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For several years now McDonald's has been testing the use of imported beef to augment supplies tendered by American ranchers, but not beef from South America, and not necessarily for the reason advanced in the e-mail quoted below: Examples: [Collected via e-mail, June 2002] Those who feel stirred by the entreaty to boycott McDonald's in protest of its treatment of American ranchers would be well advised to first acquaint themselves with all sides of the issue before giving up their daily Big Macs. Not everything in much-forwarded e-mails is always necessarily the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. According to McDonald's, it cannot satisfy its need for lean beef by buying solely from American sources and has to turn to beef exporters outside the USA to make up the shortfall. It's not a question of there not being enough beef in the USA; it's a matter of the beef available for sale not meeting McDonald's standards for leanness. American beef cattle are primarily grain-fed and produce fattier meat, while grass-fed cattle produce leaner beef. Yes, the imported beef is 8 to 15 cents per pound cheaper than U.S.-produced lean beef, which definitely sweetens matters for the Golden Arches. Yet, price difference aside, there's still not enough lean beef available in the USA to meet the needs of the restaurant chain. American ranchers, however, claim that McDonald's leanness standards are too high, and that if McDonald's lowered its standards to a more reasonable level, it could easily purchase all the lean beef it needs without resorting to foreign imports. Up until 2002, McDonald's was already using grass-fed Australian beef in many of its restaurants outside the United States, but for food served in its home country it had bought American. It is the single largest buyer of U.S. beef, thus the concern of American ranchers over the potential loss of any of the chain's business. McDonald's says the importation of foreign grass-fed beef will be a test amounting to less than 1% of the beef sold in restaurants nationwide, which is a far cry from the they are going to start importing much of their beef from South America the exhortation to boycott lays claim to. Additionally, the references to McDonald's using South American beef in its U.S. restaurants are wrong. The imported beef American ranchers are up in arms about comes not from South America but from Australia and New Zealand, where government beef standards are even more stringent than in the U.S. And grass-fed cattle, such as the sort McDonald's is purchasing from Australia and New Zealand, don't have to be given the large amounts of antibiotics that grain-fed American cattle are typically dosed with. Cows take much longer to fatten on a grass diet than a grain diet, so American cattle are primarily fed grain (mostly corn) to get them up to market weight more quickly. However, as cows are ruminants whose natural diet is grass, a grain diet severely taxes their digestive systems, so they are often given a variety of antibiotics to fight off bacterial infections. Possibly the erroneous bit about dangerous South American beef was included in the call to arms to bolster support for the boycott — average consumers that might not be moved by the plight of American ranchers would be motivated by hints that McDonald's use of beef from non-U.S. sources would endanger them and their loved ones. A Canadian version of this item has also been circulating, sent out under the name of the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association. This version is also specious, as indicated by the following statement from Jeff Kroll, Senior Vice-President, National Supply Chain, with McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited: Variations: Some of the versions in circulation specify the e-mail comes from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA). It didn't. The TCFA says on its web site that: Additional information:
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