please make Mc-D’s a Mc-Don’t

Seriously.  SERIOUSLY.

After you read this, if you need further proof that the agri-business, fast food, triple hamburger on every corner industry is not serving your best interest… well then, I hate to say it, but there is no hope for you.

McDonald’s Aims for a Low-Pesticide Potato for Its French Fries, via Reuters.

McDonald’s, the largest fast-food chain the world and the largest buyer of potatoes in the United States, is under pressure from shareholders to do something about pesticide use on the potatoes it buys. To avoid a shareholder resolution on the subject, McDonald’s has agreed to “survey its U.S. suppliers compile a list of best practices in pesticide reduction and recommend those best practices to its global suppliers.

Essentially, three major shareholders was threatening to demand that McDonald’s reduce its purchasing of pesticide laden potatoes.  But, since corporate decided to look into it on their own, it is not a “requirement”, as much as it is a, “it would be nice if you were to do this, please.”

First off, yummy to the pesticide filled french fries you all have been ingesting, unknowingly.

Second, just some information:

Potatoes have been on or near the list of the Environmental Working Group’s dirty dozen foods with the most pesticide residue for years. That means, according to a government analysis, that after a typical person buys a typical potato and prepares it in a typical way, it’s among the fruits and vegetables most likely to be laced with pesticides.

“Farmers often spray on a weekly basis, or even more frequently to try to prevent blight. They also spray herbicides to kill the tops of the plants at the end of the growing season to make the underground tubers easier to harvest. Over 40 toxic pesticides are used on potatoes including ethoprop, mancozeb, chlorothalonil, EPTC and metribuzin.

Most of these pesticides are linked to serious chronic effects such as cancer, endocrine disruption and reproductive/developmental effects. Many leach to groundwater and contaminate surface waters. Intensive potato cultivation and pesticides usage have been implicated in the high rates of rare cancers in young children in rural western Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. The island farming community of about 14,000 has experienced occurrences of osteosarcoma, several lymphomas, Ewing’s sarcoma, and a number of myeloid leukemia cases, all among children.”

So, the good news is that McDonald’s is under pressure to put its growers under pressure.  And, they are in a position to do that, since they buy a lot of potatoes.  The bad news.. is it too little too late?  And, pressure is one thing, demanding is another.