A number of groups are banding together to organize a statewide coalition against genetic engineering. The goal is to phase out genetically engineered foods and crops. (I'd argue to ban them outright, immediately.)
We'd like YOUR GROUP TO CO-SPONSOR and participate in the New York State Against Genetic Engineering (NYSAGE).
The Coalition will meet on Sunday, January 9, 2005 12 noon - 4 pm at the Sixth Street Community Center 638 East 6th St. (between Avenue B & C) Manhattan
This is seen as a strategy meeting, not a forum or workshop.
If your group would like to co-sponsor/endorse, please email back to me at mitchelcohen at mindspring.com and to Howard Brandstein at sixthstreet at mindspring.com, immediately. (That's mitchelcohen (at) mindspring.com and sixthstreet (at) mindspring.com, in case the addresses get blocked by one or another of the internet mechanisms.)
The groups involved thus far:
- Sixth Street Community Center/SOS Food - Park Slope Food Coop - Sierra Club NYC Group - the No Spray Coalition.
(This is actually a regional meeting as groups such as the Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, High Falls Food Coop and others are similarly organizing upstate). From 12-1 pm we'll be serving an organic lunch (come on time! don't miss the great lunch!) and showing a video "The Health Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods and Their Cover-up" produced by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception.
We hope to follow-up with a statewide meeting in the spring to formalize the coalition.
We would be happy to have other groups join us as co-sponsors of the January 9th meeting. This does not commit them to joining the coalition (which of course we hope they'll join if things come together) but to begin to explore with us the possibilities for statewide collective action. We'll be asking co-sponsors to relay notice of the meeting to their friends and supporters.
Howard Brandstein & Mitchel Cohen