McDonald's and the bully factor

Ronald McDonald and company do a lot of good things for the world. This Ronald was in a Lenexa, KS, restaurant when I wandered in over the lunch hour. He told me had just given a talk on "bullying" to a elementary school nearby. We assume the message was, in a nutshell, don't bully. It's not cool.

Well, McDonald's finds itself of being bullied by a couple of shareholders and, in turn, it appears to be bullying suppliers to cut pesticide use. From Reuters on March 31:

McDonald's Corp, the largest purchaser of potatoes in the United States, has agreed to take preliminary steps to reduce pesticide use in its domestic potato supply, shareholder groups said on Tuesday.
Following the agreement, the Bard College Endowment, Newground Social Investment and the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund withdrew a shareholder proposal that, if approved, would have required the company to publish a report on options for cutting pesticide use in its supply chain.
The investors said McDonald's has agreed to survey its U.S. potato suppliers, compile a list of best practices in pesticide use reduction and recommend those best practices to global suppliers. It also will share its findings with investors and include the findings in its annual corporate social responsibility report.
McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, said the process would support ongoing efforts to make its supply chain sustainable.
"Our U.S. potato suppliers are already working with their growers to advance sustainable pesticide practices, such as reductions and alternative methods," McDonald's said in a statement.

Of course suppliers such as ConAgra say they look forward to working with McDonald's on this initiative. But Dennis Avery, a reliably conservative commentator, says this about McDonald's iniative in a column called "Creating great American potato famine" at Enter Stage Right:

The anti-technology zealots pushing this organic move had better hope the company drags its feet—or we risk having the first McDonald's in history with no French fries. Less than a decade ago, the Danish government's high-level Bichel technical committee concluded that an organic-only mandate would cut Danish potato production by 80 percent.

Avery goes on to make points about the challenges that potato growers face, particularly with late blight and the Colorado potato beetle. He notes that organic growers must use highly toxic copper sulfate to control blight and asks " why substitute toxic pesticides for less dangerous ones"?

He notes that resistance to biotech advances has shelved market introduction of a biotech blight resistant potato variety. He concludes:


Is there hope for the future? Can a world that will need twice as much food and feed in the next few decades afford to pander to the relatively few voices that demand low yield farming? Will the activists finally embrace biotech? Or, will all avenues of high productivity and high sustainability be denied those who must feed the world?
In the meantime, enjoy your fries while you can still get them


TK: Avery makes some good points, even if he is a little over the top. Let McDonald's publish its annual report about reducing pesticide use, and also measure the economic impact in costs to growers, suppliers and consumers if those "best practices" are implemented. Let Ronald and Company consider the full weight of "sustainability" decisions as it goes forward. and not merely hand over lunch money to the schoolyard bully with a shrug of the shoulders and a silly grin.