While we're on this topic, allow me to ask what you think about the following idea: what environmental and social issues have in common is concern over the increased corporate control over resources vital to our survival and well-being.
At least in some ways, decision makers in big corporations are harder to hold accountable than elected officials. The solution offered by some defenders of the status quo--"if you don't like what corporations do, don't buy their products"-- sometimes comes up short.
Is voting w/ our dollars always a viable way to get big corporations and governments to be more accountable, especially if the corporation becomes the only show in town offering access to resources vital to our quality of life ?
And this is not just a left-versus-right situation. An obstacle to greater public accountability seems to be the combination of big government w/ the power of big corporations, a situation that involves what both the political left and the political right has traditionally opposed.
It's a situation in which big government regulatory bodies such as FDA, USDA seem kind of in bed w/ the industries they supposedly regulate. Another question is whether US EPA is also in bed w/ industries you'd think they'd be regulating.