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David Benac

David Benac

Historian and chair of the History Department at Western Michigan University; author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network (Nebraska, 2026).

Oct 21, 2026

Bob BuzzancoMODERATOR
4:25
I don't know if maybe David or Randy or Pamela even wants to start, but just how did you get started and how did you decide to take that approach rather than the way that a lot of people were doing organizing and protest in that era? No, you go for
4:39
it.
4:41
So what I found that was different in that regard was the combination in those first years of the two personalities, Randy and Mike Griselle.
4:55
And I've had several conversations with Randy.
4:58
I had one long conversation with Mike.
5:00
So I haven't met Mike in person, but what I was able to see, they're two very different people.
5:06
Yeah.

19 MINS LATER

24:03
So without enabling the grassroots, I don't think we would have gotten as far as we did.
29:23
And this is meat that was being shipped to the United States after, as you explained very brilliantly, after the blow-up of fast food restaurants, which apparently you have a real big problem with, Mr. David.
29:38
Yeah, the...
29:40
Yeah, in one of the earlier drafts, one of the reviewers wanted more context.
29:46
And so one of the context things I put in there was this whole thing about the hamburger wars of the 70s and 80s when Wendy's and McDonald's and Burger King were going at it.
29:59
It was pretty fascinating to get into that.
30:03
And that that actually helped the campaign because the the fast food joints were really struggling to see to get market share.
30:15
They were they were there was a lot going on and competing really intensely.

13 MINS LATER

M. ToussaintPANELIST
43:46
Can you pull those threads together for us?

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