Direct-mail bonanzas yielded more staff, bigger budgets and large paper membership. The groups scored some important victories, like the reauthorization of the federal Superfund law and the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996. But they also lacked any connection to the communities and constituencies associated with environmental justice. They lost paper membership and were unable to identify targets or agendas. The sudden onslaught on the environment by the second Bush administration offers a kind of Ronald Reagan redux.
Supermarkets provide one example.
Or take the fast-food revolution of the last 30 years. Chains like McDonald's have transformed the way potatoes are grown and how cattle, chickens and hogs are fed, slaughtered and processed. And they are transforming what kids eat at school by ratcheting up the fat, salt, sugar and caffeine content both inside and outside the school cafeteria. Fast food helps pollute our water, increase our wastes and create health hazards for its workers, like repetitive motion injuries. Similarly, the Sierra Club has taken up the food issue and will devote a special issue of its magazine to environmental concerns like pesticide use but also to the struggle against genetically modified foods and the growing food insecurity of developing countries.