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Re: corporate power -Reply



>>> Margaret Merrill <mmerrill@leo.vsla.edu> 29
July 1996  17:46 >>>
"what the corporate world is doing to our food
supply."

Margaret, Ron, et alia;
What "they" are doing is exactly what we tell them
to do. By demanding blemish-free produce,
microwaveable pseudofood, sweet corn in the dead
of winter, etc., etc. we as food buyers and
consumers have told the corporate interests what
we value. If you don't like this system, don't
patronize your local supermarket; rather, a
farmer's market. Problem is: when no one has time
to cook anymore and checkout staff need pictures
to tell an acorn squash from a zucchini, lone
individuals voting with their dollars against an
industrial food system can hope for only limited
impact. But several million of those individuals
can begin to get the attention of ADM, Purdue,
Kroger, P&G, etc.

Here's an idea. Don't organize a boycott; practice
one in your own home. THEN, write letters to
anyone in office or running for office who accepts
contributions from industrial food concerns (that
pretty much covers every single politician alive
and active in the US -- and both presidential
candidates are among the worst offenders) that you
will not vote for them because they are poisoning
your children. It's truly amazing how quickly they
squirm and lie and try to deny. 

FINALLY, do not patronize any magazine or
television show or newspaper that accepts ads from
those companies YOU decide are most offensive -- a
total boyott of those media accepting industrial
ag money would leave you in a complete info void
-- AND write to them to let them know why you no
longer watch their show or buy their mag. (an
aside: does anyone else out there notice the kid
gloves treatment ADM receives from Jim Lehrer, or
how quickly Sam Donaldson shuts up about his issue
of the week when given a hefty fee for speaking to
a "professional association"?)

Nothing ticks off a PR or Marketing professional
liar more than a bunch of folks who refuse to be
sheep and can't be neutralized by attacks on their
"leader"!!! Bottom line: don't organize,
decentralize.
Todd