portland imc - 2005.02.18 - Contact Kraft: Stop Selling Roadkill Gummie Candies

Not Far Enough

18.Feb.2005 16:59

Rural Anarchist

Over at Boycott the War

http://www.motherearth.org/USboycott/imperialism_en.php
one finds the following info on Kraft:

PHILIP MORRIS, KRAFT

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM?

Altria is the new name for tobacco and food giants Phillip Morris and Kraft foods. Wherever they work, Altria has demonstrated irresponsibility and lack of concern for public health, human rights and the global environment.

Name: Altria (Philip Morris, Kraft Foods)

Chairman and CEO: Louis C. Camilleri

Postal address: Altria Corporate Services, Inc., 120 Park
Avenue, 19th fl., New York, NY 10017, USA

Phone number: +1-917-663-2144

Fax number: +1-917-663-5544

Website:

http://www.altria.com/

Important date(s): Philip Morris acquired General Foods in 1985 and Kraft Foods in 1988. In April 2002, Philip Morris changed it's name into Altria, a corporate umbrella, this to have a distance from the controversy surrounding the tobacco industry.

Activities: Philip Morris produces seven of the top 20 best-selling international brands, including Marlboro, the world's top-selling cigarette brand, Lark, Chesterfield and L&M. Kraft Foods is the second-largest branded food and beverage company worldwide. It sells its products in more than 150 countries.

Bush donor: Altria is one of the top ten sponsors of Bush Jr. From 2000 till now, Altria has given 6.860.000 $US to the Republican Party (figure calculated on 29th October 2004, source: www.opensecrets.org).

Lobbying against the FCTC: Philip Morris uses every resource at its disposal to block or weaken the World Health Organization's proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), who establishes an important precendent for international regulation of corporations that profit at the expense of our health, our environment and human rights such as the agribusiness, oil, pharmaceuticals, water and weapons industries.

Killing people: In high-income countries, 15.000 youth become addicted to tobacco every day, 84.000 in middle- and low-income countries. Tobacco is responsible for one death every ten seconds worldwide, killing nearly 5 million people every year. If current trends continue, tobacco will become the world's leading cause of death by 2030.

Aggravating world famine: The fertile land appropriated for the production of tobacco is enough to feed millions of people worldwide.

Chemical pollution: Tobacco growing can deplete the soil in 2 years and requires the heavy use of dangerous chemicals which contaminate our environment and put tobacco farmers at risk.

Exploiting child workers: The use of child labourers in tobacco production is widespread in major tobacco producing countries. Children are directly exposed to a cocktail of highly toxic agro-chemicals.

Deforestation: Tobacco is a major cause of deforestation. Worldwide, between 1.2 and 5.5 million ha. of forest - one in eight trees cut down in the world - is due to tobacco growing or curing. Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage. Curing, - or drying out - by burning wood the harvested tobacco leaves from their natural green to the brownish colour seen in cigarettes, uses huge amounts of wood fuel, especially timber -- trees which could be used for cooking and heating by local peoples.

Contact us: Do you have comments, info about this facts sheet? Please email

boycott@motherearth.org

Last update: 29th October 2004

Download Altria Fact Sheet:

http://www.motherearth.org/USboycott/ftp/altria.pdf

Kraft Products to Boycott can be found on Kraft's website:

http://www.altria.com/about_altria/01_04_02_KraftFoodsNorthAmerica.asp

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