By Kristen V. Brown
Albany Times Union, January 26, 2013
ALBANY – Few in number but mighty in conviction, members of the dwindling Occupy Albany movement gathered in front of a Central Avenue McDonald’s on Saturday to protest America’s corporate food industry.
The planned march from the McDonald’s chain at Ontario Street and Central Avenue to the Capitol Building aimed to promote “food and jobs with dignity” over “factory farming,” organizers said, and condemn the condition of workers and animals at such farms.
“These corporations are exploiting people and animals for maximum profit,” said Joanne Kathleen Farrell, the Occupy Albany member who organized the march.
About a dozen protesters had gathered by 2 p.m., shortly after the protest began. Flaunting signage heralding messages such as “factories are not farms” and “respect the worker,” protesters handed out factory farming fact sheets to passersby. Some cars honked in support.
Fred Pfeiffer, 63, a retired union representative, was among those who gathered in the below freezing temperatures for the march.
His sign, on plain cardboard scrawled in thin black marker, read simply: “food and jobs with dignity.” Pfeiffer waved it eagerly at speeding cars.
“Those who work in the food industry,” he said, “deserve to be treated with respect.”