Vegetarian Star

In case you didn’t hear the good news, McDonald’s has been trumped as the #1 fast-food chain by Subway restaurants. Worldwide, Subway now has 33,749 restaurants while McDonald’s trails at 32,737. This means more places for a healthier sandwich loaded with fresh veggies and even a veggie patty at some locations. It also means that as a business, McDonald’s needs to kick up its game to stay nose to nose with its major competitor.

In a letter to James Skinner, CEO of McDonald’s Corporation, Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, says McDonald’s can cut healthcare expenses for its employees (it’s been thinking of dropping healthcare altogether) if it puts them on the PCRM’s 21-Day Kickstart program.

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Christie Brinkley was fortunate enough to go veg before she bit her teeth into a McDonald’s hamburger.

When talking with Shape Magazine, the model who is just four years shy of 60 revealed her only experience was a french fry and a taste of shake. Both of those ended badly.

Shape.com: You’ve never had McDonalds?

Christie: “Never. Never ever in my whole life. I’ve never tasted McDonalds or Jack in the Box, because I was a vegetarian before those ever existed. I’ve tasted one of their French fries, pure grease, and I’ve tasted one of their malts. Yuck. I don’t even like the taste of it. I don’t like the film it leaves behind on my tongue. It just doesn’t feel good to me at all.

Vegetarian or vegan food at fast food establishments doesn’t restrict you to french fries (which, sometimes, like the case of McDonald’s, still aren’t vegetarian thanks to the addition of items like “natural beef flavor”).

Taco Bell’s refried beans are vegan and getting an item without cheese and sour cream can provide a fulfilling, quick meal for a vegetarian or vegan.

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Further evidence that a vegetarian or vegan should never take a job involving handling meat, as your duties may including eating on the job.

It seems at one McDonald’s restaurant in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a manager was required to taste test every day for “quality control.” Naturally, he blew up like a golden arch to 230 pounds and was awarded $17,500 for the damages, enough to purchase some healthy vegetarian items to help get him on his way back to the healthy 154 pounds he weighed on day one of the job.

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Frankenburger

The KFC Double Down and McGangburger have had their 15 minutes of fame. Now the Frankenburger is hoping to win the hearts (by literally stopping them) of people with it’s trio of McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King food components.

Unlike other “killer” meat sandwich combos, the Frankenburger is not simply of piling of several patties of dead flesh onto a bun. Rather it takes the meat, cheese, vegetables, fries and other ingredients from several fast food meals to create the “perfect” burger. We are already salivating at a vegan version. Here is the formula for disaster, from Village Voice.

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Reports from The Philadelphia Inquirer say Chrissie Hynde will protest outside the McDonald’s at 40th and Walnut Streets in University City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday, May 27, for the PETA McCruelty “I’m Hatin’ It” campaign, aimed at the fast food giant for refusing to switch to a more humane way of slaughtering chickens, something its European outlets have already done.

The protest comes just days after McDonald’s made another decision that lowered its favorability with animal rights activists when it refused to switch even 5% of its eggs to cage-free.

Hynde will be present to pass out Unhappy Meals, featuring creepy looking horror movie Ronald McDonalds, mangled plastic chickens and ketchup packets mimicking fake blood.

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McDonald’s is living up to its McCruelty nickname by rejecting another offer to switch to cage-free eggs.

According to Organic Authority, at a shareholders’ meeting last week, the board urged a vote in the “nay” direction, arguing such a policy, “would not enhance our existing policies and practices regarding the welfare of egg-laying hens and is not in the best interests of shareholders.”

McDonald’s competitors, such as Burger King and Wendy’s, have either already gone cage-free or are in the process of phasing these eggs in. McDonald’s UK restaurants have already taken the plunge toward better animal welfare and the European Ronald McDonald is set to do the same soon.

And some unscientific polls indicate customers are willing to pay if the costs for cage-free translates into a more expensive Egg McMuffin.
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Although McDonald’s in Europe has committed to going cage-free for its eggs by the end of 2012, U.S. McDonald’s show no signs of letting the birds out the wire, citing rising prices for consumers for the more humane and better quality product as the reason.

However, as Wallet Pop points out, with the average cost of a dozen cage-free eggs being only sixty cents more, this would translate to an extra nickel to customers.

According to a poll on WP’s website, over half of people are willing to pay more for cage-free eggs, with 22% willing to pay $0.05, 21% willing to pay $0.25 and 7% willing to pay $1.00.

Of course, we’re not getting into the debate of raising the Canadian bacon pig more ethically (or better yet, doing away with the bacon altogether).

That too should be the next step in making the Egg McMuffin more humane, and keeping up and maybe even getting ahead of our European fast food loving  brothers and sisters.

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Jamie Oliver has praised a fast food restaurant known for greasy burgers for its quality of food.

Come again?

Yes, McDonald’s is one of the biggest producers of cow patties, but, at least in the UK, they have made efforts to step up their animal welfare standards–as much as possible while still using the animal product.

“McDonald’s in the UK is very different compared to the US model – the quality of beef, they only sell free-range eggs, they only sell organic milk, their ethics and recycling is being improved and improved,” Oliver said.

“And I can’t believe I’m sitting here telling you that McDonald’s UK has come a long way, but actually, it probably puts quite a lot of gastropubs to shame, the amount of work they are doing at the back end.”

Oliver frowned upon factory farmed, processed meat delivered to the Huntington, Virginia high school where he filmed Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

The U.S. is often slow to catch on when it comes to animal welfare.

McDonald’s representative in the UK, for example, agreed long ago that battery cages were cruel and UK McDonalds banned this practice before it was outlawed there.

Similarly, KFC in Canada offers a vegan faux chicken sandwich and is working toward more humane slaughter practices while the U.S. has yet to budge.

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