A successful campaign against investment in strip mining; then, McDonald’s chicken goes anti-biotic free

Eileen Flanagan, George Lakey and Maryn McKenna

Last week, PNC Bank announced it would stop financing mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. This came after five years of pressure by a relatively young Philadelphia-based environmental group, Earth Quaker Action Team or EQAT. Today we talk with two members of EQAT about mountaintop-removal coal mining, its impact on the environment and the people of Appalachia, and about the group’s campaign against PNC Bank. Our guests are GEORGE LAKEY, a visiting professor at Swarthmore College and EQAT board member and EILEEN FLANAGAN, head of the EQAT board and the author of a memoir, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope. Then, what’s behind McDonald’s new antibiotic-free chicken policy and what it means for the public’s health with science writer MARYN McKENNA.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)