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McGreenwashing

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 21, 2009 at 21:12:34 PM PDT


McDonalds, perhaps the single biggest affront to biodiversity in the world (next to Monsanto), claims that it is "going green." And I would like to say: No, it isn't going green. It's going from being an enormous affront to any and all efforts for sustainability to a slightly less enormous affront to any and all efforts for sustainability. I am sorry, but when your entire business revolves around selling factory farmed beef, nothing you can do short of going out of business would be a substantial improvement. Not even using unbleached napkins that save energy, wood, and water (as McDonalds is doing in Canada).

Photobucket

As you can see from the GOOD magazine chart above, this is clearly a case of McGreenwashing. Would you like fries with that?

Jill Richardson :: McGreenwashing
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McGreenwashing | 7 comments
Ha! (4.00 / 4)
No, it isn't going green. It's going from being an enormous affront to any and all efforts for sustainability to a slightly less enormous affront to any and all efforts for sustainability.

Agreed, of course...

McDonald's is the corporate equivalent of Dubai - they both talk about it; but the only way to truly make either one of them "sustainable" would be to shut 'em both down, and take 'em apart...

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs


Hmm . . . Fritos is going "local" and (4.00 / 3)
McDonalds is going "green". Could our voices be getting louder?

So, how do we counter this to get the "consumer" (Dawg I hate that term) gets educated properly?


blog? (4.00 / 3)
I don't really know. I'm doing what I can. It's not enough though, is it?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

[ Parent ]
You and many others are doing what y'all can (4.00 / 3)
remember, a small leak in a dam can eventually bring the dam down, and the drip drip drip of water can eventually wear a rock down.

As I've said so many times, it took a long while to build the system we're in regarding foods, and it will take a long time to turn it around. Persistance will win out in the end.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....


[ Parent ]
Persistance... (4.00 / 3)
Well, we hope it will!

[ Parent ]
Credit where Credit is Due (4.00 / 3)
That plot isn't from Good Magazine, nor is it from the Oil Drum (which Good Magazine linked to). The plot is in a paper published in Environmental Science and Technology (a peer-reviewed journal) by Carnegie Mellon researchers Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews entitled "Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States."  

It's quite an interesting piece of work. I wrote about it last year at The Ethicurean.

Surprisingly, the full article is available at the EST website. Perhaps the surge in interest made them realize that some knowledge longs to be free.



Thanks (4.00 / 2)
appreciate the correction.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

[ Parent ]
McGreenwashing | 7 comments
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