Sustainable Beef .... What???

McDonalds announced  a few days ago that it is going to shift to sustainable beef  source Grist.  Now this rather perplexed me .... sustainable beef?  It's the word "sustainable" that gets me - defined:

"able to be maintained at a certain rate or level" "able to be upheld or defended" - Mmmm, neither of those seem to gel if you put the word beef or McDonalds in the same sentence.

So I googled "sustainable beef" and lo and behold there is a website devoted to ..... www.sustainablebeef.org  "Our focus is on filling information gaps about how beef technologies and sustainable beef-raising practices help produce safe, wholesome, affordable food while using fewer natural resources."   But what gets me is the bit "produce safe, wholesome, affordable food while using fewer natural resources" ....  fewer natural resources?????

McDonald's is pretty clear that it doesn't want to create the standard.  "Sustainable beef is not going to be defined by McDonald's." said Bob Langert (McD's vice president of global sustainability ... yup, they have one of those, whew, makes them look good doesn't it!!!!).  He went on to say "The key here is to get sustainable beef defined by a wide stakeholder group and coalition.  We needed a bigger critical mass." 

Now I wonder why that would be ..... pretty obvious that they don't want their name attached to the definition, I mean, it's got to look like it's a proper, kosher, real thing done by an independent party - a real coup would be WWF or PETA making the definition then McD's would get the kudos for following the beef sustainability guidelines ...... keep up with me here, I have a point. 

And my point is.  I don't care how "sustainable" or how "humane" or how "natural" beef is farmed - they are still farmed in huge quantities, unnaturally, slaughtered and made into foods we do not need for either our health or the environment.

I know I'm picking on McDonalds, unfortunately, they're the company who are really worried about how their profits will decline with the increase of food awareness that is happening, so they are the ones who are coming out with the grandiose ideas, which, if they pay off, other companies will also adopt.

I wonder if there's a chance that McDonalds would go totally vegan ..... nah, I'm just being silly now.

Have Happy Animal Friends

Fee
website:  www.thevegetariancenter.com