McDonald’s Announces Shift to Antibiotic-Free Chicken – Kinda
Though it will likely take more than this singular act to woo those of a healthful mindset, at least the international company made infamous in the documentary ‘Super Size Me’ is making shifts in the right direction. McDonald’s has announced their intent to remove certain antibiotics from their chicken products. Is this due to the latest earnings projections showing McDonald’s had become irrelevant to a world no longer interested in junk food?
McDonald’s is one of the largest buyers of chicken in the US, but they aren’t the first to make this health-saving move. Chipotle has been keeping all its meat (both beef and chicken) antibiotic-free for years now. The difference is that due to McDonald’s enormous, but dwindling influence on food chains throughout the world, others are likely to follow their lead.
McDonald’s says that they will reach their goal of offering antibiotic chicken over a two-year time span, and offering milk which has not been treated with Monsanto’s rBST growth hormone is also apparently in the works.
That still leaves dozens of other nutritionally-void non-food items on their menu, like French fries that contain silicone normally used in silly putty and petro-based chemicals. As well as ‘milk’ shakes that are hardly made of milk, but instead are mostly guar gum, GMO corn-syrup solids, and other unsavory items.
The New York Times reports:
“McDonald’s announcement coincided with Steve Easterbrook’s first week as its chief executive. But the struggling company declined to provide access to Mr. Easterbrook, who succeeded Don Thompson as chief, or to other executives to speak about the new policy, citing the “quiet period” required by federal regulation before the release of its financial performance report next week.”
Will this shift by McDonald’s be enough to win back the customers they have been losing since the boom in healthy living? If the mega fast food giant continues to make changes, they may just be able to maintain their image to an overall population.
Photo credit: Keith Srakocic, Associated Press
Does this mean I can’t get a yoga mat, and silly putty happy meals any more??
Nothing in Hell or On Earth would make me buy anything from Mac and Don’s any more!! (not counting the last 15 years) But I’d gladly go to Hell just to whine nonstop in Ronald McDonalds ear about getting a happy meal, then whine about how my cheap piece of Chinese crap toy being broken before I got home! Hummm…. Lovin it!!
Today Compass Group—the
world’s largest dining service provider—has made the single
largest commitment to boycott battery cages ever seen in the dining
service sector, and it will be implemented even more quickly than
similar commitments from Compass’s competitors. This new animal welfare policy update will affect millions of animals for years to come. Compass Group USA’s new policy will include the 30 million pounds of liquid eggs that are used by the company each year, impacting the lives of over 1 million laying hens for every year the policy is in place.
Combining this announcement with the commitments that The Humane
League has won from Sodexo and Aramark in the last two months, the
number of hens who will now be spared from life in a battery cage each
year has reached nearly 3 million! This victory is yet
another huge strike to battery cages and continues the pressure on the
egg industry to make significant changes!