You may think that huge corporations and endlessly wealthy people hold the most power, but you would be wrong. Those corporations and the rich people who run them are like little drooling puppies eager to please their master. The people who give them money are their masters. That is why McDonald’s customers, all 69 million that eat there each day, are the most powerful people on the planet.
This also means that those 69 million people who eat at McDonald’s each day, are responsible for the foreseeable end of the world.
You may think I am being a little harsh, after all, there are quite a few other burger, chicken (yes, even the religious ones) and pizza joint customers who are definitely doing their part to destroy this planet and all things living on it. But I point to McDonald’s because they are the leader in the fast food industry. They are the fast food company that all fast foods strive to be. They have led the way, set the standard, created the business model and all other fast food chains copy it…because McDonald’s is loaded.
The good news is that those 69 million people also have the power to save the world. Don’t believe me? Well consider this: Back in 1990, McDonald’s got a bad name for all the polystyrene waste it produced due to serving its burgers in plastic boxes.
To avoid bad publicity, McDonald’s stopped using the plastic boxes and switched to the more environmentally friendly paper. Did they do it because they care about the environment? Hell no, they did it because they feared the loss of profits if they didn’t. But they did it, and that’s a good thing.
Or consider this: Back in 2000 McDonald’s single-handedly put an end to the GE (Genetically modified also known as GMO) potato. 
How did they do it? They simply told their French fry suppliers that they wouldn’t buy any French fries made from genetically modified potatoes. Why? Because their customers told them they wouldn’t eat GE potatoes.
McDonald’s customers are even more powerful than the government. When the fear of mad cow disease threatened the sales of their hamburgers, McDonald’s stepped in and managed to get their ground beef suppliers to provide safe meat when the FDA and USDA were not able to.
Authority doesn’t hold a flame to the mighty dollar. With McDonald’s being the largest purchaser of ground beef and potatoes in the world, when they threaten to stop buying from you, you better listen.
The fact is, McDonald’s customers control the actions of McDonald’s. Don’t kid yourself, McDonald’s doesn’t care about you or your family, whether you get Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease or have a triple bi-pass because you eat their food every day.
But they do care about the money you spend on their food every day, and are willing to do whatever you want them to in order to get you to walk through their door.
So what exactly are McDonald’s customers doing to destroy the world? Well, simply, they are demanding that McDonald’s supply them the cheapest, most convenient, tasty, addicting food on the planet. And McDonald’s is listening. Whatever it takes, they will do it. They love their customer’s (money).
If you eat at McDonald’s, you probably haven’t made it this far into the blog post, I’ve probably already lost you because McDonald’s customers are some of the most loyal customers out there. But I hope you are still reading because you are the one that I am really writing this to. You are the one that has the power to change all the things that are wrong with McDonald’s. If I still have you, please, read on.
You may not care about all the things McDonald’s does in order to get you the fast, cheap, convenient, tasty and addicting food you eat. But I’m guessing if you care about anything, than you should care about what McDonald’s is doing to SERVE YOU.
Here are a few things you might care about.
Animals
If you care about animals than you should not support an industry that causes clear cutting of rain forests. Because McDonald’s has become a global company which tries to Americanize each new country it invades. It has also brought with it the large consumption of beef which requires vast areas of grazing fields thus requiring the clear cutting of rain forests. Clear cutting of forests displaces wildlife and increases the rate of extinction. It also decreases the amount of precious trees on earth to filter our polluted air.
Not to mention the cattle. After a short time growing up, cattle are moved to feedlots for fattening-up and to wait until the beef market is at its peak so they can be slaughtered. The feedlots are vast enclosures with no grass.
The cattle wade though their own excrement to eat vast quantities of grain laced with GMO corn and powdered protein made from dead animals including other cattle. Cattle are not designed to eat corn (or other animals) so are in a constant state of stomach upset not to mention that the environment the corn creates in the gut is ideal for pathogens like e coli to thrive. And by the way, as Americans we eat more than 1 million animals an hour.
If you support farmers you should not support MacDonald’s.
McDonald’s has probably done more to dissolve small farms than any other business in the world. With its high demands for cheap beef and potatoes large agribusinesses have eaten up small farms and monopolized the market pushing prices so low that no small farmer could ever compete. When people are eating McDonald’s, they are not eating locally sourced foods provided by small farmers.
If you care about people, especially immigrants, or on the other hand, American jobs, you should not support McDonald’s. 
The meat-packing industry was once a great industry to work for, supplying good jobs to skilled laborers. Thanks to McDonald’s, the meat-packing industry has had to speed up the production of beef. Where a typical packing company used to kill 60 head of cattle an hour, now they kill and process over 300 an hour. The skilled laborers have been replaced with cheap, unskilled, often illiterate, sometimes illegal, and usually Hispanic laborers who are unable or unwilling to fight for their rights. 
One third of all workers are hurt on the job every year with little to no compensation. The jobs are dangerous and the facilities are run without surveillance by a governing body that can effectively change it.
If you don’t like people who hurt children or prey on children you should not support McDonald’s. 
From the moment McDonald’s realized the vast amount of money that children could bring into their restaurants it began praying on them like a molester. It has for decades marketed its products to children creating a lifelong loyalty to the food. While most babies and toddlers will refuse McDonald’s food unless bribed with a cheap toy in a Happy Meal they soon develop a taste for it that lasts a lifetime. Those kids customers grow up to be adult customers. Kid customers of course beg their parents to go to McDonald’s after seeing all the commercials and toys being offered, and those parents eat even more than the kids.
What’s wrong with that you might ask? Well, that brings me to the next category.
If you care about your health, your children’s health, healthcare in America or the health of the world, you should not support McDonalds. 
The food at McDonald’s has created a health crisis in America. Not only is it high in fat and sugar, laced with toxins and GMO’s but it is highly processed and void of any natural or unnatural nutrients.
Obesity has been on the rise since the conception of McDonald’s and has two-thirds of our population overweight. Over one in three adults are either pre-diabetic or diabetic. Our children, 90% of whom eat at McDonald’s every month, many on a daily basis, are fatter and more unhealthy than ever before. Type 2 diabetes is up 21% since 2001 in children. One in every 3 three children born in 2000 will develop type two diabetes. This generation will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents. For the first time in history we are seeing hardening of the arteries in children.
If you care about the environment you should not support McDonald’s.
The obvious environmental impact that McDonald’s has on the environment is the vast amount of trash it produces on a daily basis, much of which ends up on the sides of roads by its most lovely customers. And now, thanks to the ‘healthy’ salad offering much of that trash isn’t biodegradable and is produced with petroleum.
McDonalds is the largest purchaser of beef in the world. As a result there are many unseen effects on the environment starting with the forests, many of which are rainforests, that are clear-cut for the grazing of cattle to the fact that it takes 4 to16 pounds (depending on who you ask) of grain to produce 1 pound of beef.
You see, cattle are the most expensive source of calories produced. 
They require more land than any other animal or crop and more water than pork, chicken or vegetable crops. Since cattle require so much grain (1.4 billion bushels of corn) 
to fatten them up we need to grow more corn which means more pesticide. 
Oh, and by the way, that corn is all genetically modified, which in itself had a profound irreversible effect on the environment. In case you missed it, check out my last post on GMO’s.
Where am I going with all this? Well, I want to offer hope. I know that our government will never come to our rescue, not when money is involved. It all comes down to money. And lucky for us, we are the ones who have the money. We hold the power. As consumers we have ability to save the world. Our actions directly influence the actions of biggest planet destroying companies. If you don’t like what they do, then for frick sake…quit supporting them.
.
Because the fate of the world…is in your hands.
Suggested reading and viewing:
Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Super Size Me, Food Matters, Forks Over Knives, Food Inc
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