rm ending. (((Unfortunately he bypassed most of the states, perhaps in gov. transport and after our warning we see that some fools showed up with him)))
In order to encourage this objective, those that wish to offer some modest support could tag along until the group reaches each state capitol; then the Smart ones could sort of Lag Behind – Just in case something goes Wrong, besides the basic principal of his idea. Carrying a Weapon could still be optional though he might be suspicious if you show up empty handed. Note: MIT has developed Nano Smart Material (As in Smart Bombs – that turn out to be too dumb to miss civilians), this material is computer programmed to bond together with other Nano’s and form a part put into the magic like bag (Called a Tool Replication Bag by the Lead Professor). In short if you were carrying this bag you place your weapon inside and it becomes duplicated. Then leave the original at home. When the Fed’s (‘Statists’) start rounding up the marchers you simple put your weapon back in the bag and it changes back to Nano – Nothing.
Once you get the hang of this you might consider robbery as a new gig or even duplicate the HelicopterBen idea of money creation. Hidden Science now coming out of the closet. To quote the Prof even your children won’t envision this future world - Good for them!
And who might you meet at any of those Bridges; they won’t be friendly. Police that long ago realized that were not liked; “Men, listen up now, these people not only don’t respect us they don’t even respect themselves. Their waving around some old documents that do not have the same meaning in today’s world. If they can they will try to hurt you due to pent up rage about how we did this or that bad thing to some drug crazed perps that may or may not have been their relatives. Don’t hold back or you will be in the hospital or morgue instead of them. Seek out and separate the leaders, give them a good going over and the rest will flee the scene. Jones I told you to keep those brass knuckles in your pocket until needed”.
Oh, and the military ones that are now sided with the Statists, what’s their beef; “Everybody double check your equipment – Now. Remember while you were over protecting American Interests, did any of these people care, did they send or voice any support for us, I never heard of it and I intend to see that you and I show them we are not happy about it. Captain Emerson, form up the platoons and Lock and Load”. “Yes General – Forward March”.
See you at the Capitol….
We are Legion…
er meat, I never eat any other type of meat at home. We rarely go out to eat. All we think about is a great Chicago hotdog or beef. That is it.
Our family land is clean, as clean as it can be. No chemicals, no people, just birds, animals, life.
We have 2 pear trees bosch and bartlett which are DELICIOUS and natural. The seeds of most fruit is chocked full of laetrile which is KNOWN to attack cancer.
I grow in Fukushima's shadow (http://nuclearcrimes.org/). I see mutation around me so I have to over come it with knowledge and belief...embracing my fears.
I know that ash from trees (I am 5 miles from Galena, IL Territories which is a heavy woods attraction) is known to help with cleaning radiation. Just incorporate into your garden.
I know that mushrooms absorbs radiation so I am researching what mushrooms work best around my veggies.
I plan on supporting our bees, birds, creatures by growing the most healthiest flowers that I can possibly find. Nettles which are RICH and so fricking healthy for animals and humans; they flower.
I have been crushing the stems into soil for my start ups...just go into your woods, you will know stinging nettles by touch. Make sure you have thick gloves and long sleeves these things live up to their name but so worth the hassles. Best to look on line to know it. Wonderful, wonderful...just take the top 4" of this plant, dry (160 degrees in oven) then soak in baking soda, rinse, dry out, towel dry, then put in oven. Put in EVERYTHING you eat.
Tea tree flowers are super healing. The bees need our help, I think. I think if we focus on flowers that are super healing then we do affect good for our tiny creatures. I just started them last week.
The goal is to absorb as much toxic metals from around us and from above us.
I also plan to tent or hoop the plants to avoid further particle exposure as humanly possible. I am taking a pledge to learn and decrease our exposure as much as I can. Maybe filters around the base...much to think about.
Side note: I do have a geiger counter which helps and gives me instant gratification and comfort.
My dome greenhouse (solar covered) in summer hits as high as 150 degrees plus so I plan to grow watermelons, tomatoes, beans, whatever I can.
So we are planning on opening a CSA where people who are as concerned as we are finding, growing, uncontaminated vegetable as best/healthy as possible. I am radiation aware.
We are blessed to have artesian water on your property as well as a stocked pond. I am going to invest in sea weed to home grow.
There is much to think about and do.
What do you plan to do and how can we help each other?…
netically modified (GM) cucumbers grown under license to Monsanto Inc. result in serious side effects including total groin hair loss and chafing in “sensitive areas”, leading to the immediate and total ban of sales of all that company’s crop and subsequent dill pickles.
The tracking study of 643 men and women in Nova Scotia came about after reports began to surface about bald field mice and the bald feral cats that ate them being discovered by farmers on acreages growing the new crop.
“The bald wild animals raised a huge flag and we immediately obtained subpoenas for the medical records of all 600 plus adults who took part in focus groups and taste tests of the cucumbers by Monsanto in Canada,” said Dr. Nancy Walker, Director of Public Health Research at Dalhousie. “Fully 3/4 of the people who ate these cukes had their crotch area hair fall out. This is not a joking matter at all…these people now have hairless heinies.”
Nova Scotia became the first province or state in North America to ban a Monsanto GM food product, although GM corn and other food crops are currently outlawed in Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and Hungary. Governments in Australia, Spain, UK, France, Turkey, India and Mexico have public petitions or legislative bills under consideration. Californians recently voted down a bill that would have required all GM foods to be clearly labeled. Monsanto cucumbers have been ordered removed from all food stores in Nova Scotia, while Quebec stores have begun a voluntary removal, partially because the UPC code stickers contain some English.
“I pulled down my boxer shorts to get ready for bed one night and there it was…a pile of hair that looked like a chihuahua puppy,” said Eric LaMaze, who was paid $50 by Monsanto to compare the tastes of natural cucumbers to Monsanto GM cucumbers in March of this year in Halifax. “Then I saw my bits and whoa they were like all shiny skin. Bald.”
Mr. LaMaze and other taste test participants said the GM cucumbers tasted the same as the naturally grown cucumbers but made a slight “fizzing noise” when swallowed. The participants also complained of raw skin in their genital area and some bed wetting.
Monsanto Inc., a self-described Sustainable Agriculture Company based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, where they share offices with major shareholder Bain Capital, issued a statement saying, “Next generation fruits and vegetables, including VO5 cucumbers, are safe for human consumption with some potential minor side effects. Some fine-tuning is underway.”
McDonald’s Corp. issued a statement following the Nova Scotia ban announcing that they will replace dill and sweet cucumber pickles on their burgers with non-GM pickled zucchini as a precaution until it is proven that no Monsanto pickles were sold into the North American market. McDonald’s website contains a bulletin to that effect and includes a revised hip-hop Big Mac jingle that now sings, “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickled zuke, onions on a sesame seed bun.”
Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said a Canada-wide recall and ban will be issued within 24 hours. “The Government of Canada takes this very, very seriously,” said the Minister. “Being hairless down there should be a matter of personal choice for Canadian men and women and not one taken away by a cucumber.”
http://thelapine.ca/monsanto-cucumbers-cause-genital-baldness-immediately-banned-nova-scotia/
…
Added by space wabbit at 10:57pm on April 27, 2015
tes, perhaps in government transport)))
In order to encourage his objective, those that wish to offer some modest support could also make a video showing the loading of multiple weapons along with remark such as Try to Take This One or Be Aware, I Sleep with This One. Once again Note: MIT has developed Nano Smart Material (As in Smart Bombs – that turn out to be too dumb to miss civilians), this material is computer programmed to bond together with other Nano’s and form a part put into the magic like bag (Called a Tool Replication Bag by the Lead Professor). In short if you were carrying this bag you place your weapon inside with the Ammo and it becomes duplicated. Then leave the original at home. When the Fed’s (‘Statists’) start rounding up the declared weapons you simple put your weapon back in the bag and it changes back to Nano – Nothing.
Once you get the hang of this you might consider robbery as a new gig or even duplicate the HelicopterBen idea of money creation. Human duplication, he didn’t let that cat out of the bag. If it would work there could be dozens of Adams or NSA Leakers showing up at various locations or seeking asylum in multiple countries. “Chief that Adam guy is back, but we locked him up in another state this morning” “Murphy, stop joking around, have you been smoking some of that confiscated weed” Hidden Science now coming out of the closet. To quote the Prof, ‘even your children won’t envision this future world’ - Good for them!
And who might you meet at any of those National Parks or City Centers; they won’t be friendly. Police that long ago realized that were not liked; “Men, listen up now, these people not only don’t respect us they don’t even respect themselves. Their waving around some old documents that do not have the same meaning in today’s world. If they can they will try to hurt you due to pent up rage about how we did this or that bad thing to some drug crazed perps that may or may not have been their relatives. Don’t hold back or you will be in the hospital or morgue instead of them. Seek out and separate the leaders, give them a good going over and the rest will flee the scene. Jones I told you to keep those brass knuckles in your pocket until needed”.
Oh, and the military ones that are now sided with the Statists, what’s their beef; “Everybody double check your equipment – Now. Remember while you were over protecting American Interests, did any of these people care, did they send or voice any support for us, I never heard of it and I intend to see that you and I show them we are not happy about it. Captain Emerson, form up the platoons and Lock and Load”. “Yes General – Forward March”.
See you on the Video
We are Legion…
s, each bird is allowed the floor space equivalent to a sheet of A4 paper and will live for just 40 days before it hits its genetically-engineered slaughter weight. That's if it doesn't perish along the way.
Five per cent or so will be unable to cope with the conditions and die even before then.
Those that survive will be plucked and butchered in an industrial process the like of which this planet has never before seen.
Every year billions of chickens will live and die in this way. Of course, South America is a long way away. But your local McDonald's is not. And that is where a significant proportion of this intensively reared meat will eventually end up.
McChicken Sandwich: Much of McDonalds' poultry comes from Brazil, where the animals live in cramped conditions
Of all the chicken churned out by the fast-food chain - the equivalent of 30 million birds a year - 60 per cent is imported frozen from Brazil. A further nine per cent comes from Thailand and 30 per cent from Holland
A quick bit of arithmetic reveals just how much of the chicken sold in the fast-food giant's British restaurants is reared in this country: that's right, just one per cent.
It's a figure that's never before been published, and it will surprise and disturb many. After all, in recent years McDonald's has effectively relaunched itself as a chain that cares about the provenance of its food and its relationship with the nation's farmers.
There have been television adverts featuring bucolic rural scenes, paper tray mats that introduce the customer to the chain's suppliers and a website that boasts of lovingly nurtured, homegrown spuds.
The beef they use is sourced entirely from British and Irish farms, the eggs free-range, the milk organic and the coffee beans Rainforest Alliance-certified.
And, clearly, it is something that chimes with the public. During the past four years, McDonald's UK had added £465million to its sales, while in 2009 there was a double-digit increase in like-for-like sales as customer visits rose year on year. In terms of growth, Britain is leading the way across McDonald's international empire.
The chain's ads boast of lovingly nurtured produce
Impressive stuff, and it's not just the public who are reacting well. This month, the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly gave his backing to the chain.
'The quality of the beef, they only sell free-range eggs, they only sell organic milk, their ethics and recycling is being improved and improved,' he said in an interview. 'And I can't even believe I'm telling you that McDonald's UK has come a long way, but actually, it probably puts quite a lot of gastro-pubs to shame, the amount of work they're doing in the back end.
'Also, they've just had their best commercial year in four years, so they're proving that being commercial and caring can work. Actually, it's the future.'
But what - and it is a very big 'what' - about the chicken, the dish which one suspects many customers seeking a healthier option would generally go for? What aspect of these birds' life cycle, of the impact their production has on the planet, could possibly be described as 'caring'?
More to the point, is it something about which Jamie Oliver or the millions of customers who eat in McDonald's every week are even aware?
A decade or two ago, people went to McDonald's for one thing and one thing alone: a beefburger.
Today, a glance at the menu shows just how much the fast-food chain - and the nation's tastes - has changed. Forget the Big Mac, it is chicken that is now equally big business.
On the menu there is the Chicken Legend burger, £2.99, the McChicken sandwich, £2.19, Chicken McNuggets, £2.19 for six, or £2.49 for nine, and Mayo Chicken, 99p. The toasted deli sandwiches include chicken and bacon, £2.99, chicken salad, £2.99, and sweet chilli chicken, £2.99. Then there are the salad options: crispy chicken and bacon, £3.29, and grilled chicken and bacon, £3.59.
Supportive: The TV chef Jamie Oliver has publicly given his backing to McDonalds
Finally, on the recently introduced Little Tasters menu, there is the chicken caesar snack wrap, £1.49, and the salsa snack wrap, £1.49.
The growth of this side of the McDonald's menu is in no way accidental. The British perceive chicken as a healthy alternative to red meat and are eating ever-increasing amounts of it. Upping its presence on the McDonald's menu was a 'no-brainer' that has been integral to the company's success.
'I suspect we are taking business from some of the chicken restaurants because we keep extending the number of chicken-based items on our menus,' admitted Steve Easterbrook, chief executive of McDonald's UK, as he explained the company's success in the midst of a recession.
British-born Mr Easterbook has been praised for turning around the chain's prospects in this country.
The company reached its nadir in 2002 when McDonald's globally reported the first losses in its history. Here, things were especially bad.
Having been hit in the late 1990s by the outbreak of mad cow disease, public sentiment in Britain had also been turned against the chain by the long-running 'McLibel' trial, in which the firm spent £10million suing the activists Dave Morris and Helen Steel for what it said were defamatory claims made in leaflets the couple produced about McDonald's.
Negativity among British consumers was further enhanced by Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's 2004 film that documented the drastic effect an exclusively McDonald's diet had on his physical and psychological well-being.
To counter this, Mr Easterbook set about introducing a more 'local' approach to the business, listening to what British customers wanted rather than imposing an Americanised formula.
This localist approach in part centred on responding to consumers' concerns about the quality and the origins of the food sold. Ever since, McDonald's marketing strategy has focused heavily on the restaurant's use of home-reared beef, free-range eggs and organic milk.
Undeniably these have all been changes for the good, and Jamie Oliver's comments have to be seen in that context.
Food firms capitalise on our ignorance
But having assumed the moral high ground, its customers will no doubt be all the more surprised to learn that when it comes to its ever-growing range of chicken products there has been no such transformation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is something McDonald's largely glosses over.
While its promotional literature makes great play of the fact that its beef is 'sourced from over 16,000 British and Irish farms', when it comes to chicken, the meat's origin is left deliberately vague.
There is no mention on the company's main website, nor in its restaurants, as to where it comes from - let alone the fact that so much of it is imported, frozen, from thousands of miles away.
'The only meat we use across our entire chicken range is succulent chicken breast meat,' its website states.
As for its suppliers, it says that they raise the chicken to high standards and that the meat can be traced back to the farm from which it originates. Wherever that may be.
Of course, McDonald's is not alone in importing chicken from Brazil and Thailand, nor in using intensively reared chicken. Ninety-five per cent of the 850 million chickens bred for meat in this country are intensively reared, while similar quantities are imported from abroad. High Street chains that buy in frozen chicken from around the world include Pret A Manger, Subway and KFC.
But it's the way in which McDonald's has re-branded itself that opens it up to questions about the sourcing of its chicken.
Patrick Holden is director of the Soil Association, the body that certifies organic food in the UK.
'I think people associate McDonald's with having made an effort to make the beef better, and I think they assume that the chicken also mainly comes from UK farms and that it is probably free-range,' he says. 'We, the public, are ignorant, and it is our ignorance that the food companies are capitalising on. Until the public ask difficult questions, they can get away with it.
Golden Arches: McDonalds has relaunched itself as a chain that cares about the provenance of its food - but what about its chicken? (File picture)
'It would be better for McDonald's to source their chicken from the UK rather than Brazil and elsewhere. Then, after that, they have to go one step further and to source it free-range.
'The inconvenient truth about chicken is that we have become addicted to cheap white meat and, in the long term, the addiction is completely unsustainable economically and in terms of land use.'
It is a point echoed by Kirtana Chandrasekaran, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth.
'If you are selling a chicken burger for £1 or however much it is, then you have to understand that someone is paying for it either in environmental terms or farming terms; it is a case of buy cheap now, pay later.'
And McDonald's makes no bones about the fact that the reason it buys chicken from abroad is because it is cheaper. 'British consumers prefer to eat chicken breast meat, which is why now the only meat we use in our chicken menu items is chicken breast,' said a spokeswoman.
'This consumer demand means that chicken breast meat commands a premium price in the UK compared to some European countries and other parts of the world.
'As far as we are aware, current UK demand for chicken breast meat outstrips domestic supply. Therefore, in order for us to meet our customer demands for quality and price, we now source the vast majority of our chicken from abroad.'
But McDonald's insists that even though the meat is imported, the chickens are raised in a way that equals or exceeds the welfare standards required for intensively reared chickens in the UK.
In practical terms, this means that the maximum stocking density cannot exceed 38kg per square metre - the equivalent of somewhere between 15 and 18 chickens. They also insist that the flocks are physically inspected several times a day and that sick or dead birds are immediately removed.
Of course, such strictures will be seen as mere window- dressing by those who believe that chickens should be bred in a less intensive way.
It is a case of buy cheap now, pay later
Beyond those arguments, there are other issues specific to the importation of chicken meat from abroad, particularly Brazil.
One of the world's agricultural super-powers, the South American nation became the largest exporter of chicken meat in 2004. By 2020, industry officials hope Brazilian exports will represent around 50 per cent of the total world market.
According to the Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association (ABEF) 3.63 million tons of chicken meat from some five billion chickens were exported in 2009.
Sourcing chicken from there is cheaper for British companies than using UK meat because production costs are lower. Wages for workers are typically 700 reais a month - that is about £250 a month or £3,000 a year.
Human rights activists and union leaders complain of poor working conditions within the industry, claiming that thousands of workers are made to perform repetitive tasks such as stripping chickens while in temperatures of around 10C (50F).
Equally important in keeping costs down is the availability and price of the soy and corn on which the chickens are raised. Environmentalists warn that food that could be used to feed people is instead being diverted into the production of chicken destined for restaurant plates in richer, developed countries.
It has also been alleged that the deforestation of the Amazon has intensified because of the need to grow more crops to feed more chickens.
Last night, asked by the Mail to explain the differences between its sourcing policies for beef and chicken, a McDonald's spokeswoman insisted that the decision to buy the vast majority of its chicken from overseas 'was so that we could keep offering our customers great value without compromising on quality'.
Ironically enough, Jamie Oliver has been a vocal critic of the intensive rearing of chickens.
Two years ago, in his Channel 4 show Jamie's Fowl Dinners, he branded the practice as 'morally wrong' and called for the public to switch to birds that enjoy a better standard of life.
All of which makes you wonder whether - when he discovers the truth about where McDonald's chicken comes from - he will be quite so effusive in his praise for the company's 'healthy' new image.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278495/The-unappetising-truth-McDonalds-chicken-meals.html#ixzz0o7kKsqgT…
A chicken squats in a shed the size of a football pitch somewhere in the outback of Brazil. And it's not alone.
One of tens of thousands, each bird is allowed the floor space equivalent to a sheet of A4 paper and will live for just 40 days before it hits its genetically-engineered slaughter weight. That's if it doesn't perish along the way.
Five per cent or so will be unable to cope with the conditions and die even before then.
Those that survive will be plucked and butchered in an industrial process the like of which this planet has never before seen.
Every year billions of chickens will live and die in this way. Of course, South America is a long way away. But your local McDonald's is not. And that is where a significant proportion of this intensively reared meat will eventually end up.
McChicken Sandwich: Much of McDonalds' poultry comes from Brazil, where the animals live in cramped conditions
Of all the chicken churned out by the fast-food chain - the equivalent of 30 million birds a year - 60 per cent is imported frozen from Brazil. A further nine per cent comes from Thailand and 30 per cent from Holland
A quick bit of arithmetic reveals just how much of the chicken sold in the fast-food giant's British restaurants is reared in this country: that's right, just one per cent.
It's a figure that's never before been published, and it will surprise and disturb many. After all, in recent years McDonald's has effectively relaunched itself as a chain that cares about the provenance of its food and its relationship with the nation's farmers.
There have been television adverts featuring bucolic rural scenes, paper tray mats that introduce the customer to the chain's suppliers and a website that boasts of lovingly nurtured, homegrown spuds.
The beef they use is sourced entirely from British and Irish farms, the eggs free-range, the milk organic and the coffee beans Rainforest Alliance-certified.
And, clearly, it is something that chimes with the public. During the past four years, McDonald's UK had added £465million to its sales, while in 2009 there was a double-digit increase in like-for-like sales as customer visits rose year on year. In terms of growth, Britain is leading the way across McDonald's international empire.
The chain's ads boast of lovingly nurtured produce
Impressive stuff, and it's not just the public who are reacting well. This month, the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly gave his backing to the chain.
'The quality of the beef, they only sell free-range eggs, they only sell organic milk, their ethics and recycling is being improved and improved,' he said in an interview. 'And I can't even believe I'm telling you that McDonald's UK has come a long way, but actually, it probably puts quite a lot of gastro-pubs to shame, the amount of work they're doing in the back end.
'Also, they've just had their best commercial year in four years, so they're proving that being commercial and caring can work. Actually, it's the future.'
But what - and it is a very big 'what' - about the chicken, the dish which one suspects many customers seeking a healthier option would generally go for? What aspect of these birds' life cycle, of the impact their production has on the planet, could possibly be described as 'caring'?
More to the point, is it something about which Jamie Oliver or the millions of customers who eat in McDonald's every week are even aware?
A decade or two ago, people went to McDonald's for one thing and one thing alone: a beefburger.
Today, a glance at the menu shows just how much the fast-food chain - and the nation's tastes - has changed. Forget the Big Mac, it is chicken that is now equally big business.
On the menu there is the Chicken Legend burger, £2.99, the McChicken sandwich, £2.19, Chicken McNuggets, £2.19 for six, or £2.49 for nine, and Mayo Chicken, 99p. The toasted deli sandwiches include chicken and bacon, £2.99, chicken salad, £2.99, and sweet chilli chicken, £2.99. Then there are the salad options: crispy chicken and bacon, £3.29, and grilled chicken and bacon, £3.59.
Supportive: The TV chef Jamie Oliver has publicly given his backing to McDonalds
Finally, on the recently introduced Little Tasters menu, there is the chicken caesar snack wrap, £1.49, and the salsa snack wrap, £1.49.
The growth of this side of the McDonald's menu is in no way accidental. The British perceive chicken as a healthy alternative to red meat and are eating ever-increasing amounts of it. Upping its presence on the McDonald's menu was a 'no-brainer' that has been integral to the company's success.
'I suspect we are taking business from some of the chicken restaurants because we keep extending the number of chicken-based items on our menus,' admitted Steve Easterbrook, chief executive of McDonald's UK, as he explained the company's success in the midst of a recession.
British-born Mr Easterbook has been praised for turning around the chain's prospects in this country.
The company reached its nadir in 2002 when McDonald's globally reported the first losses in its history. Here, things were especially bad.
Having been hit in the late 1990s by the outbreak of mad cow disease, public sentiment in Britain had also been turned against the chain by the long-running 'McLibel' trial, in which the firm spent £10million suing the activists Dave Morris and Helen Steel for what it said were defamatory claims made in leaflets the couple produced about McDonald's.
Negativity among British consumers was further enhanced by Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's 2004 film that documented the drastic effect an exclusively McDonald's diet had on his physical and psychological well-being.
To counter this, Mr Easterbook set about introducing a more 'local' approach to the business, listening to what British customers wanted rather than imposing an Americanised formula.
This localist approach in part centred on responding to consumers' concerns about the quality and the origins of the food sold. Ever since, McDonald's marketing strategy has focused heavily on the restaurant's use of home-reared beef, free-range eggs and organic milk.
Undeniably these have all been changes for the good, and Jamie Oliver's comments have to be seen in that context.
Food firms capitalise on our ignorance
But having assumed the moral high ground, its customers will no doubt be all the more surprised to learn that when it comes to its ever-growing range of chicken products there has been no such transformation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is something McDonald's largely glosses over.
While its promotional literature makes great play of the fact that its beef is 'sourced from over 16,000 British and Irish farms', when it comes to chicken, the meat's origin is left deliberately vague.
There is no mention on the company's main website, nor in its restaurants, as to where it comes from - let alone the fact that so much of it is imported, frozen, from thousands of miles away.
'The only meat we use across our entire chicken range is succulent chicken breast meat,' its website states.
As for its suppliers, it says that they raise the chicken to high standards and that the meat can be traced back to the farm from which it originates. Wherever that may be.
Of course, McDonald's is not alone in importing chicken from Brazil and Thailand, nor in using intensively reared chicken. Ninety-five per cent of the 850 million chickens bred for meat in this country are intensively reared, while similar quantities are imported from abroad. High Street chains that buy in frozen chicken from around the world include Pret A Manger, Subway and KFC.
But it's the way in which McDonald's has re-branded itself that opens it up to questions about the sourcing of its chicken.
Patrick Holden is director of the Soil Association, the body that certifies organic food in the UK.
'I think people associate McDonald's with having made an effort to make the beef better, and I think they assume that the chicken also mainly comes from UK farms and that it is probably free-range,' he says. 'We, the public, are ignorant, and it is our ignorance that the food companies are capitalising on. Until the public ask difficult questions, they can get away with it.
Golden Arches: McDonalds has relaunched itself as a chain that cares about the provenance of its food - but what about its chicken? (File picture)
'It would be better for McDonald's to source their chicken from the UK rather than Brazil and elsewhere. Then, after that, they have to go one step further and to source it free-range.
'The inconvenient truth about chicken is that we have become addicted to cheap white meat and, in the long term, the addiction is completely unsustainable economically and in terms of land use.'
It is a point echoed by Kirtana Chandrasekaran, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth.
'If you are selling a chicken burger for £1 or however much it is, then you have to understand that someone is paying for it either in environmental terms or farming terms; it is a case of buy cheap now, pay later.'
And McDonald's makes no bones about the fact that the reason it buys chicken from abroad is because it is cheaper. 'British consumers prefer to eat chicken breast meat, which is why now the only meat we use in our chicken menu items is chicken breast,' said a spokeswoman.
'This consumer demand means that chicken breast meat commands a premium price in the UK compared to some European countries and other parts of the world.
'As far as we are aware, current UK demand for chicken breast meat outstrips domestic supply. Therefore, in order for us to meet our customer demands for quality and price, we now source the vast majority of our chicken from abroad.'
But McDonald's insists that even though the meat is imported, the chickens are raised in a way that equals or exceeds the welfare standards required for intensively reared chickens in the UK.
In practical terms, this means that the maximum stocking density cannot exceed 38kg per square metre - the equivalent of somewhere between 15 and 18 chickens. They also insist that the flocks are physically inspected several times a day and that sick or dead birds are immediately removed.
Of course, such strictures will be seen as mere window- dressing by those who believe that chickens should be bred in a less intensive way.
It is a case of buy cheap now, pay later
Beyond those arguments, there are other issues specific to the importation of chicken meat from abroad, particularly Brazil.
One of the world's agricultural super-powers, the South American nation became the largest exporter of chicken meat in 2004. By 2020, industry officials hope Brazilian exports will represent around 50 per cent of the total world market.
According to the Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association (ABEF) 3.63 million tons of chicken meat from some five billion chickens were exported in 2009.
Sourcing chicken from there is cheaper for British companies than using UK meat because production costs are lower. Wages for workers are typically 700 reais a month - that is about £250 a month or £3,000 a year.
Human rights activists and union leaders complain of poor working conditions within the industry, claiming that thousands of workers are made to perform repetitive tasks such as stripping chickens while in temperatures of around 10C (50F).
Equally important in keeping costs down is the availability and price of the soy and corn on which the chickens are raised. Environmentalists warn that food that could be used to feed people is instead being diverted into the production of chicken destined for restaurant plates in richer, developed countries.
It has also been alleged that the deforestation of the Amazon has intensified because of the need to grow more crops to feed more chickens.
Last night, asked by the Mail to explain the differences between its sourcing policies for beef and chicken, a McDonald's spokeswoman insisted that the decision to buy the vast majority of its chicken from overseas 'was so that we could keep offering our customers great value without compromising on quality'.
Ironically enough, Jamie Oliver has been a vocal critic of the intensive rearing of chickens.
Two years ago, in his Channel 4 show Jamie's Fowl Dinners, he branded the practice as 'morally wrong' and called for the public to switch to birds that enjoy a better standard of life.
All of which makes you wonder whether - when he discovers the truth about where McDonald's chicken comes from - he will be quite so effusive in his praise for the company's 'healthy' new image.…
so raging hypocrites all of the 2020 candidates are headed to Iowa for the annual “Steak-Fry,” an event in which obscene amounts of meat is consumed. I can only assume from there the gun-banning dems are headed to the NRA convention and SHOT Show.
Bernie Sanders has a plan to tax meat so people will stop eating it. Andrew Yang is going with a cow fart tax to achieve the same thing. Pretty much the rest of the field wants to outright ban meat and yet there is is this shocking news from The Hill:
Marching bands, governors pouring beer and not one but two separate ice cream stations will greet a record number of Democratic activists expected to attend the largest single event in Iowa politics on Saturday as the run toward the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses kicks off.
Des Moines-area Democrats say they have sold more than 11,000 tickets for the Polk County Democratic Party’s annual Steak Fry.
At least 17 of the Democratic candidates running this year will speak to party faithful Saturday. Ten have rallies planned in the hours leading up to the Steak Fry, and eight will make a show of marching into the event at the head of a long trail of supporters.
This is no BS. Here’s the Steak-Fry’s Facebook announcement:
*Gasp!*
But democrats are against meat and there will be an assload of this planet killing stuff at the event:
The party is so big that Polk County Democrats are going through the region’s largest supermarket chain to order their food. Bagniewski said the party had purchased 10,500 steaks from Hy-Vee, along with chicken and meals for kids. Three food trucks and two different ice cream stations are being set up.
I’m guessing the democrats aren’t planning on running around the place, knocking plates of meat out people’s hands and yelling in their faces that they are killing the planet. In fact, I’m certain they will be eating all kinds of meat and pretending they aren’t trying to destroy the number one industry in Iowa, while pandering votes.
I also bet they will be drinking sodas, shakes, and smoothies through plastic straws, something else they want to ban. Plus everyone of them is getting to the event on a combination of carbon-emitting airplanes, busses, and SUVs.
If democrats had an ounce of integrity or believed any of the crap they spew, they would boycott this event. They would throw an alternate party called the “Iowa Quinoa-Bake” and they’d all arrive on roller-skates or electric scooters. Notice I qualified that with an “if.”
On a side note: anyone who fries a steak can go f*ck themselves. Leave it to democrats to ruin everything. A steak fry? That’s worse than microwaving bacon or boiling chicken. That should be a hate crime, especially in beef-producing states.
This just goes to show that democrats will abandon all of their beliefs for votes. These hypocrites would pander a pedophile convention if they thought they could land delegates and that’s just another reason why no one should ever vote for them.
defconnews.com/2019/09/20/meat-banning-democrats-head-to-iowa-steak-fry-for-pandering-and-hypocrisy/…
Added by Parrhesia at 9:22am on September 21, 2019