crisis and talked about how it is affecting orangutans.  In the poll, I also called for a "boycott."  However, that may have been the wrong move on my part.

If you're interested - particularly if you didn't read Party 1 when I posted it - please read on to learn about how a seemingly harmless vegetable oil that is in one out of ten consumer products is one of the most destructive forces on our planet today.

Are your Skittles destroying the rainforest? Part 1

by: rossl

Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 15:37:31 PM PST

Today, I've decided to start a series on palm oil and palm ingredients - and alternatives to them.  I'm in the process of building a website on the same subject ( http://www.nomorepalm.com ), but that will take a bit of time, and time is not something worth wasting in this context.

A specific type of vegetable oil may not sound like a particularly interesting subject, but palm oil is no ordinary vegetable oil.  It is one of the more destructive forces on our planet today.  Or maybe I should say that the machine of people and corporations in place to grow and distribute palm oil is one of the more destructive forces on our planet.  Either way, consuming this ingredient - which is in an unbelievable amount of foods and cosmetics and other things - is something which makes one responsible for encouraging this.

If you want some outside info, here's a good place to start:  http://www.cspinet.org/palmoil...

Boycotting Kellogg Because of Monsanto Beets

by: OrangeClouds115

Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

"1) OCA and numerous other faith-based, consumer advocacy, and farmer focused organizations actually have carried out letter writing campaigns since Fall of 2007, urging Kellogg's, M&M Mars, Hershey's and other corporations to not source GE sugar beets. OCA network members, for example, have sent over 15 thousand letters to Kellogg's before we considered launching a boycott of Kellogg's products.

2) OCA has targeted Kellogg's specifically for several reasons. First, Kellogg's actually produces food that is widely consumed in the United States. M&M/Mars and Hershey's are candy/junk food companies that have a very small percentage of their overall line dedicated to food items. The real nutritional impact of junk food companies switching from genetically engineered high-fructose corn syrup to genetically engineered sugar (sourced from sugar beets) would be relatively insignificant in the big picture

If you shop at a farmers' market, a boycott is easy. Kind of like they say... "I've been boycotting Mercedes for years!" But watch out - Kellogg owns Morningstar Farms, a leading vegetarian brand that sells fake meat. Here is a list of all Kellogg products.