This article is from an e-mailing list I am on.... Personally I dont eat at McDonalds....
I'm sure those of you who aren't in the cattle business don't understand
the issues here. But to those of us who who's living depends on the
cattle market, selling cattle, raising the best beef possible... this is
frustrating. As far as my family, we don't eat at McDonald's much
(Subway is our choice of fast food), but this will keep us from ever
stopping there again, even for a drink.
The original message is from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
American cattle producers are very passionate about this. McDonald's
claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their
restaurants. Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are
looking to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the
people of the USA are the ones who made McDonald's successful in the
first place, but we are not good enough to provide beef.
We personally are no longer eating at McDonald's, which I am sure does
not make an impact, but if we pass this around maybe there will be an
impact felt.
Please pass it on. Just to add a note, all Americans that sell cows at a
livestock auction barn had to sign a paper stating that we do NOT EVER
feed our cows any part of another cow.
South Americans are not required to do this as of yet.
McDonald's has announced that they are going to start importing much of
their beef from South America. The problem is that South Americans
aren't under the same regulations as American beef producers, and the
regulations they have are loosely controlled.
They can spray numerous pesticides on their pastures that have been
banned here at home because of residues found in the beef. They can also
use various hormones and growth regulators that we can't.
The American public needs to be aware of this problem and that they may
be putting themselves at risk from now on by eating at good old
McDonald's.
American ranchers raise the highest quality beef in the world and this
is what Americans deserve to eat, not beef from countries where quality
is loosely controlled. Therefore, I am proposing a boycott of McDonald's
until they see the light.
I'm sorry but everything is not always about the bottom line, and when
it comes to jeopardizing my family's health, that is where I draw the
line.
I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to
at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least
ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message
reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE
MILLION consumers!
I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?
Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you,
please pass this message on.
David W. Forrest, Ph.D., PAS, Dipl. ACAP
Department of Animal Science
Texas A&M University
2471 TA! MU
College Station, TX 77843-2471
Email d-forrest@tamu.ed
Phone (979) 845-3560
Fax (979) 862-3399