NYAN Pressures General Mills During Edison Awards 2010
Posted in News on 29. Apr, 2010
Activists from NY Action Network pressured General Mills over their use of palm oil, today at the 2010 Edison Awards in New York City.
At midday activists “bird-dogged” the National Academy of Sciences’ sponsored Edison Awards program in downtown Manhattan. NYAN members distributed flyers inside the event, sent bluetooth messages to participants, and held a banner outside reading “General Mills Stop Delaying, Protect Rainforests“.
NYAN members also attended the Edison Awards award ceremony where General Mills was given the gold prize for their Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Mixes. At around 9:30PM NYAN members used bluetooth to disrupt a video presentation as well as message participants’ mobile phones.
The bluetooth message sent to ceremony participants and which successfully disrupted the the events computers while they played videos of the winning companies read, “General Mills Stop Destroying Forests for Palm Oil“.
Activists are asking that General Mills:
- Take strong action to ensure its palm oil supply does not contain rainforest destruction.
- Cancel its palm oil contracts with Cargill until/unless Cargill adopts RAN’s proposed palm oil policy.
For more information about the General Mills/ palm oil campaign go to: http://theproblemwithpalmoil.org
View more photos from the Edison Awards protest: http://bit.ly/aVclFN
This post was posted by NY Action Networks own: Nick, NYAN Activist and official part time geek... Read more from this author4 Responses to “NYAN Pressures General Mills During Edison Awards 2010”
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Thank You NYAN!
I am curious why NYAN would try and ruin my innovation celebration that included great companies doing great things for the world’s environment. Several people will lose their job from your propaganda and act of self promotion. I hope NYAN has the resources to feed these people when they’re homeless looking for food. NICE JOB NYAN!
Dear Mr. Bonafilia (Thomas Edison III),
Thank you for taking the time to comment on the NYAN website. Firstly it is important that to explain that the Edison Awards are a wonderful thing.
As you yourself know, celebrating innovation, especially that which benefits the environment is important as well as admirable. It is however unfortunate that you chose to honor General Mills Inc. with the gold for the 2010 Edison Awards.
By purchasing palm oil used in over 100 of their products, General Mills is supporting the destruction of our last great tropical forests and forest communities. NYAN strongly believes that General Mills should not be honored for their environmental irresponsibility.
By briefly displaying banners, passing out flyers, and sending bluetooth messages to participants (including one to a computer that played a promotional video), NYAN hoped to highlight this issue.
It was certainly not our intention to ruin your event. And if as you explained in your comment, the Edison Awards fires “several people” over our actions, it displays a spirit that is anything but innovative and anything but admirable.
If you would like to learn more about General Mills and palm oil, please visit: http://theproblemwithpalmoil.org/
Best wishes,
Nick from NYAN.