Grassroots or Astroturf?

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) was founded in 1985 in San Francisco, CA. The network is composed of more than 30 members and thousands of volunteers all over the world. Their mission is to sustain life through education, organizing, and direct action.
"We believe that logging ancient forests for copy paper or destroying an endangered ecosystem for a week's worth of oil is not just destructive, but outdated and unnecessary," said RAN.

RAN supports political leader as well as companies. They have convinced Home Depot, Citigroup, Boise Cascade, and Goldman Sachs to change their ways of business so they [the business] can be more environmentally safe.
"We are asking consumers not to purchase products made from ecologically and socially sound logging operations and to bring their concerns to the store manager whenever they happen to be shopping," said RAN.

RAN encourages their members to write to them about the public non violent demonstrations to express their convictions. They [RAN] have corporate companies (New York Times for example) to spread the word and support their views about saving the rainforests.

RAN is a grassroots action because of the organizing, education, networking and action. It continues to to educate the community and deal with the rainforests issues before they simply just dissapear.