Board of Trade Banner Big Trouble
By D.J. Siegel/Chicago
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Five members of an environmental group protesting rainforest destruction were arrested Wednesday morning after hanging a 50-foot banner from the Chicago Board of Trade. The banner, draped on the outside of the building near the 19th floor for almost an hour, read: "ADM, Bunge, Cargill: The ABC's of Rainforest Destruction." Four men and one woman were charged with reckless conduct, criminal trespass, and criminal damage to property stemming from the incident, according to Chicago police. All were members of the environmental organization Rainforest Action Network (RAN), based in San Francisco. Portions of W. Jackson Blvd. and S. LaSalle St., as well as the north entrance to the Board of Trade, were closed for over an hour while Chicago police and fire departments assessed the security threat. |
| Chicago Fire Department Chief Michael Fox said the suspects “went up the fire escape and were hanging a banner across the front” of the building. Police were called to the scene between 7 and 8 a.m. after building security reported the situation.
Passing out fliers on the street in front of the buildng, RAN Campaign Director Leila Salazar-Lopez said that her organization was there to protest the actions of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge and Cargill, three agri-business corporations that RAN claims plant crops on newly cleared rainforest land in the Amazon and throughout southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. “The main goal of this action is to expose the corporations involved and expose their role in rain forest destruction, and also to bring awareness of this issue to the public,” Salazar-Lopez said. “Since trading of these commodities happens [at the Board of Trade]…that’s why we wanted to bring attention here today.” RAN Executive Director Michael Brune described the action as “the beginning of a big campaign to get these companies to stop clearing rainforest and kicking indigenous people off their land in order to establish [soy and palm oil] plantations. RAN’s Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign was launched Tuesday with a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune accusing ADM, Bunge and Cargill of clear-cutting rainforest land, threatening endangered species, and contributing to global warming. According to Salazar-Lopez, RAN will “continue this campaign until we can get a commitment from these leading agribusiness companies to stop their clearing and burning of rain forests for biofuels.” RAN plans to take their campaign national, going to San Francisco, New York, and D.C. As for their fellow protestors in police custody, Salazar-Lopez insisted that “it’s definitely not a goal for people to be arrested. Our organization is very committed to non-violent civil disobedience to bring awareness to these issues that are of global concern.” - As originally reported on Medill News Service, 2007 |