the green issue Schaeffer confronts rain forest destruction Palm oil producers destroy ancient ecosystems. Ashley Schaeffer ’04 doesn’t take it sitting down, unless she’s locked her neck to a banister. Bye dwa r d weinm a n She has dressed up as an orangutan. As an act of civil disobedience,Ashley fingers when she marched on the Minne- Photos: rainforest Action Network / Ashley schaeffer ’04--- once locked herself to aThe former environmental studies-polAll in a day’s work for Schaeffer, a rain“Ever since I went to Whitman, I want Schaeffer ’04 banister inside the CEo’s executive man- sion at Cargill Inc., the largest privately owned company in the world. itics major also got frostbite on two of her apolis Grain Exchange to issue a mock ar- rest warrant against Cargill. forest agribusiness campaigner at Rainfor- est Action Network. ed to do this type of work,” said Schaeffer, describing herself as an activist. Above, Ashley Schaeffer first discovered environmen- watches the orang- ’04 Schaeffer tal activism at Whitman during Semester utan feeding at the in the West, an environmental studies Pesalat rehabilita--Bor in Center tion program where students spend a semester neo’s Tanjung exploring ecological, social and aesthetic Puting national attended She Park. dimensions of the American West. the roundtable on “Semester in the West changed my life, Sustainable Palm oil (rSPo) meeting because I was out in the field talking to in Borneo. real people and critically thinking about Left, rain Forest environmental issues affecting the West. I Action network ac- including tivists, apply what I learned at Whitman every Ashley (bottom, day in my job.” pied the executive -occu sign), holding At RAN, Schaeffer focuses her activism offices of the na- on Cargill. But what does she have against agribusiness private largest tion’s a company describing itself as “an interna- company, Cargill. tional producer and marketer of food, ag- The activists locked ricultural, financial and industrial prod- staircase for more the to themselves ucts and services?” than two hours. 22 Whitman Magazine
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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