For those of us in the UK, we may wonder how buying a burger from a McDonald’s outlet halfway across the world from South America has anything to do with the deforestation taking place in the continent. Here’s how. 

McDonald’s buys most of their chicken from Cargill, an American global food corporation founded in 1865, now one of the largest privately held corporations in the United States. Cargill has evolved into a food-product empire and has enormous power, with a vast proportion of the world´s main agricultural commodities passing through its hands. 

There is no reason any British consumer tucking into a Chicken Burger or McChicken sandwich would ever know that an American company is involved in almost every step of their foods’ production. Or, more importantly, that areas of rainforest have been flattened in the process. 

In the early 2000s, deforestation rates in the Amazon were shocking. Following campaigns from environmental groups and retailers, companies like Cargill agreed not to buy soybeans grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon in the 2006 landmark Amazon Soya Moratorium. This worked, and from 2004 to 2012  the clearing of trees in the Amazon fell by 84%. But of course, it didn’t work for long. Cargill and McDonald’s put profit before the planet, and simply found loopholes in the moratorium to ensure they could continue buying soya grown on deforested land. 

Companies like Cargill simply began buying from soya plantations in the Bolivian Amazon and the Brazilian Cerrado according to a Mighty Earth report. The cerrado is a crucial ecosystem containing 5% of the world’s plant and animal species. More than half of its native vegetation is already gone due to deforestation.  In addition, with the moratorium applying only to soya in particular, farmers have been able to sell their crops as deforestation-free as they continue to clear land for cattle, maize and other commodities. Consequently, deforestation has continued and reached an all time high last year.

Efforts to extend the soy moratorium to the Bolivian Amazon and Brazilian Cerrado have long been opposed, despite calls to do so by local NGOs, scientists and the Brazilian environment minister. Retailers have so far not used their leverage over Cargill to compel it to support a soy moratorium expansion. Being Cargill’s biggest customer in Europe, McDonald’s would have huge influence. The company however, would appear to care far more about soy reaching Cargill´s chicken processing plant here in the United Kingdom Hereford. Cargills’ Hereford site slaughters over a million birds per week, many of which will go on to be sold in McDonald’s branches across the United Kingdom.

Brazil is the biggest producer of soy consumed in the United Kingdom, and 70 percent of it is imported into the UK by Cargill, the vast majority of it to become animal feed. Only about two percent of the world’s soy crop is processed into plant-based alternatives such as meat alternatives, tofu and soy yoghurt . It is  mostly grown in Europe and does not drive deforestation.

With their poor track record on deforestation becoming increasingly obvious to consumers, McDonald’s announced a series of ‘’ambitious’’ sustainability initiatives in October 2021. The company explain on their website: ‘’We want to make sure the beef in our burgers contributes to a sustainable food system in which communities, animals and the planet thrive.’’ Animal Rebellion has a very different idea of a sustainable food system. In our eyes, flattening rainforests, slaughtering millions of animals, and selling a ludicrous quantity of largely unhealthy products is in no way sustainable. 

McDonald’s sells more than 75 hamburgers per second. Each year McDonald’s buys 1.9 billion tons of cow flesh to be used for patties in outlets across the world, producing more than 53m metric tonnes of greenhouse gases. The fast food giant stresses its burgers sold in the UK come from British and Irish farms, but have been accused of feeding animals with feed  coming from deforested areas in Latin America. Glenn Hurowitz, chief executive of Mighty Earth highlighted that ‘’everything we know about their suppliers suggests they’re still chock full of deforestation.”

Despite McDonald’s massive and ongoing role in the destruction of primary forests, it has gained several certification labels. For example, there is evidence that the Rainforest Alliance, who certifie McDonald’s coffee, uses child labour in their farms. In addition, the RSPCA has given its stamp of approval on McDonald’s chicken factories, instead of telling the truth and highlighting that captivity and death can never be aligned with good welfare standards. Instead of standing up for the animals, RSPCA complies with the big business. The labels on meat and dairy do little but confuse and greenwash. They are certified lies. 

McDonald’s recognises their own complicity in deforestation by stating on their own website:  ´´We’ve set an ambitious goal to eliminate deforestation from our global supply chain by 2030.´´ It is difficult to take this, and all of McDonald’s other sustainability targets seriously, as not only is the breeding of cows the largest driver of deforestation in the world, with beef potentially being the single most environmentally destructive food in existence. 

According to landmark environmental documentary Cowspiracy, cows are the world’s largest source of methane, which is up to 100 times more destructive to the climate than CO2. Cows around the world produce 150 billion gallons of this gas per day. Raising cows is incredibly resource draining with a staggering 2,500 gallons of water needed to produce just 1 pound of beef. This means that the production of one hamburger requires 660 gallons of water – the equivalent of the average person’s showers over a period of 2 months.

Raising cattle also requires a huge amount of land, which is why so many forests are being cleared to make room in the first place. According to the Cowspiracy, 1.5 acres of land can only produce 375 pounds of beef as opposed to 37,000 pounds of plant-based foods. Rearing livestock and their feed already occupies up to 45% of the earth’s ice-free land. With the demand for meat being so large, there is still not enough space to raise the animals to feed our appetite and more forests are having to be cleared. Where will this end, with the whole planet being deforested and devoted to meat production?

By selling huge quantities of these catastrophically polluting foods, at the expense of both animal and human kind, we believe McDonald’s to be running one of the most polluting and morally corrupt operations underway in our world today.  

Animal Rebellion calls on McDonald’s to stop this madness and transition to a fully plant-based menu by 2025. After all, this is the only hope the company has at meeting their climate goals. Climate experts who reviewed McDonald’s targets say: ´´The company is largely dodging the one bold step it must take to slash emissions: dramatically reducing the amount of beef it serves. Not moving boldly on their menus suggests motivations might not be to mitigate climate change but to manage investors.”

Gidon Eshel, an environmental and urban studies research professor at Bard College says: ´´The naked truth is McDonald’s is in a business that is fundamentally at odds with the Earth’s integrity. The culture of beef is not consistent with Earth’s wellbeing, and we have to choose: do you eat beef and let Earth incinerate, or do you forgo beef and give Earth a fighting chance?”. 

The answer is simple. McDonald’s must cease to sell products which cause deforestation and pollution and transition to a fully plant-based menu, now. The introduction of one or two plant-based products is, at this point, a drop in the ocean. We need a complete and thorough reinvention of the McDonald’s menu and we need it now. 

Join Animal Rebellions campaign No Love In It for McDonald’s to transition to a fully plant-based menu by 2025. Take a look at some of our previous actions here including the blockade of McDonald’s UK burger factory for 3 days, the overnight occupation of McDonald’s Leicester Square and sit-ins across the country. Please fill out our Volunteer Form to get involved with what we´re planning next! 

The post Amazon Deforestation for McDonald’s Profit first appeared on Animal Rebellion.

Animal Rebellion occupied the headquarters of Cargill in London during the 2019 Rebellion to ask them to tell the truth and act now about the climate and animal emergency. In March 2020, Animal Rebellion Turtle Island united with other groups in a global day action to call Cargill out. This August 2021, Animal Rebellion is uniting with animal liberation and other groups from across the country to stand in solidarity with the trillions of animal and fish killed yearly. 

We are marching together as allies with non-human animals. 

Message to Cargill

Cargill family: you have perhaps more power than any company, past or present, to either destroy the planet or lead the transition to the only form of a just, sustainable food-system there is: a plant-based one.

The world needs you to #ActNow! Start now the transition to just and sustainable plant-based agriculture. Will you join us today on the right side of history?

Cargill, whilst remaining little-known, has grown to be one of the largest traders of commodities for the animal-agricultural industry. Over the last 130 years, Cargill has become the largest worldwide producer of the grain-based feed for farmed animals and the third-largest “meat processing” company in the world. As of 2019, their agri-business was the largest food-conglomerate in the world. 

Astonishingly, all this makes Cargill directly accountable for: the life and death of billions of commoditised animals every year; for a critical amount of deforestation, air and water pollution; for the wellbeing of the animals fed their grains and ‘processed’ by their plants; for the welfare of millions of humans that work within their supply chains; and for the health of billions more humans that consume the animal products that Cargill directly and indirectly profits from.

Until now, though Cargill is the largest family-owned business in the world, they have managed to oversee a strategy of keeping a deliberately low-profile. But today, Animal Rebellion is asking Cargill to act now and help undo the destruction they have already caused.

McDonald’s supplier

This year we’ve shone light on the on-going issues McDonald’s needs to tackle. McDonald’s is Cargill’s largest customer. Cargill boasts proudly about the seven awards it has received from McDonald’s for their economical, environmental and ethical achievements.  This is just a bad joke. Cargill’s role is well-hidden to the public eye, but it is raising and killing the chickens that McDonalds sell. The silent giant is also selling soya to McDonald’s for chicken and cow feed, unscrupulously deforesting habitats for millions of animals across South America. 

This big corporation must take action now instead of hiding their misdoings, playing for the interests of a few billionaires at the expense of trillions of animals and people. Cargill need to stop pretending to go green and actually make decisions that protect all animals and the planet. They have the power to make big advances globally by transitioning to a just and sustainable plant-based food system. 

Deforestation

Animal farming relies on about 75% of the world’s soy — of which Cargill are the largest producer and which is fed to the animals slaughtered in their farms. Globally more than 1,000,000 square kilometres — three times the size of Germany — is dedicated just to growing soy fed to animals raised for meat. 

Cargill must own up to the destruction of rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands that have contributed significantly to the disruption of hydrological cycles, as well as the destruction of the habitats of many wild animals.

In 2014 Cargill signed a landmark deal with 150 other countries, businesses and civil society organisations, pledging to eliminate deforestation by 2020. However, years on from that and Cargill continue to expand its operation into new, pristine forest outside the Brazilian Amazon. Furthermore, they actively resist the extension of the deforestation-free production agreements into these areas. Cargill has pushed the deadline to end deforestation to 2030, but the animals that inhabit the forest can’t wait that long. How long will Cargill fail to meet their targets? 

Cargill as changemakers

While clinging to its identity as a ‘traditional animal protein’ company, Cargill has invested in plant-based protein producers (such as the pea-protein supplier to Beyond Meat). Does this investment recognise the importance of plant based alternatives to meat or is it only a money-making investmnet?  If Cargill can genuinely recognise the importance of these alternatives, they could have an enormous impact on animal justice. 

Cargill’s food competitors:  Tyson Foods, Maple Leaf Foods and Smithfield Food have taken steps to create their own meat free products. By making similar changes in the way they operate, Cargill could have an enormous impact in reducing and even eradicating the number of animals killed for meat.

Today, people are more informed about the sentience of farmed animals. We know that they are individuals whose lives matter. We are faced with data and numbers that demonstrate the daily massacre of harmless animals. Cargill recently altered their slaughter process for chickens at their London plant, reducing the distress experienced by these sentient beings in response to welfare concerns. Yet, this is not enough. Today, we say that listening to the general public can only mean spearheading a global shift towards a plant-based food system.

Cargill: you have enormous influence over today’s food and agricultural systems and over the companies that work within it! Crucially, you have a massive impact on the existence and habitat quality of billions of animals. We now know that a plant-based food system is the only system that can ensure animal justice. With your investments and your infrastructure, the scale of change necessary is possible.

What’s next:

Click going to the National Animal Rights March on 28th August and get more information on the Facebook event here.

Learn more about how Unilever, another stop during the march, needs to change now for animal justice. We also march to the Marine Stewardship Council to stand for fishes and other sentient aquatic animals. Where is the compassion for sentient marine animals in the fishing industry?

To get ready for the Rebellion, you can do trainings with Extinction Rebellion, a movement with whom we act in solidarity. You can check out our events and trainings here. 

Useful links:

Volunteer

Join a local group

Newsletter

Donate to support our movement

The post Cargill Family, A Historic Choice is upon You: Planetary Destruction or Animal and Climate Justice? first appeared on Animal Rebellion.

DATE: 24th August 2021

ANIMAL REBELLION STAGES OVERNIGHT MCDONALD’S OCCUPATION AMID CALL FOR PLANT-BASED FOOD SYSTEM

LINK TO PICTURE FILE

• 50 protestors are spending the night at the Leicester Square branch of McDonald’s as they demand a just transition to a plant-based food system
• It’s part of a wider campaign by Animal Rebellion, which is calling out the fast-food chain for its part in destroying the environment
• As part of the action, Animal Rebellion is demanding that McDonald’s switch to a fully plant-based food menu by 2025

Protestors have donned their sleeping bags and are camping out at McDonald’s tonight, as they call out the fast-food chain for its role in destroying the planet.

It’s the latest action in a campaign being led by Animal Rebellion, a mass movement using nonviolent civil disobedience to call for a sustainable plant-based food system, who say the global franchising giant is just a symbol of a much bigger problem – the entire animal agriculture industry.

Now, 50 protestors will be spending the night at Leicester Square McDonald’s from 6pm; occupying seats and causing disruption in a bid to highlight the issue and open conversations with customers about the impact of the entire fast-food industry.

Bel Jacobs, a spokesperson for Animal Rebellion, said: “This action is all about raising awareness and educating the local community on how animal agriculture is affecting the planet.

“Until we have a just transition to a plant-based food system, our climate will continue to suffer drastically, and billions of animal’s lives will continue to be lost every year.”

Throughout the evening, protestors will be taking part in letter writing, craft work and speeches, while also having the opportunity to watch a film and take part in an ‘untalent show’.

It comes after the group shut down four McDonald’s distribution centres back in May, and later blockaded the business’s only burger factory for several days, to call out the meat and dairy industries for their role in the climate and ecological emergency causing economic disruption to McDonald’s supply chain.

Jacobs said: “The latest report from the IPCC has already highlighted that our climate is at breaking point; that unless we make big changes, we will increasingly face the harsher impacts of climate change like flooding, droughts and extreme heatwaves.

“Animal agriculture makes up to 18% of global emissions so, by moving to a plant-based food system, we could tackle this problem in a very achievable and realistic way.”

According to a 2019 EAT Lancet report, if we hope to feed 10 billion people and stay within planetary boundaries, we need to reduce red meat and milk consumption by 90% by 2050. A 2018 study into the environmental impacts of food production – the most comprehensive of its kind – found that a plant-based food system could reduce farmland usage by 76% and greenhouse gas emissions by 49% from current global levels. 

What MUST happen now

What needs to happen next is pretty simple: Animal Rebellion is demanding that McDonald’s transitions to a fully plant-based menu by 2025 and commits to being 20% plant-based within a year. 

Currently, the Government, and the agricultural industry, has no plan in place to transition the UK agricultural industry to net-zero by 2050. However, if chains like McDonald’s take responsibility for their part in the global climate crisis, we could start moving in the right direction.

To join the rebellion and call for a more sustainable food system, visit our website now.

The post Animal Rebellion Stages Overnight McDonald’s Occupation Amid Call For Plant-Based Food System first appeared on Animal Rebellion.

Date: 16/07/2021

UPDATE: ANIMAL REBELLION HOLDS BLOCKADE AT MCDONALD’S ONLY BURGER FACTORY FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS

• An Animal Rebellion blockade at McDonald’s only UK burger factory has halted production for over 24 hours
• Campaigners say they will stay as long as it takes for McDonald’s to listen and respond to their demand for a plant-based menu by 2025
  
• A camp is set up on site with numbers rising throughout Thursday and more expected today.
  
  

Animal Rebellion, a mass movement using nonviolent civil disobedience to call for a just, sustainable plant-based food system, has been camped outside OSI Food Solutions in Scunthorpe since the early hours of Thursday morning.

This site is believed to make three million beef patties per day, for distribution to McDonald’s stores across the country.

The current action at the site is part of a wider campaign calling out the fast food chain for their track record of destroying the environment, poor labour conditions and animal exploitation.

They are demanding McDonald’s move to a plant-based menu by 2025 to protect the future of our planet.

Harley McDonald-Eckersall, who is currently campaigning at the site, said: “We’ve been reaching out to members of the public while we’re here including former employees of OSI, who described horrendous working conditions in the factory. Support and encouragement from local people inspires us to keep the pressure on.

So far, tents and gazebos have been set up to make a camp, with activists also securing themselves to bamboo structures outside the building and occupying the roof. Local residents have rallied to show support, providing food and other essentials.

“As of yesterday evening, all 20 protesters locked to structures and occupying the roof of the factory are still in position. By then, the police had only shown interest in removing those on the roof, albeit unsuccessfully.”

“As of 11:30am police are attempting to remove protesters from one of the vans which form the blockade. One of the bamboo structures was removed earlier this morning while unoccupied.”

This protest comes after the group shut down four McDonald’s distribution centres two months ago to call out the meat and dairy industries for their role in the climate and ecological emergency causing economic disruption to McDonald’s supply chain. You can read more about that here.

What MUST happen now

What needs to happen next is pretty simple: Animal Rebellion is demanding that McDonald’s transitions to a  fully plant-based menu by 2025 and commits to being 20% plant-based within a year. 

Currently, the Government, and the agricultural industry, has no plan in place to transition the UK agricultural industry to net-zero by 2050. However, if chains like McDonald’s take responsibility for their part in the global climate crisis, we could start moving in the right direction.

To join the rebellion and call for a more sustainable food system, visit our website now.

The post Animal Rebellion Holds Blockade At McDonald’s Only Burger Factory For More Than 24H first appeared on Animal Rebellion.

A small group of people took on a giant. Why? We target McDonald’s because they are the perfect illustration of a system that unapologetically destroys animals’ bodies, society’s wellbeing, and the environment. McDonald’s is a symbol of a system that causes the environmental and climate emergencies and creates injustice. It favours profit over everything else, as shown in this video. We will put a stop to the destruction done by the biggest fast food chain. We are the 99% of the people who want a just and sustainable future and we act non-violently for justice. We walk in the footsteps of Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King by using civil disobedience to make our voices heard. Who said David could not defeat Goliath? 

McExploitation

The fast-food giant has a history of making profit by exploiting workers. People working in the supply chain of animal products face poor working conditions.  

McDonald’s workers went on strike to ask for better salaries and protection against sexual harassment. 5000 women filed cases to fight the systemic sexual harassment in the company as complaints did not lead anywhere.

Poverty and job insecurity are the norm at McDonald’s – except for the chief executives who get millions of pounds in bonuses. The workers filed complaints about their hazardous working conditions. The fast food giant puts employees at risk of violence, which is another source of stress.

These working conditions are not acceptable. Together, we can create a world where workers are paid fairly and treated with respect. We want safe and decent working conditions for everyone. Food justice is social and global justice. 

McDestruction

Animal agriculture is a leading cause of the climate and environmental emergencies. People, especially in the global south, are already on the front-line of the environmental breakdown, facing disastrous floods, air pollution and tornadoes. Animal agriculture would only lead us to more severe weather events, higher temperature and sea rise. 

Currently, 80-90% of Amazon deforestation is related to cow farming. An investigation by Mighty Earth revealed that the cows killed for McDonald’s meals are fed with soybean cultivated in deforested areas in Bolivia and Brazil. Pollution from these soybean crops makes people ill.

McDonald’s kill animals. But cows, chickens and fishes are sentient individuals, who want to live and enjoy relationships with their family and friends. Scientific studies have shown that cows have different personalities, just like us. Animals are not objects to be used.

We demand McDonald’s to transition to just and sustainable meals by 2025

In 2019, McDonald’s was worth almost $150 billions. Through reductions in costs of making and selling their products, McDonald’s currently makes billions of gross profit per year. Meanwhile, in the UK McDonald’s workers make on average £7.83 per hour. Surely, with this sum of disposable money, the fast food giant can take actions that make a positive impact on our environment. At the same time, global consciousness on the climate and environmental emergencies is rising, so the fast-food giant did not hesitate to portray itself as eco-friendly. But switching from plastic straws to non-recyclable cardboard ones is far from addressing the core problem: meat and dairy. 

McDonald’s can stop hurting animals, people and the planet on a massive scale, because climate, social and animal injustice are connected to animal farming. Expert organisations and scientists have concluded that plant-based food systems are a key solution to solve the environmental and climate emergencies. We cannot solve the climate emergency without addressing the animal emergency. Beyond greenwashing and false promises, McDonald’s needs to transition to plant-based meals. Plant-based options are both tasty and available. Yet McDonald’s has been refusing to act and continues the most destructive practices in the name of profit. 

Sustainable plant-based eateries with decently paid employees are already leading the way and show what a plant-based McDonald’s could look like. The plant-based Impossible Burger has a 89 % lower carbon footprint than a burger made of cows. We need a food system change to halt the climate crisis, save animals, and stop worker exploitation. This big change can only be brought about if giant companies like McDonald’s show leadership and transition to plant-based meals by 2025.

People have the power to make change

We are ordinary people who ask for a transition. We cannot let injustice happen again. We need to act now to reverse climate change. Throughout history people have risen up and seen the world change around them. Together, we have the power to make the fast-food giant listen to the climate science and show compassion. 

We acted because meat and dairy production are not normal, natural, nor necessary. How broken is a system where it is normal to grind to shreds thousands of chicks every day? We can imagine a better future with plant-based food systems, away from the path of destruction that animal agriculture puts us on. 

Big corporations have a responsibility towards people to listen to science and make the changes that are needed. As the largest fast-food chain, McDonald’s has the potential to make positive waves for the planet and future generations. It is its duty to shift to just and sustainable plant-based meals. By transitioning their menu, McDonald’s can set us on this path and make necessary transitions easier for ordinary people. 

Join the movement

Join the movement to make McDonald’s go plant-based by 2025. People from all walks of life have organised, because acts of civil disobedience can lead to system change. When it’s an issue as important as climate, animal and social justice, we can unite. We ask them to act for global compassion instead of greed.

This is our moment to make change. Come down, bring your tent. This is our chance to make history.

Take direct action against to put pressure on McDonald’s.

More information

Read more about our No Love In It campaign. 

Watch our new 22-min documentary YOU HAVE FOUR YEARS. It shows the lead up and unfolding of our previous action that blocked all four McDonald’s UK distribution centres on May 22nd.

The post Why We Occupy McDonald’s first appeared on Animal Rebellion.

BREAKING: ANIMAL REBELLION BLOCKADES MCDONALD’S ONLY BURGER FACTORY 

• Animal Rebellion is blockading McDonald’s only burger factory, which produces 3 million beef patties per day for 3.5 million daily customers.
• They state that they are prepared to stay as long as needed to cause massive disruption to McDonald’s supply chain and encourage workers and supporters to join them in their occupation.
• This blockade comes after Animal Rebellion shut down all four of McDonald’s distribution centres 2 months ago, leading to food shortages and store closures for the global fast food chain.
• Animal Rebellion is demanding that McDonald’s switch to a fully plant-based food menu by 2025. 

Animal Rebellion is calling on people to “bring their tents” and come to Scunthorpe as they blockade a factory which produces all of McDonald’s iconic beef burger patties, with 3 million burgers made per day.

Around 100 protestors set up a blockade using trucks, tents, bamboo structures and a roof occupation in the early hours of this morning to stop the facility from distributing burgers. The protestors have said they will stay as long as it takes until McDonald’s commits to changing towards a plant-based menu. They are encouraging everyone to join the camp and protest against McDonald’s for their track record of destroying the environment, poor labour conditions and animal exploitation. 

Professor Joy Carter, Emeritus Professor of Geochemistry and Health, University of Winchester said: “There is no second chance in averting climate breakdown – we have just one opportunity to get this right. We need to radically change our food system and it must start with the meat and dairy industry. Until we make large-scale systemic changes and move towards a plant-based food system, we will continue to destroy our planet.”

Animal Rebellion, a mass movement using nonviolent civil disobedience to call for a sustainable plant-based food system, is demanding that McDonald’s becomes fully plant-based by 2025. They have said that they will end the blockade if McDonald’s makes the first step towards this goal by committing to becoming 20% plant-based within 1 year. However, they say McDonald’s is just a symbol of the system they are trying to change, which is the entire animal agriculture industry.

Rose Patterson, a spokesperson for Animal Rebellion, said: “We’re living in a time where massive change is possible, but our window to act on the climate crisis is closing quickly. The meat and dairy industries are responsible for 80-90% of Amazon deforestation, at least 18% of global emissions, and for exploiting and killing billions of animals every year. To save ourselves and the future of our children, we must start transitioning towards a plant-based food system.” 

This protest comes after the group shut down four McDonald’s distribution centres two months ago to call out the meat and dairy industries for their role in the climate and ecological emergency causing economic disruption to McDonald’s supply chain.

According to a 2019 EAT Lancet report, if we hope to feed 10 billion people and stay within planetary boundaries, we need to reduce red meat and milk consumption by 90% by 2050. A 2018 study into the environmental impacts of food production – the most comprehensive of its kind – found that a plant-based food system could reduce farmland usage by 76% and greenhouse gas emissions by 49% from current global levels. 

Additionally, independent thinktank RethinkX predicts that 90% of jobs in the meat and dairy industry in the US will be lost by 2035. Harley McDonald Eckersall from Animal Rebellion said that: “We can forecast similar impacts in the UK as the industry rapidly transitions to more sustainable options. Not transitioning away from animal farming will mean economic and social damage, as we are going to see millions of people lose their jobs in the next decade. These are real people with real lives: McDonald’s has a responsibility to bring about this change before the choice is taken out of their hands.”

What MUST happen now

What needs to happen next is pretty simple: Animal Rebellion is demanding that McDonald’s transitions to a fully plant-based menu by 2025 and commits to being 20% plant-based within a year. 

Currently, the Government, and the agricultural industry, has no plan in place to transition the UK agricultural industry to net-zero by 2050. However, if chains like McDonald’s take responsibility for their part in the global climate crisis, we could start moving in the right direction.

To join the rebellion and call for a more sustainable food system, visit our website now.

The post Animal Rebellion Blockades McDonald’s Only Burger Factory first appeared on Animal Rebellion.