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| I'm lovin' (sustainability?) |
While I was scouring the web yesterday for some good reads for my upcoming trip to Vegas, I came across a headline that gave me a tickle in the back of my throat.
"McDonald's Courting Sustainability"
After reading into the article a little further, the headline starting making a little sense. If one company could completely change the landscape of Agribusiness and it's centralized food system, it would be McDonald's. The question that comes to mind is , what does sustainability actually mean to McDonald's?" The article paints a unique picture of how a company of it's size could facilitate such a movement. Remember, McDonald's makes none of it's food - it's all provided by their Vendors.
Some interesting takes from the article on products and systems pertaining to McDonalds and sustainability:
Beef: Develop a pilot program to trace and certify sustainable beef in the Amazon, and to investigate carbon emissions from farms in the UK.
Note: Previously the Amazon was off-limits because of major sustainability issues.
Poultry: No, it's not about creating new ways of raising chickens that make up those Chicken McNuggets. Or about instituting cage-free systems. It's about soy used for feed. McDonald's will continue a moratorium on soy produced in the Amazon, and that is destroying the rain forest.
Coffee: Seems McDonald's Europe is ahead of the U.S game on this front, buying coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Now, the company turns to the U.S. and its supply chain to "assess a comprehensive approach."
Palm Oil: If you love McDonald's fried foods, you have an intimate knowledge of palm oil. And the burning and clear-cutting required to produce palm oil has created a host of environmental problems in places such as Indonesia. McDonald's says it will use only certified-sustainable palm oil by 2015.
Packaging: Wood fiber makes those nifty paper fry holders (and so much more at McDonald's). The goal is to use more certified sources of wood fiber. In Canada, 15% is now from certified sources. No stats are given for the U.S. Sound familiar?
This is one initiative I'm sure we will all be paying close attention to.
