Occupy Big Food Rally Set For 1 PM Across From Zuccotti Park Today

Occupy Big Food

After their last gathering coincided with the freak October snowstorm, Occupy Big Food is staging a rally ~~at Union Square~~ in front of the big red cube sculpture at 140 Broadway (across from Zuccotti Park) at 1 p.m. today as a "protest against the corporate feeding of America." The group are an off-shoot of Occupy Wall Street hoping to take meat, dairy, and other agricultural industries out of the hands of a few large corporations—just as OWS wants to take control of the financial sector from large corporations.

You can read more about them and their founders, nutrition expert Kristin Wartman and NYU Food Studies grad student Erika Lade, in this NPR feature—and you can check out more interesting info about how the food movement developed in Zuccotti Park via Slow Food USA.

Among other things, Occupy Big Food have created a petition against Butterball—the number one producer of turkeys in America—telling the company that signers "are no longer going to purchase turkeys that are inhumanely treated, or support a factory-farm system that creates dire environmental and health consequences."

On a related note, Occupy Wall Street will be having their own makeshift Thanksgiving next week outside of the city. Eric Smith, former chef at Sheridan New York, has organized the event for approximately 1,000 Zuccotti Park regulars, with 150 turkeys, 400 pounds of potatoes, 300 pounds of stuffing and 250 pounds of cranberry sauce (they're still looking for someone to donate 300 pies). “We hope on Thanksgiving we can bring solace to all these people,” said Smith. “Get together. Give everyone an inspirational boost. These people need a chance to rejoice. It’s been a rough two months.”

The "very traditional" mean may be held as far upstate as rural Woodstock: “People need a chance to get away from the noise of the city. We do plan on bringing everyone back.”

And one fun fact about turkeys: the turkey you'll eat this at your Thanksgiving meal is almost definitely the result of artificial insemination. How come? As Freakonomics Radio explains, it's because the modern turkey has quite large turkey breasts, and it physically gets in the way when the male and the female try to have sex.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in Food on November 19, 2011 10:55 AM

Comments [rss]

chee1rs

OWS losers

Merrill Jeffrey

@Obamatheracist:disqus try it immediately. my classmate's sister-in-law makes $71/hour on the laptop. She has been laid off for 9 months but last month her paycheck was $9054 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read about it here http://itty.ws/1al

Parker East

Here is one of my contributions to the movement.... so far. Pass it along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Worth watching... subscribe if you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mr...

whitecastlerock

Dude you are terrible-Fresh Direct may hire you...

Parker East

Top 50 is apparently a rank one attains through sheer volume. It is quantity over quality at the whitecastlerock. He's the Kraft Singles of commenting. With a name like that, should we really be surprised?

AaronRed99

NPR. I'm sure it must be riveting.

Johanna

Big Food is no joke. The NRDC has already litigated and publicized how the toxic run off from factory farms is more lethal than chemical dumping and less regulated - or NOT regulated, and let's see, every day we torture billions of animals while we scream out for human justice, what could that be about? If we want justice for us, it should be for all creatures. We have no right to dominate any other living being. The Bible is bull shi*. no offense. http://www.cok.net http://www.freetradekillsanima... http://www.humanerevolution.or...

whitecastlerock

I couldn't make the rally but signed the petition. Good luck!

xsquatchx

the whole "complaint of the week" nature of occupy whatever makes them functionally useless. change is accomplished through the political process, fueled by popular support of clear, actionable goals. unfortunately these people have none of those and it makes their movement nothing but noise.

organize and start gaining support from elected officials that can take action otherwise your just a bunch of noisy complainers.

Johanna

there are no "campaigns of the week" The occupy wall street movement is composed of many moving parts ("working groups") with diverse agendas. If you'd like to see how that works -- http://www.nycga.net.

jacqueline66

Sigh...okay here's my beef with OWS. Yes, lame pun intended.
I went to the link and they have 3 pages of groups and I couldn't find what I was looking for so I did a search and no animal rights issues come up. I know I may be a bit biased in my views towards animal rights, but don't you think that by not having animal rights on the table it says that the 10 billion animals in slavery in factory farms each year are nothing. Not even worth mentioning? I find that extremely peculiar and disturbing. How do you expect to be seen as the 99% when you are the 1% when it comes to this ENORMOUS issue?

I don't think anyone in our country has ever suffered as greatly as the average factory farmed animal. Not one single OWS issue can even come close to the sheer number of animals (10 billion this year and another 12 billion in science labs, we only have 7 billion people on the entire planet) They outnumber us by at least 2 to 1 and they are being mutilates without anesthesia, skinned alive, enduring multiple surgical procedures without even an aspirin, forced into repeated pregnancies while having their babies taken away before they ever get to come face to face with them, swung from the rafters, hung upside down by one ankle by a forklift, spit upon, raped by workers, laughed at, kicked, beaten and left to die starving under the weight of their own genetically modified body parts meant to grow larger and fatter than their legs can hold, debeaked, tied up in bondage for mulesing of their genital areas.

Animals in slavery are the 99%.

They cannot be overlooked.

They cannot be forgotten.

They cannot be ignored.

jacqueline66

I did not know that. Thank you for the link!

J_Temperance

You should elect an overlord mastermind strategist and really fuck some Shit up.

Obamatheracist

I'm so glad OWS is staying on point,next week's protest will be against fracking,week after will be against carriage horses in NYC,then they will protest against bullying then.........nothing to see here...move along..it's over

Johanna

Fracking - already proven to have created drinking water in Wyoming that can be set on fire (see most recent PBS Segment on Need to Know http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-t... and how the EPA has been bought out to the point where it is endorsing toxic and poisonous business ventures; and bullying ? Well, let's see, we already know that teen suicide is at an all time high and, gee, did we want to get on that? STFU. Thank you.

Obamatheracist

Johanna it must be your "special" time of the month,go get yourself some midol and a bag of chips and go STFU,adults are trying to converse.