While attending BlogHer12 Conference in NYC this past week, I had the opportunity along with Leah and Katie to attend the McDonald's Listening Tour breakfast. The Listening Tour is about understanding how McDonald's can improve and adjust their customers' needs and preferences through our feedback.
We were introduced to McDonald's USA President, Jan Fields, who grew up as a farm girl and 35 years ago began her McDonald's career as a Fry Girl!
Now Jan Fields has been named to Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list, the Wall Street Journal's 50 Women to Watch list, and Crain's Chicago Business' lists of 25 Women to Watch.
Some of the healthy changes that will coming to McDonald's in the near future are more whole grains, more fruit, more options for the Happy Meal, more low-fat dairy and possibly some gluten free options.
One fact I found interesting and didn't know is that 80% of the McDonald's menu is 400 calories or less. Another fact, McDonald's has an app to share their menu's nutrition information. Cool!
I, for one, am happy to hear this. It's nice to know there are healthy options for all, if chosen, at McDonald's when taxiing my kids from soccer to swim and then off to 4H. Sometimes a home cooked meal can't be fit in.
Towards the end of the meeting, one audience member took the mic and asked about animal welfare. Jan let the audience know, "McDonald's takes no risks when dealing with food safety and animal welfare and everything." They work with Temple Grandin on a regular basis as well.
This past May, McDonald's came out and stated that by 2022 it would only buy pork from farmers and other sources that do not use gestation stalls for housing their pregnant sows.
After the audience member spoke, my friend, Leah Beyer, a farmer in Indiana and a former dairy farmer, stood up and spoke up about the care farmers give their animals and about how our family farms are a legacy to our own children and we do everything we can possibly do to keep good care of our animals. The heartfelt emotion came across loud and clear. I think there was even applause after she spoke.
Coming from California, I don't know one pig farmer in person. I've never visited a pig farm, but would love to. I know fellow Farm Wife, Meggie, would invite me to visit their family hog farm in Indiana but until I can get there, here is what she has to share about the Gestation Stalls they use on their family farm:
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Thank you so much for the mention! Sounds like an interesting session. Glad you ladies were there to stand up for animal agriculture!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity to listen, first hand, to one of America's leading food chains. What a great opportunity for a farm girl to tell the truth about gestation crates to a room full of consumers.
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