Inside The Protests: Taking It To Main Street

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The critics' response came last week: a campaign to muster public opposition to the FDA's new rules and to target individual companies and their precious trademarks. The mock advertisements for "Campbull's Experimental Vegetable Soup," with the advisory, "Warning: This Product Is Untested," is only the first salvo. Some 18 other brand-name U.S. companies are on a tentative hit list, including General Mills, Coca-Cola and Kraft.

Will the companies succumb to the pressure, as they have in Europe? As of last week, Campbell claimed to be unfazed, with few customers registering concern, despite the spotlight. Even at the San Francisco rally, there was some ambivalence. "I may not eat Campbell's soup as much," offered Shanae Walls, 19, a student at Contra Costa College who was there with her Environmental Science and Thought class. But as the protesters tossed products from Pepperidge Farm--a Campbell subsidiary--into the toxic-waste bin, she had second thoughts. "I love those cookies," she said wistfully. "That might take some time."