GA Minutes Thur. 6/7/12

General Assembly – Yale Park

Begins at 6:48pm

Facilitator; Maria; Notetaker: Lisa

Present: Demetria, Maria, John, Lisa, Ellen Robinson

Announcements
A. Rio Rancho Public School Board Meeting- June 11 @ 5:30pm, District Office on Laser Rd in Rio
Rancho. Folks interested in attending please meet for ride share Monday at Yale Park 4PM. Wear red in support of teacher’s union.

B. Aug 6, Los Alamos – Mtg last Saturday; distributed fliers; 14 people met; potential sites for
direct action; Direct action Aug 4-6; (un)Occupy ABQ is responsible for Aug 6 actions;

Posted mtg dates :
Tues, June 12 at Yale Park 6:30-8pm;Sunday, June 17 @ Yale Park, 3:30-5pm; Monday, June 18
@ Los Alamos 7-9am; Tuesday, June 19 5:30-7:30pm in Santa Fe
ACTION: need a ride, can give a ride? Contact unoccupyabq.org

C. Pine Ridge Direct Action – Hershe, Lisa Krooth, Santosh, Amalia, Amon – Left for SD to Pine Ridge;
direct action Sat; White Clay, NE and their liquour sales in support for Lakota people; meeting up
with Deep Green Resistance.org out of Colorado; check out Deep Green Resistance on Youtube

D. Occupy Caravan – Summer and Hershe  are contacts for this working group; Thursday, June 14, 5-8pm at
Tiguex Park, ABQ (1800 Mountain Rd., NW);; 5 cars and a RV – possibly 20 to 30 folks coming
through; folks coming down from Santa Fe; not mtg at Yale Park meeting at Tiguex Park in old town; contact unoccupyabq@ gmail if you have any questions or wish to bring food or if you want to join the caravan or meet us at Tiguex Park; next stop from ABQ is to Amarillo en
route to Philly
ACTION: Bring food and drink

E. Jeff Ethan – wknd of activities; June 23, 24; GlobalOccupyMonsantoWeekend.com; largest
producer of genetically engineered seeds; protests out in front of Bueno Foods? Any interest?
ACTION: Need people!!!

F. Philly Convergence – Need more funds to send Maria and Amalia from (un)occupy Albuquerque; $670 still needed

Adjourned: 7:18pm

One Response to “GA Minutes Thur. 6/7/12” Subscribe

  1. Sayrah June 11, 2012 at 5:20 pm #

    I appreciate the minutes as I haven’t been able to come to the GAs lately.

    I am concerned about choosing Bueno Foods as a target when the target is Monsanto. I have worked against Monsanto for years.

    Bueno Foods is locally owned by the Baca family for 3 generations. They do not grow genetically modified chile; in fact they grow organic chile as well as conventional.

    They are a big supporter of New Mexican chile farmers and started a campaign to help NM chile farmers to get businesses in NM to agree to buy local chile instead of imported chile. They are anti-NAFTA as they see the impact of NAFTA and trade agreements on local chile production.

    Bueno Foods is a member of the NM Chile Association, as most large chile farmers in NM are a part of it. The NM Chile Association has been courted by Monsanto and many of them are falling for them, the same way farmers in India did.

    Chile farmers in NM are facing massive problems due to trade deals and the World Bank and IMF encouraging cheap chile in countries that are forced to grow commodity crops. New Mexico chile farmers are scared for good reasons that they could lose their family land and the only work they’ve known.

    Monsanto is preying on these fears, telling the farmers they can develop a seed with NMSU that would reduce labor costs and disease.

    I don’t think anti-GMO activists should condemn NM farmers but instead should reach out to them. Show them what Monsanto did to farmers in India, where 250,000 farmers have committed suicide after making deals with Monsanto that did not result in crop yields that could enable them to pay their debt. Vandana Shiva and others who successfully won against Monsanto and Cargill did not villianize the farmers who grew GMO seed.

    My perspective is that when we attack local New Mexican families and businesses that are being courted by Monsanto, this backfires and Monsanto is there to say they care and will help them and that we don’t understand their struggle to keep their land and work.

    I’d love to share more if I can make a GA and people are interested.

    Lastly, I want to say I believe in the work to stop Monsanto and that’s why I’ve written this long post explaining why I don’t think a protest of Bueno Foods stops Monsanto but could alienate people who might be willing to talk with people who care about local chile.