Never Go to McDonald's Again

Why You Should Never go to McDonald’s Again

By Olivia Powell
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

3,600 miles away from the green hills of Vermont, a new day is beginning in a misty Amazon rainforest. Birds, decorated in colorful, glossy feathers greet the first rays of awakening sunlight with their enchanting songs. Life thrives everywhere; whether in the trees, on the ground, soaring in the air, or in the murky depths of the river. Leopard kits scamper along after their sleek and graceful mother, batting and playing with her spotted tail. A brilliantly colored toucan, her beak filled with grubs, soars through the air and gracefully lands next to a nest full of shrieking chicks. A misty breeze sighs through the healthy, green leaves. Clear droplets of rainwater glint and sparkle as they rapidly roll off the leaves and fall to the forest floor. This cycle of life and the sanctuary in which it thrives has remained untouched by human hands for thousands of years. But today, tomorrow, and the following months and years will bring scarring and desolate change to the forest. It begins with the alien noises of grinding and humming bulldozer engines. A few hours later, the nasal roar of chainsaws overpowers the songs of the birds. The animals of this forest have never imagined the idea of their home disappearing, but as tree after tree collapses in defeat and the foreign smells of exhaust overpowers those of decomposing leaves and rain, the dreadful possibility becomes a reality. The men, dressed in dirty work clothes, don’t see the startled leopard retreating from her den, her kits dangling from her mouth. They don’t feel the panic and distress tearing up the heart of the mother bellbird, forced to leave her unhatched chicks to die high up in a nest in one of the doomed trees. They don’t feel the confusion and fear of a young monkey separated from her family in the chaos.
Two years later, the magnificent forest has been degraded into fields of soybeans. Gone are the bellbirds, the frogs, the leopards, the monkeys, and the parrots. The exotic symphony of crickets, monkey cackles, frog peeps, and bird songs is forever lost. The thick, green canopy of leaves, the musty bark, and the rhythm of rainforest life is gone. Beef cattle graze in the vast expanse of grass, and rows of soybeans rake the landscape, desolate in comparison with the ancient, misty forest.
4,000 miles away, an over-weight, seventeen year old is experiencing severe pain in his chest. It radiates over to his left arm, and he winces in agony. Inside an artery in his heart, plaque has collected on the walls of the tube and has restricted the flow of vital oxygen-rich blood flowing to his heart. As he reaches into his pocket for his cell phone, he suddenly collapses to the floor. Thirty minutes later, he is lying on a sterile, metallic operating table while surgeons and nurses bustle around the room, preparing to perform open-heart surgery.
How, you may be wondering, can these two events be connected? By one greasy word: McDonald’s. According to several environmental sources, McDonald’s cuts down rainforests, brutally slaughters animals, and causes obesity and health problems in the human population.
McDonald’s cuts down the diminishing rainforests in the Amazon. It cuts down vast expanses of rainforest so that it can plant fields of soybeans to use as feed for chickens. It also uses the fields for beef cattle to graze on before they are slaughtered for meat. In a Fox News article entitled “McDonald’s Fueling Rainforest Destruction”, another serious problem caused by the deforestation is stated: “Burning the Brazilian Amazon releases about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, about 5.4 percent of the world total.” So, not only does deforestation wreck the Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity and threaten endangered species, but it also contributes to global warming. The following is another quote from the article which illustrates what happens when you purchase something at McDonald’s: “’Every time you buy a Chicken McNugget you could be taking a bite out of the Amazon.’” (1). The article goes on to say that of the 1.6 million square miles of the Amazon, a shocking twenty percent of the forest has been cut down. If these facts don’t convince you to stop funding the deforestation of the Amazon, maybe the following topic will.
Many of McDonalds’ slaughterhouses brutally kill animals. Although under federal law animals must be unconscious before they are taken apart and turned into food products, some animals aren’t. This is thoroughly illustrated in a Washington Post interview of a worker at a slaughterhouse: “On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. ‘They die…piece by piece.’”(1) Even though it is a law for an animal to be unconscious before it is butchered, many slaughterhouses get away with butchering animals that are alive and conscious during their agony. In other places in the world, animals are sometimes tortured before they die, as shown in an interview in a BBC article: “’We have undercover footage of a McDonald’s supplier in India slitting the throats of goats and then tossing the animals in a pile to bleed to death…And in footage from El Salvador, men are attempting to stun cattle by stabbing them repeatedly in the back of the neck.’” (2) But when PETA asked for a meeting with McDonald’s to try to stop the animal cruelty, McDonald’s allegedly refused, because it didn’t have enough time. These facts show that because of McDonald’s and its greed, thousands of animals are tortured before being killed.
Not only do many of McDonalds’ slaughterhouses brutally kill animals, its food products cause childhood obesity and health problems. This is thoroughly addressed in a News Hour article—“Fast Food Nation”: “The percentage of children and teenagers who are overweight has tripled in the past thirty years…One-third of overweight students are so heavy they will probably have serious health problems later in life.” (2). Because of the saturated fats, grease, and other very unhealthy ingredients in McDonalds’ foods (such as cheeseburgers and French fries), the children consuming the food are becoming obese (around 20 percent over their normal weight) and prone to diseases and serious health conditions such as “fatty liver, a precursor to liver disease, high blood pressure, and…type two diabetes.” (3). And, although you might think that only older people can get heart attacks, teens with obesity problems are also susceptible to heart attacks. Childhood obesity also makes it harder for kids to move around, run, and breathe, making it hard for them to enjoy activities healthier kids can enjoy.
Maybe you are the kind of person who has a family that likes to stop at McDonald’s on the weekend for a harmless meal of chicken nuggets, a hamburger, or an iced coffee. Or, maybe you only get a meal at the restaurant once in a while. Although you may think that your monthly splurges seem harmless, since they are so infrequent, think of you times ten thousand, all going to McDonald’s at different times. If the entire population of Vermont (roughly 600,000) went to McDonald’s only once a month and made an average ten-dollar purchase, McDonald’s would make 6 million dollars! If the entire population of the USA (roughly 300 million) spent ten dollars every month at McDonald’s, the restaurant would make 3 billion dollars! All of this money would be used to destroy forests, slaughter hundreds of thousands of animals, and manufacture fattening foods. The next time you or your family has a yearning to stop at McDonald’s, I urge you to realize before you hand over that smooth ten-or twenty-dollar bill, that you are helping McDonald’s. Will you buy a burger or a carton of French fries the next time you drive by the golden arches? Or will you make a difference, and help stop the damage McDonald’s is inflicting on our planet?