Our food system is broken. Instead of nourishing us, our food is making us sick. And McDonald’s is at the rotten core of that broken system.
No other entity has done more to shape today’s food system. McDonald’s has an unparalleled demand for consistent and cheaply produced commodities. It is the largest buyer of beef, pork, apples, and potatoes in the United States.
Here’s just a taste of how McDonald’s has tainted our food from seed to plate:
Massive fields of potatoes grown for McDonald’s are drenched in pesticides, poisoning children, farm workers, and rural communities near the fields. Thousands of workers who cook and serve the fries made from those potatoes are kept in poverty because of McDonald’s incredibly low wages and refusal to provide benefits. Then McDonald’s uses predatory marketing tactics to peddle those fries to children at schools and in hospitals, contributing to an epidemic of diet-related diseases. And to ensure it can continue this depraved cycle, McDonald’s uses front groups like the National Restaurant Association to avoid any accountability for its abuses.
We can end this abusive, rotten system, and create a world where everyone has access to healthy food.
Right now, we have a moment to hold McDonald’s accountable for its abusive behavior at its annual shareholders’ meeting. It’s a giant theatrical pep rally with the corporation’s CEO and other top executives acting as cheerleaders.
But we’ll be there to pull back the veil on McDonald’s impact. We’re taking your demands directly to those in charge and the shareholders they report to.
The shareholders’ meeting is a rare moment where we can actually speak truth to power face to face — and they have to listen. The more of us that speak out, the more power we can leverage to create change.
