Friday, October 15, 2010


INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST MCDONALDS:


Ah yes, the corporation we all love to hate...McDonalds. Tomorrow is an International Day of Action Against McDonalds, called by the network of Food Not Bombs. Molly's opinion, for what it is worth, is that the following misses an essential point, the long struggle to unionize McDonalds' employees. Yes, believe it or not there are countries in the world where these efforts have born fruit. Finland and Sweden are examples. Quite frankly most (all ?) of the things that people object to in places like McDonalds (it is hardly the only such enterprise) will never change by pressure "from the outside" from people who would never eat at McDonalds unless presented with no other alternative. Here's the call.

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International Day of Action Against McDonald's
Time Saturday, October 16 · 1:00pm - 3:30pm

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Location Public Sidewalks outside McDonald's

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More Info
Food Not Bombs global day of action to end hunger and protest corporate domination of our food.
Food Not Bombs will be sharing free vegan meals outside local McDonald's stores all over the globe on World Food Day, October 16, 2010. ( Also called The International Day of Action Against McDonald's ) Corporate domination of our food is increasing world hunger and malnutrition. One in six people do not get enough food to be healthy. ...Over a billion people go hungry every month. The United Nations reports that 25,000 people around the world die from hunger related causes every day. Food Not Bombs volunteers proposed this action during the gathering in Monterrey, Mexico in May 2010.

Corporate control and greed is at the root of the global crisis of hunger blocking popular efforts address climate change, promoting the production genetically engineered organisms for food and withholding access to food to drive up prices. Food Not Bombs started marking World Food Day by sharing free vegan burgers out side McDonald's in solidarity with the McLibel legal case when McDonald's took Helen Steel and Dave Morris to trial claiming their flyer "What's Wrong With McDonald's" was inaccurate. In 1985 they launched the The International Day of Action Against McDonald's , which has been held on October 16th ever since. Food Not Bombs groups joined their effort and have shared vegan food outside of hundreds of McDonald's shops around the world every year. The leaflet attacked almost all aspects of the corporation's business, accusing them of exploiting children with advertising, promoting an unhealthy diet, exploiting their staff and being responsible for environmental damage and ill treatment of animals. Food Not Bombs volunteers have been handing out the flyer at many of their meals since 1985. A copy can be down loaded from the Food Not Bombs website.

McDonald's is a symbol of what is wrong with corporate control of our food. The price of food is increasing. Food prices are set to rise as much as 40% over the coming decade amid growing demand from emerging markets and for biofuel production, according to a United Nations report published in June 2010 which warns of rising hunger and food insecurity. Wheat prices have jumped by more than 50 percent since June 2010. Rice prices are expected to stay at their current high level due to drought and flooding in India and the Philippines. The high price of rice has had a devastating effect on poorer parts of the world that rely on the grain for food.

'It is safe to say that the rice price is not going back to $300 per ton any time soon and is likely to remain around $600 in the near term,' Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at the International Rice Research Institute, said in a report to be published today, without citing a definite time frame.

Corporate domination of food and agriculture is causing hunger to increase. From the rapid increase in the cost of seeds 90 percent of which are controlled by Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Syngenta, BASF and Bayer CropScience. more than 90 percent of soybeans and more than 80 percent of the corn grown in the United States are genetically engineered. Farmers must buy new higher priced seeds, activator chemicals, herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers every season. Millions of farmers are unable to pay these higher prices and are prosecuted in court for growing their own seeds and end up losing their land. The new processed foods not only cost more but they are free of adequate nutrition causing obesity and starvation often in the same person. Corporate resistance to the public's effort to address the causes of climate change is also contribution to global hunger resulting in droughts, floods and extreme temptures. Factory meat production is also contributing to climate change. Government subsidies for corporate agriculture make it difficult for organic farmers to compete reducing the growing of more nutritional food.

Finally new laws are being implemented to restrict local organic food cultivation. The United States government is set to pass the Food Safety Modernization Act or Senate Bill 510 which could force even more people to stop growing their own food making regulations and fees that could make small scale farming impossible in the United States.

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