Sustainable beef | How the fast food chain’s sustainability initiative will affect producers remains unclear
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The McDonald’s fast food chain plans to offer sustainable beef burgers by 2016, but it’s not clear to suppliers what that means.
Bob Langert, vice-president of corporate sustainability, said it is a difficult concept to define, but he insisted it will be good business for McDonald’s as well as beef producers.
“We really feel with sustainability we can grow our business. By growing our business, we are going to grow your business,” he told the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Nashville Feb. 3.
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“We are trying to drive our business forward and sell more beef. We are convinced this type of work will bring more customers into the door, more often.”
He said McDonald’s wants to develop a supply chain that is profitable and yields high quality, safe food without interruption.
“It should be like quality and safety, a part of doing business,” Langert said.
To support that concept, McDonald’s has joined the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which comprises producer associations, environmental groups, retailers and pharmaceutical companies. The round table formed a committee last year with representatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union and the United States to develop a definition for sustainable beef.
According to the group’s website, the definition needs to include workers’ rights, community well-being, animal welfare, food safety, nutrition, and food security and protection of air, soil and water quality. Energy conservation and waste reduction must also be considered.
Langert said ranchers are probably already working sustainably but need to prove it, just as McDonald’s is attempting to do.
Langert said consumers put few demands on fast food outlets until the late 1980s but have since helped drive changes toward more corporate responsibility.
McDonald’s was among the first to introduce animal welfare audits in 1999.
The fish filet sandwich in the United States has carried the logo of the Certified Sustainable Seafood program since 1999 and McDonald’s coffee comes from members of the Rainforest Alliance.
Langert gives the company a failing grade when it comes to educating its consumers about where its food comes from and what the company has done for the public good.
“The average customer at McDonald’s does not believe our beef is 100 percent beef,” he said.
“No matter what we do, we have not conquered that myth.”
He said customers ask what 100 percent beef actually means and want to know about added growth hormones or whether the cattle were corn or grass fed.
More commercials and posts on social media are showing where McDonald’s get its beef, pork, poultry, eggs and potatoes, but Langert said it needs to do more.
“We need to be more transparent about where our food comes from,” he said.
The Big Mac has earned the company $4 billion since it was introduced, but customer demand has helped change the menu in the last decade. Meals now contain less salt, and more chicken, dairy, fruit, salads and oatmeal are offered.
Langert did not answer when asked if customers would pay more for sustainable beef
Kevin Good, a market analyst with Cattlefax, said some consumers will pay more for products that were produced a certain way.
“There are targeted market segments that will buy organic because that is what they want to do, but (for many) consumers, it boils down to price,” Good said.
Outside influences sometimes force new ways of doing things on the ranch.
“There are other forces in the world that are going to initiate some changes in our industry. There will be costs but there will be benefits too,” Good said.
“Which ever of those systems is the most profitable at the time, that is likely where we will go. Right now, the conventional product is the most viable.”
