Say what you will about the Nanny movement…they move fast! When Consumer Freedom first reported these anti-choice issues earlier this year, they seemed far-fetched. But they became a foundation that Nannies swiftly built upon. Now only a few months later, they seem almost quaint compared to the issues we face today. This look back at 1999 also brings you up to date on the many challenges restaurants will face in the year ahead.
'Techno Nannies - Activists on the Internet'
In January '99: We reported that with the coordinated use of the Internet, nannies now literally move at the speed of light. Back then we alerted readers that one Nanny website sent anti-alcohol news stories to more than 50 other anti-alcohol activists every day. In
November '99: Virtually all of the global organization and grassroots activism for the 50,000-person demonstration against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle was accomplished over the Internet. Mike Dolan, a political operative for Ralph Nader's Public Citizen who is widely credited with orchestrating "The Battle in Seattle," used the Internet to link such diverse factions as labor unions and environmental activists to protest genetically improved foods. Commenting in The Wall Street Journal about activist mayhem at the WTO, the Dean of Yale University's School of Management wrote "[CEOs] need to build a rapid-fire capability to defend against false allegations of misconduct, which spread easily in an Internet culture that thrives on unsubstantiated rumor."
'Falling for the Swordfish Campaign - Hook, Lie and Sinker'
In May '99: Seafood activists at SeaWeb told restaurant owners their "Give Swordfish A Break" campaign, designed to get restaurants to stop serving swordfish, was temporary and limited to swordfish.
In November '99: SeaWeb greatly expanded its list of fish dishes to be temporarily removed from the menu. Proposed for prohibition: cod, sea bass, prawns, bluefin tuna, monkfish, orange roughy, shark, farm-raised American lobster and salmon.
'Giuliani's America'
In February '99: New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's car confiscation bill became law. Drivers caught just one sip over the .10% drunk driving arrest threshold lose their car forever.
In November '99: New Jersey's Assembly voted to "confiscate" five years of your life (with a jail sentence) and impose a $15,000 fine if you are caught driving just one sip over the .10% limit and you have a passenger age 17 years or younger in the car. Although it's not law yet, anything is possible in today's climate. If a proposal to lower the limit to .08 passes, a 120-pound mother leaving a picnic after consuming as little as two glasses of wine over a two-hour period could spend five years in jail and pay a $15K fine if her minivan is stopped at a roadblock and her teenager is on board.
'Wake-Up Call'
In January '99: In our premier edition for 1999, we issued a "wake-up call" reminding our readers "Pundits are debating a 'twinkie tax' and new federal guidelines define sports hero Michael Jordan as 'overweight.'"
In October '99: A full-blown war on fat is declared. The Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Obesity Association proclaimed an "obesity epidemic" and put restaurants in their crosshairs. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a Behavioral Nutrition Research Initiative to explore new government solutions, including a nutrition intervention program to audit what people choose to eat and help them make "better choices." Also weighing in, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced a major lobbying effort to change America's diet by "going up against the meat and dairy industries, soft-drink bottlers and other business interests."
'Have It Your Way: (so long as it's no way)'
In June '99: Coining the term "hamburger roulette," CSPI sounds the alarm to get people to stop eating America's favorite sandwich. Cook or order your burger too rare and you could "face a death sentence." Have them too well done and you risk cancer.
In November '99: "Will We Still Eat Meat?" by Ed Ayres in Time magazine's benchmark "Beyond 2000" issue questions whether tomorrow's diners will ever eat a hamburger again. Talk about rare! Ayres, of the Worldwatch Institute, claims that "an unsustainable environmental burden" in cattle ranching will someday "raise the price of meat to levels unaffordable to any but the rich." He also holds meat responsible for the usual litany of health ailments, blaming "today's factory-raised, transgenic, chemically-laden livestock… pumped full of genetically modified organisms, hormones and antibiotics." Ayres' scare-mongering essay almost made us wistful for CSPI's simpler summertime scolding.
How Protests Grow
Prominent among the many activist websites utilized to derail the WTO, Protest.net started in June 1, 1998 as a virtual calendar for social activism events.
- at 3 months - 150 protests listed on the Website
- at 6 months - 700 protests
- at 9 months - 2600 protests
- at year one - 5000 protests… and that's before Seattle (where protesters attacked McDonald's, Starbucks and other businesses)
