NEWS November 09 2001
Poor McDonalds...having a bad year are we??
Lucy Michaels

In September 2001, McDonalds sponsored an insert in the New Statesman on the future of food and farming in Britain with an advert on the back cover promoing its own stands of nutrition and animal welfare. This was controversial at the time as several contributors said that they would not have contributed if they had known of McDonalds’ involvement.A resounding vote of confidence...not!

A very likely motive is the fact that its profits have plummeted 16% in the last three months due to the lack of consumer confidence in cheap meat following the BSE scandal. Indeed, the first outbreak in Italy, early in 2001, was discovered in an abattoir that supplies 300 McDonalds restaurants. The meat bound for McDonalds was not affected.

In an attempt to raise their earnings, this week McDonalds offered a £5 billion share 'buyback' which would reduce the number of shares in circulation by 14% and thus guarantee the remaining shareholders a profit. It has also outlined plans to lay off 500-800 staff and reduce the number of its divisional and regional offices while deploying new resources to concentrate on improving customer service at its restaurants. However, it still believes that its profits next year will be well below expectations and when announced on 29th October, McDonalds share price fell 4 per cent to $27.74.

Please see the PDF version to see our subvert of the McDonalds ad featured in the New Statesman. This subvert was printed on the back page of the November edition of the Ecologist. See below for some more information on the issues raised in our subvert.

1) McDonalds are currently being sued by the Hindus of America for not disclosing that their French fries contained a natural flavouring derived from beef. Until recently McDonalds was frying French fries in 93% beef tallow which contained more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger. After switching to 100% vegetable oil in 1990, they failed to disclose that it still contained a natural flavouring derived from beef to the fury of Hindus and vegetarians everywhere.

2) McDonalds claim to use 100% 'free range eggs', but use battery chickens supplied by Sun Valley for their McNuggets. Battery chickens are raised in enclosed broiler sheds with less space per chicken than an A4 sheet of paper. Besides, 'free range' is an extremely loose term that does not necessarily mean that these chickens are roaming free in the barnyard. They will still be pumped full of antibiotics.

3) McDonalds UK claim to be a big supporter of UK agriculture, but what they really mean is encouraging US-owned, highly industrialised corporate agribusiness in the UK. McDonalds UK's suppliers include McCain's Ltd, a Canadian-based frozen fries multinational; Hereford-based broiler chicken operation, Sun Valley, owned by US agribusiness giant, Cargill, and sole suppliers of beef and pork, McKey Food Services Ltd, who are owned by US Food Corp., Keystone Foods. Besides, McDonalds sources its milk products from Express Dairies recently condemned for exploiting British dairy farmers, paying them less than the cost of production.

McDonalds is still not sourcing guaranteed GM free dairy and beef products. Although according to Greenpeace UK, nor are most other UK food retailers, apart from Iceland and M&S.

McDonalds has more than 1500 - 2750 customer complaints of food poisoning a year are recorded, including a serious case of e.coli 0157 poisoning in 1991. This was disclosed by McDonalds during the McLibel trial.

McDonalds produce promotional material claiming that the food they produce has positive nutritional benefits when the high fat, saturated fat, sodium, chemical additives, sugar content and low in vitamin and fibre content that they sell is linked to serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. This was found to be true by the Justice Bell during the McLibel Trial. According to the National Audit Office, the dietary contribution to coronary heart disease costs the tax-payer £3 billion a year, and obesity costs £500 a year.

McDonalds despite claiming that it is adhering to all sorts of fancy legal animal welfare standards, admit that "as a result of the food industry, the suffering of animals is inevitable." They have been found culpably responsible for cruel practices in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals that are used to produce their food. This was found to be true at the McLibel trial. David Walker of McKey Foods admitted during the McLibel trial that 'as a result of the food industry, the suffering of animals is inevitable." One recent example, in June 2001, 18,000 chickens died of trauma and heat exhaustion whilst being transported to McDonalds supplier, Sun Valley Poultry's Hereford slaughterhouse.

A McDonalds franchise admitted to 20 offences of illegally employing children aged 15 and 16 at two Surrey restaurants in August 2001 These included one schoolgirl working an 16-hour Saturday shift and another until 2am on a school day.

McDonalds pay its workers low wages, thereby helping to depress wages for workers in the catering trade in Britain and who's employees worldwide suffer poor pay and conditions. This was established at the McLibel Trial.

And just incase you were wondering, your Burger King strawberry milk shake contains, on average, the following ingredients: amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethlyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butonone (10% solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylactophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.

From Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: What the All American Meal is Doing to the World. Penguin.