McDonald's, with a side of cynicism
Today, I read sustainability reports from McDonald's promising to more openly discuss their reliance on industrial farming. The report read something like this: We are hosting round table discussions with industry leaders, farmers, and researchers alike. We are coming up with plans to source our beef from suppliers who honor a code of ethicacy. We are working with bright minds in the sustainable beef field to figure out how we can incorporate these practices on the ground, to ranchers who wish to align themselves with our new mission statement. Best of all, this information will be made visible to the general public, so they can keep tabs on our progress, so they don’t let us balk on any of these promises. Transparency during this process is paramount.
Honestly, it’s all a load of shit. I don’t trust a burger coming from the freezers of McDonald’s. I trust the motives of a drunk clown walking into my room at midnight more than the sustainable practices of a fast-food conglomerate. Their promises might appear delicious, but companies like McDonalds — large, structured corporations with bottom lines they have to met and low-wage workers they have to pay — are most likely not interested in completely swapping out current practices for “better” ones.
They just don’t have those capabilities. While they may be well-intentioned, their words are laced with hypocrisy, their statements flush with hyperbole. The merits of their goodwill are merely surface level. For McDonald’s and other fast food chains to survive, they must rely on the expedited process of beef production in its current form.
Surely McDonald’s wants to transcend their aggressively destructive reliance on factory beef. Inquiring minds into the subject know the devastation a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) has on not only the environment, but the animals subjugated to the conditions.
From the numerous amount of atmospheric toxins swimming in these farms, to the decaying humanity practiced on cattle, factory farms are, in my mind, a blight on our current food systems. Methane from the farms are harbored in great quantities, along with several other toxins, including ammonia. Together, these chemical mixtures seep into local water supplies, altogether ruining local watersheds and handicapping a community’s access to clean water. They also rise up into the atmosphere, where they trap heat at higher rates than carbon while simultaneously breaking apart the ozone layer, which serves as a protective boundary against harmful UV rays.
Animals living in these confined conditions face a life of turmoil. Crowded spaces and a diet of genetically modified food quickly alter their normal growth and evolution, and the animals gain weight too quickly for their bodies to account for, as well as become morbidly depressed and agitated. Think that an animals rights are lesser than a humans? I would implore any naysayer to visit a farm like this, witness these conditions, and tell me you wouldn’t also find little hope in a situation like that. I dare you.
I agree that my tone is slightly biased, obviously angry, but the reality is that we cannot let these practices persist. I believe McDonald’s when they say they want to change. I know that the humans who run the corporation acknowledge the truths of unsustainable beef practices and want something better. But McDonald’s is too big to fail, too stringent to the practice of high profit margins, and because of that, their vision is blurred.
However, I do note the necessity for McDonald’s-style eateries. The combination of high quantity, low cost food is alluring, especially for those who scrape together only enough money to feed themselves and a family. I might disagree with their practices (wholeheartedly) but I do understand that without cheap food, our country’s most impoverished souls would not be well-nourished, even if that means being fed low quality meals. McDonald’s, while unable to satisfy this unhappy customer, has benefited men and women who have tried their hardest in life, yet still unable to conquer the “American Dream”.
So I don’t know. It’s easy to be white, privileged, come from a good home and have caring parents who are there for you and lead you down the right path. I’m lucky to be where I am, and equally as fortunate to have an education that allows me to critique the most formidable institutions. But a lot of others don’t possess the same abilities, or come from the same background, or rejoice in a safety net like mine. Because of that, their lives are radically different than mine, where security and money are scare and hope can be but a dream. McDonald’s needs to exist if only to provide an affordable, accessible outlet for hungry stomachs and thin wallets, and places like it need to provide food for the less fortunate despite their current set up.
I just hope they can truly enact the change they wish to see in the world.
