Although McDonald’s has made some excellent strides in food sustainability such as serving free-range eggs and organic milk in the United Kingsom, a recent article exposed that the chickens they use are grown in deplorable conditions.
For example, each bird is crowded into a space just large enough to hold all the birds living there – the floor space for each is roughly equal an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper. The birds are all killed after 40 days when a genetically-engineered slaughter weight is attained although a number of birds die from stress or other reasons before 40 days. The birds are inundated – externally and in their food with a number of potentially hazardous chemicals.
In the popular book by Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he reveals that, for example, McNuggets contains 38 listed ingredients, including TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone), which is a chemical derived from petroleum which is sprayed onto McNuggets or sprayed inside their container to keep them fresh.