From beef to burger

• 
  

  Jill Amery

• 
  

  Tenille Lafontaine

• 
  

  Karen Bannister

It’s Cool that McDonald’s Helped to Revolutionize the Beef Industry in a Positive Way.

So I arrive in Edmonton, trying to have an open mind. But I order chicken with my pasta. I admit that I was a bit nervous after researching beef prior to my trip (by watching the ‘prerequisite’ documentaries and being sent daily emails from colleagues who want to educate me on food safety and animal treatment).

At the Cargill facility, we learned about the beef industry, its association with McDonald’s, and what we would be seeing when we witnessed hunks of steak being turned into hamburger patties.

I just want to pre-empt my article by saying that it’s about beef. If you don’t eat or like beef, I completely respect your decision. I’m not telling you to eat beef. Lots of people do though, and for the people who are interested, I am happy to share what I learned.

I was shocked at pretty much everything (not in order of shock-ed-ness)…

• The meat arrives in roast form in plastic lined cardboard bins. The parts of the beef used to make the burgers are: shoulder, chuck and round as well as steak and roast trimmings. No organ meat is ever used in the making of McDonald’s burger patties.
• The plant is totally tiny. Only 100 people in total work in the 50,000 square foot facility that produces every Hamburger, Angus burger and Quarter Pounder for McDonalds throughout Canada – approximately 1.2 million hamburger patties per day! The facility produces 70 million pounds of hamburger patties per year.
• Cargill rarely has more than eight days worth of hamburger patty reserves on site, and restaurants get deliveries every five days. This means that from cow to restaurant, any hamburger you eat is only about 21 days old since it was alive and walking, so to speak.
• So many people criticize McDonald’s for not forcing the world to eat only whole wheat, or not taking beef off the menu in favour of a vegetarian menu (that would miff their true customers), essentially for not taking the lead on major social issues. But I found out that the corporation actually does take the lead. Thank goodness. McDonald’s was the first major corporation to hire Dr. Temple Grandin (in 1997) in order to influence and change regulations within the beef industry. Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science, professor at Colorado State and a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. As a huge purchaser of beef, McDonalds’s has so much influence and the reforms implemented in partnership with Grandin were dramatic; animal welfare and environmental sustainability practices were at the forefront. “McDonald’s should be given credit for bringing about improvements in animal welfare in the entire beef industry…I have been in this business for more than 25 years, and I have never seen such a transformation.” – Temple Grandin
• Even with a lot of influence, much of the ‘beef industry’ doesn’t pertain to McDonald’s, and things like hormones, etc. are regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). All beef – including the conventional supermarket meat you purchase – is regulated by this body. I will focus as much as possible on the parts of the process over which McDonald’s and its suppliers have control. More information on growth hormones can be found in the UrbanMommies Q and A.
• My favourite quote from Hans Kabat at Cargill: “A culture of food safety means protecting people and animals at every step in the supply chain (from production to consumption).”

On the Farm:

• The 4th generation farm owner we met was a super-hot petite blond woman who loves the cows so much she knows them by name. Agriculture is in her blood, and she has dreamt of doing it all her life.
• There are 2 ‘calving’ seasons per year, and the pregnant cows are checked every single hour, even through the night, so the mother and calf can be brought into the barn for warmth at the first sign of giving birth. The birth process makes everyone kind of wet.
• All of the grains and grasses that are fed to the cows are grown on the farm.
• There are tons of questions about grass fed vs. grain, vs. corn. I was in Argentina a week before the beef trip and fell in love with the Argentinean grass fed, unaged product. In Canada, the cows are grass fed as they wander around acres of pasture (average farm size of approximately 850 acres) until the final quarter of their life, when they are taken to a feed lot. The feed lot is the place where grains are added to their diet. This is simply because our North American tastebuds want a certain taste to our beef, as well as a certain tenderness that can only be achieved by grain feeding to finish the growth of the animal. McDonald’s and Cargill cater to the desires and preferences of their customers.
• Antibiotics are given at birth, and then again between 3-6 months. The cows are immunized (as the World Health Organization and the Canadian Association of Pediatrics recommends for our own children). Unless an animal is ill, no further antibiotics are given. They can only be administered under the direction of a certified veterinarian.
• Pastures are really huge. Cattle wander, lay down, moo… actually the last one was me.

The Slaughter:

We did not witness a slaughter. We could have if we had wanted to, but I personally chose to have it explained in detail. Due to the sensitive nature of the issue, I would rather not write about it, but would be happy to discuss the process with you personally should you have any questions.M

“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” —Temple Grandin

The making of burgers:

• Big hunks of meat arrive (super fresh). I picked them up and smelled them. It was amazing. Yes – I’m a carnivore. They are these parts of the cow: chuck and round cuts. No tongue, hooves, etc. (You asked). They go through a visual inspection process prior to being ground. Next, a machine makes sure no gristle, bone or foreign objects are in the beef. They are mixed so that the ideal consistency, stipulated by McDonald’s for their burgers, is reached.
• So now you’re thinking….’Here’s where it gets good. Here’s where they add the cardboard/sawdust/beef plasma/mystery ingredients that make my kids love them’. Nope. I’ve got nothing. I’ve come up empty. It’s just beef. A nutritionist friend said – try to stick with things that have fewer than 5 ingredients. Just one here (BEEF!). Seriously.
• And now you’re going to say…. “Wait a minute. My burgers at home need egg to bind, and breadcrumbs for texture.” Yup. Because you don’t have a CO2 / dry ice machine in your kitchen (just an assumption on my part) that cools the beef to just above freezing, allowing it to be formed so that it sticks together. When the patties are cookie-cut and knocked on the conveyor, they are immediately sent into a room resembling a hurricane/windstorm in the Arctic. It was nasty in there. Frostbite and scaly skin. There is a circular escalator thing, and once the patties have reached the top –they are frozen.
• They then go down a fun slide (my kids would love it) and get immediately stacked by machine and packaged by hand.
• There are 2,400 quality checks involved in a single day’s beef patty production.
• Any employee at the facility can shut down the production line at any time and are encouraged to do so if they are at all concerned for food or personal safety.
• Waste is a huge, ethical issue for us all, but particularly for the farmers and Cargill employees. If the cow gives its life, the employees or ‘stakeholders’ feel that it is their responsibility to make sure every ounce of the animal is utilized for something. So Cargill just gets the prime cuts that make McDonald’s burgers, and the slaughterhouse parcels off the rest. But just so you know – guess what else is made from this magical animal? (That’s a Homer Simpson quote if you didn’t catch it). Bones are processed into meat and bone meal which is primarily used in poultry feed and pet food. Rendering also produces both edible tallow used for food grade gelatin, etc. and inedible tallow which is used as ingredient poultry feed, pet food, soaps and cosmetics.
• Efficiency is a huge issue as well. Why is Cargill in Spruce Grove? That’s where the cattle are. 70 per cent of cattle in Canada are located in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
• The plant is tested daily for cleanliness using microbiological swabs in 300 different areas.

Overall, I have no beef with the way the animals are raised, or any other part of the impressive process. Oh come on, you didn’t think I could end a post without one beef joke.

No Mystery Meat Here.

When I learned our third McDonald’s All-Access Moms trip would bring us to Cargill Meats in Alberta, where we would learn about how hamburgers are made, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. As I shared in my initial post announcing the trip, I was hesitant to go, because I was scared of what I might see. I returned from the trip and shared with my friends and family that I was really impressed with what I learned and thankfully, I can still eat Big Macs!

What goes into our beef is a concern, and this was mirrored by the comments and questions I received from readers to bring forward to the people who could answer them. Some common questions were, “What’s really in the beef?”, “Is 100% Beef a trademark name?”, and “What are the cattle fed and how are they treated?” I set out to find answers to these questions, and many more while in Alberta.

Our first day brought us to the Cargill Meats Beef Facility in Spruce Grove, Alberta. This single facility supplies hamburgers to all the McDonald’s restaurants across Canada and 3 million patties are processed daily! That’s a pretty mighty feat for a facility of its size. Stakeholders (the term Cargill uses for their employees, which I love) take huge pride in their work, knowing the reach their group has here in Canada. As a side note, this is something I’ve noted through all our trips – the pride in the people who supply the food to McDonald’s here in Canada is huge.

It’s difficult to explain everything we learned in one blog post, so I’m going to break it down by the questions brought forward by my friends, family, and readers and what I learned to bring back to them, in my own words. Hopefully this discussion will answer some questions you’ve had too.

So what’s in the ground beef that Cargill supplies to McDonald’s?

Hamburger meat is composed of the same cuts used in your grocery store roast and steak. Essentially it’s roast cuts and steak trimming.

Wait, where’s the other stuff I heard about on the web?

Probably in the same place other urban legends live. I saw the entire process from the beef being brought into the facility, cut up, in huge containers to it being ground up then pressed into a Quarter Pounder hamburger patty. Nothing was added to the meat in the process (no pink sludge, no ammonia, and other things that are reported online).

No ammonia? But I saw that on a documentary, who’s lying?

No one is lying. The documentary you saw was likely produced in the US and covers US food practices. The use of ammonia in beef is not approved in Canada.

The burgers taste different than the ones I make at home, they also look different. Why is that?

There are no seasonings added to the hamburger meat, but you likely do add seasonings at home. Also, when I make my burgers at home, they never look the same (truthfully sometimes they look like hamburger snowballs)! The hamburgers produced at Cargill are made by machine, so yes they will all look exactly the same, and likely not at all like your home-made burgers. Salt and pepper are added at the restaurant when grilling.

How do I know the meat coming out of the Cargill facility is safe, even if you say it doesn’t have anything added?

Cargill performs more than 2,400 recorded quality and food safety checks every day. The production line has two metal detectors to find any trace of foreign materials. Cooked patties from the production line are evaluated for their consistency related to appearance, texture, and flavour and these tests are performed every 30 minutes, which means 40 times daily.

On the second day, we visited a farm that supplies beef to Cargill. This, of course, is the first step in the beef production process. I had never been to a large scale feed lot but again, read about some of them on the internet and wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s what I learned about the beef production process as it begins “down on the farm”.

Cows calve in the winter months indoors. Calves stay with their mother for about 8-9months (this is when they are weaned too) until they enter the second step in the process at about 10-12 months. During their first nine months of life, the calves graze on pastures and grasslands.

Once they enter the feed lots, they stay for a total of 90-200 days and gain about 3-3.5 pounds per day. The cows eat a combination of grasses and barley in the feed lot.

I thought a feed lot would look more like a production-line place, where cows were there only to eat and not move about much at all. Me being, well…me…didn’t even realize we were IN the feed lot until we were leaving. I thought we were near the pastures because my perception of a feed lot was nothing like what I saw. The cows had tons of room to roam around, graze and run. Feed lots here in Canada range in size, holding anywhere from a few hundred head to over 40,000.

People have concerns about animal welfare and animal treatment which is understandable. Living in Saskatchewan my entire life, it always makes me shake my head when people question a farmer’s integrity when raising cattle or other animals for slaughter. What I have always known, and more people need to understand, is that a farmer’s livelihood is in his livestock. It is, quite literally, what puts food on his table for his family and a roof over their heads. To mistreat the very product that ensures his livihood makes no sense. A farmer takes pride in his livestock and his land – this I know after 34 years on the prairies.

Still, it’s important to have procedures and policies in place to make sure our animals are treated ethically and humanely, and all beef cattle that are supplied to Cargill are treated in compliance AMI’s guidelines for humane treatment of animals.

In fact, world renowned expert in animal welfare, Temple Grandin, was quoted as saying, “McDonald’s should be given credit for bringing about improvements in animal welfare in the entire beef industry…I have been in business for more than 25 years and have never seen such a transformation.” You see, the policies McDonald’s brought in have shaped policies for the entire industry as well.

Next, we looked at answering questions many moms have about hormones and antibiotics in our food.

Are hormones used in the beef that Cargill uses to make McDonald’s hamburgers?

Yes. Hormonal growth promoters are given to increase lean tissue growth which results in a healthier product (less fatty) which is produced at a lower cost to the consumer. Basically, the cow grows faster spending less time in the feed lot, consuming less food as a result, and keeping the production moving along, so to speak. It is not just McDonald’s that uses hormonal growth promoters, this is a practice of the Canadian Beef industry and the use is regularly monitored by the CFIA.

Some people think that our cattle should be raised without hormones being used (that is, additional hormones as of course, all meat would have naturally occurring hormones in it) and this is possible to do, though the cost to the consumer would increase as a result. The Health Canada website (www.hc-sc.gc.ca) has more information about hormonal growth promoters.

So ammonia isn’t used but you can’t tell me antibiotics and vaccines are not used in beef production. Antibiotics are bad, right?

No, unhealthy, sick, cattle would be very bad! Vaccines are given at birth and then again 3-6 months. Antibiotics are given when a cow is showing signs of sickness. A cow that has had antibiotics must go through a withdrawal period before it could be sent to slaughter, to ensure that there’s no residual left in the meat. CFIA (Canada Food Inspection Agency) does random checks to ensure that these rules are being followed.

When the McDonald’s All Access Moms had completed our trip, we then had our usual Q&A with the producer and film crew that are capturing our tours to air in segments on CityLine, through national commercials, and on the McDonald’s All Access Moms site. When asked what surprised me most on this tour, my reply was that I was surprised by how simple the entire process is.

No mystery meat or parts used to make McDonald’s hamburgers. No documentary-worthy ingredients added to the meat to wash it, and a clear explanation about the role of hormones, vaccines and antibiotics in the beef production process that make sense to me, with references readily given to government standards and protocol for further reading.

I worried that I would not be able to eat hamburgers after this trip, but quite honestly, I feel better about eating ground beef and McDonald’s hamburgers after going on this trip and learning about ground beef production.

Hopefully, I helped answer some nagging questions fellow moms have about McDonald’s hamburgers. Now you can dispel the myth out there about the “100% Pure Beef” being a trademark name and ask your friends if they know that McDonald’s hamburger meat is made from the same cuts of beef as Sunday’s roast beef dinner.

I know that these answers won’t please everyone. There are groups that are anti-McDonald’s and that’s fine. The purpose of this program, and my enthusiastic role as part of it, has nothing to do with trying to convince people who hate a company to go eat a French fry.

This program is not for them.

This program is for moms just like me who eat at McDonald’s with their children and want to know more about the food we’re eating. It’s about education and using that information to make the decision you see fit for your family.

McDonald’s All-Access Moms, Trip #3, Beef

Maureen was a little busy being very pregnant in late October, so I opted to fly to Edmonton on her behalf for Trip 3 of the McDonald’s All-Access Moms series and I was excited to see what this initiative was all about! This particular trip focused on learning more about McDonald’s hamburgers, which are promoted as 100% beef and all-Canadian.

I had a few questions at the outset, beyond the trivial what-on-earth to pack for the potential of two cold, cold days, one spent outdoors on a bull and cow farm! I wondered: what information would be presented to us? What would I learn about the safety and nutritional value of McDonald’s beef products? What should I expect of the tour of both the Cargill Meats Canada Beef Facility and the Lewis Family Farm (the Bull Development Farm and the Cattle Grazing Pasture)?

I had your specific questions and comments in mind as well, such as:

• What about the nutritional value of the McDonald’s hamburger?
• How does a McDonald’s hamburger differ from a burger you can make yourself at home (or buy pre-made in the frozen foods section of a grocery store)?
• Are there added fillers or is it really 100% beef?
• Hormones in beef? What is that all about?
• The urban legend of the McDonald’s hamburger’s immortality – after a long time sitting out and exposed to air it does not mold. Hmmm?
• What is the process from farm to restaurant table? Is it a safe, clean, humane and well-regulated routine?

DAY ONE

We headed to Spruce Grove, Alberta to the Cargill Meats Canada beef facility. After meeting the team we heard a presentation about their operations and Cargill’s relationship to McDonald’s as their beef supplier in Canada. We also discussed Cargill’s commitment to humane practices (they expect high standards will be met by any supplier that provides cuts of meat to the facility, both in terms of quality of the cut and the ethical, humane treatment of the animals when raised and slaughtered). More on this later!

We then toured the facility and saw the cuts of meat, which include lean (chuck, round and shank which are similar to roasts in you can buy in the grocery store) and trim (which consists of beef trimmed off of Rib, Loin and Sirloin steak as well as that trimmed off of Chuck and Round roast items). We then moved on to see the process of grinding, a refrigerating process that uses CO2/dry ice to keep the meat cold (so that the meat stays together when formed into patties), the patty formation process, and then finally the freezing and packing process. I didn’t see any filler added, and I did learn that it is the cold process that keeps the patties together in the absence of filler.

There were many opportunities for questions so here are some answers I gathered:

Nutritional Value

The process that I saw was the forming of cuts of beef into patties without added fillers. Legally, to call them ‘beef patties,’ fillers are not allowed. I asked if oil was added to the cooking process and I was told no.

The hamburger patties are however, by CFIA compositional standards, a medium ground beef patty, though lean beef is included in the mix. This explains why it looked like there was a lot of oil on the grill after we saw a sample cooked. This was actually just some of the melted fat released from the patty during cooking because a medium ground beef patty has a higher fat content than a lean ground patty. I asked why a leaner blend was not used and the reason for this is based on consumer demand – people prefer the taste of a medium ground beef.

No Mold?

The Cargill and McDonald’s people showed us their own little experiment. Mold does not grow on the surface of a cooked beef patty because there is not enough moisture remaining on the surface for it to grow.

DAY TWO

Day two was a little bit colder! We visited the Lewis Family Farm and there we met with Jordan Buba, a 4th generation farmer. We saw the Bull Development Farm where the bulls are kept and a cattle pasture where the cows can graze. This particular farm’s main business is producing calves, which are then sold to other farms for breeding cattle, so they are more directly involved in the start of the process of cattle farming for meat production. This meant what we experienced on this visit was removed from the slaughter process, but this farm does send animals directly to slaughter. We weren’t privy to this part of the process (personally, not something I want to confront anyway).

Also joining us at the farm and at the beef facility was a woman by the name of Fawn Jackson, a representative with Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). Fawn was available throughout the trip for any specific questions we had related to the Canadian beef industry in general and provided an overview of the beef standards and regulations in Canada. Questions that relate to the ethical treatment of animals and the use of hormones in cattle really apply to the Canadian beef industry as a whole rather than just McDonald’s. These are important questions to ask of anyone involved. So here are the answers we were provided with.

To the question of hormones in beef:

There are hormones in Canadian beef. These are used in order to help the cows use nutrients efficiently, which means this will help grow larger cows that carry a greater amount of lean tissue. The use of hormones in cattle also reduces the number of cattle needed for slaughter and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases (fewer cows, fewer gases). According to Health Canada, and you can read more here, hormones have been approved for use in Canadian beef. If you feel you are not happy with this and want to avoid beef with hormonal growth promotants, you should look for an organic supplier. However, be aware, there is no such thing as “hormone-free beef.” Even beef raised organically will contain hormones because all animals produce hormones naturally.

To the question of slaughter:

I had a long conversation with one of the Cargill representatives with respect to the slaughterhouses and the role of Dr. Temple Grandin, a global expert on animal welfare practices. McDonald’s has worked with Dr. Grandin to create the best kind of system and environment for slaughterhouses. If you want to learn more about Dr. Temple Grandin click here. McDonald’s and Cargill only work with suppliers who conform to the standards put in place and approved by Dr. Grandin and if any supplier is found to have treated an animal unfairly; they are immediately terminated as a supplier. Please note that my conversation was in regards to cattle. If you have more animal welfare questions, please follow Maureen’s report on her trip to Cargill’s chicken facility-which is coming up next!

To the question of respecting the animal through complete use of the meat:

McDonald’s is just one of Cargill’s clients. Cargill supplies meat to other customers as well, like grocery stores. As an example, animal fat that is not used for human consumption is used in dog food or in the making of cosmetics, soap and other such products.

If you have a question not yet answered, please post it here. Maureen will continue to ask your questions or anything else that is on your mind about McDonald’s. Dialogue is really important!

McDonald’s All-Access Moms, Trip #3, Beef

Maureen was a little busy being very pregnant in late October, so I opted to fly to Edmonton on her behalf for Trip 3 of the McDonald’s All-Access Moms series and I was excited to see what this initiative was all about! This particular trip focused on learning more about McDonald’s hamburgers, which are promoted as 100% beef and all-Canadian.

I had a few questions at the outset, beyond the trivial what-on-earth to pack for the potential of two cold, cold days, one spent outdoors on a bull and cow farm! I wondered: what information would be presented to us? What would I learn about the safety and nutritional value of McDonald’s beef products? What should I expect of the tour of both the Cargill Meats Canada Beef Facility and the Lewis Family Farm (the Bull Development Farm and the Cattle Grazing Pasture)?

I had your specific questions and comments in mind as well, such as:

• What about the nutritional value of the McDonald’s hamburger?
• How does a McDonald’s hamburger differ from a burger you can make yourself at home (or buy pre-made in the frozen foods section of a grocery store)?
• Are there added fillers or is it really 100% beef?
• Hormones in beef? What is that all about?
• The urban legend of the McDonald’s hamburger’s immortality – after a long time sitting out and exposed to air it does not mold. Hmmm?
• What is the process from farm to restaurant table? Is it a safe, clean, humane and well-regulated routine?

DAY ONE

We headed to Spruce Grove, Alberta to the Cargill Meats Canada beef facility. After meeting the team we heard a presentation about their operations and Cargill’s relationship to McDonald’s as their beef supplier in Canada. We also discussed Cargill’s commitment to humane practices (they expect high standards will be met by any supplier that provides cuts of meat to the facility, both in terms of quality of the cut and the ethical, humane treatment of the animals when raised and slaughtered). More on this later!

We then toured the facility and saw the cuts of meat, which include lean (chuck, round and shank which are similar to roasts in you can buy in the grocery store) and trim (which consists of beef trimmed off of Rib, Loin and Sirloin steak as well as that trimmed off of Chuck and Round roast items). We then moved on to see the process of grinding, a refrigerating process that uses CO2/dry ice to keep the meat cold (so that the meat stays together when formed into patties), the patty formation process, and then finally the freezing and packing process. I didn’t see any filler added, and I did learn that it is the cold process that keeps the patties together in the absence of filler.

There were many opportunities for questions so here are some answers I gathered:

Nutritional Value

The process that I saw was the forming of cuts of beef into patties without added fillers. Legally, to call them ‘beef patties,’ fillers are not allowed. I asked if oil was added to the cooking process and I was told no.

The hamburger patties are however, by CFIA compositional standards, a medium ground beef patty, though lean beef is included in the mix. This explains why it looked like there was a lot of oil on the grill after we saw a sample cooked. This was actually just some of the melted fat released from the patty during cooking because a medium ground beef patty has a higher fat content than a lean ground patty. I asked why a leaner blend was not used and the reason for this is based on consumer demand – people prefer the taste of a medium ground beef.

No Mold?

The Cargill and McDonald’s people showed us their own little experiment. Mold does not grow on the surface of a cooked beef patty because there is not enough moisture remaining on the surface for it to grow.

DAY TWO

Day two was a little bit colder! We visited the Lewis Family Farm and there we met with Jordan Buba, a 4th generation farmer. We saw the Bull Development Farm where the bulls are kept and a cattle pasture where the cows can graze. This particular farm’s main business is producing calves, which are then sold to other farms for breeding cattle, so they are more directly involved in the start of the process of cattle farming for meat production. This meant what we experienced on this visit was removed from the slaughter process, but this farm does send animals directly to slaughter. We weren’t privy to this part of the process (personally, not something I want to confront anyway).

Also joining us at the farm and at the beef facility was a woman by the name of Fawn Jackson, a representative with Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). Fawn was available throughout the trip for any specific questions we had related to the Canadian beef industry in general and provided an overview of the beef standards and regulations in Canada. Questions that relate to the ethical treatment of animals and the use of hormones in cattle really apply to the Canadian beef industry as a whole rather than just McDonald’s. These are important questions to ask of anyone involved. So here are the answers we were provided with.

To the question of hormones in beef:

There are hormones in Canadian beef. These are used in order to help the cows use nutrients efficiently, which means this will help grow larger cows that carry a greater amount of lean tissue. The use of hormones in cattle also reduces the number of cattle needed for slaughter and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases (fewer cows, fewer gases). According to Health Canada, and you can read more here, hormones have been approved for use in Canadian beef. If you feel you are not happy with this and want to avoid beef with hormonal growth promotants, you should look for an organic supplier. However, be aware, there is no such thing as “hormone-free beef.” Even beef raised organically will contain hormones because all animals produce hormones naturally.

To the question of slaughter:

I had a long conversation with one of the Cargill representatives with respect to the slaughterhouses and the role of Dr. Temple Grandin, a global expert on animal welfare practices. McDonald’s has worked with Dr. Grandin to create the best kind of system and environment for slaughterhouses. If you want to learn more about Dr. Temple Grandin click here. McDonald’s and Cargill only work with suppliers who conform to the standards put in place and approved by Dr. Grandin and if any supplier is found to have treated an animal unfairly; they are immediately terminated as a supplier. Please note that my conversation was in regards to cattle. If you have more animal welfare questions, please follow Maureen’s report on her trip to Cargill’s chicken facility-which is coming up next!

To the question of respecting the animal through complete use of the meat:

McDonald’s is just one of Cargill’s clients. Cargill supplies meat to other customers as well, like grocery stores. As an example, animal fat that is not used for human consumption is used in dog food or in the making of cosmetics, soap and other such products.

If you have a question not yet answered, please post it here. Maureen will continue to ask your questions or anything else that is on your mind about McDonald’s. Dialogue is really important!