Activists against fast food have staged campaigns to denounce the "junk food" maker, saying McDonald's food, the symbol of fast food, is harmful to people's health. The protests of Koreans are not the exception in the worldwide anti-fast food movement.

A civic group, Citizens' Movement for Environmental Justice (CMEJ), held a campaign Thursday in Taehangno, Seoul, to alert people to the 50 years of damages McDonald's has caused to people and the environment.

The group had promoted a project, dubbed the Korean version of "Super Size Me" last November, in which one of its activists, Yoon Kwang-yong, consumed only fast food for about a month and showed his health decline.

"April 15 in 1955, the day Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, was the beginning of the contamination of children's food. It was also the first step of standardizing people's taste all over the world and making children and the earth ill,"' the CMEJ said in its statement.

They claimed fast food, with its excessive content of animal protein, fat, refined sugar, salt and chemical flavoring, threatens people's health, especially children's. They also said that fast food damages the environment due to the mass breeding of animals for meat and the use of disposable packaging.

"The government should legislate a law obligating fast food companies including McDonald's to reveal the ingredients and materials they use for their foods," the environmental group demanded.

It also asserted that the franchises lure children to their products with free toy gifts.

"We plan to file a petition with the Korean Broadcasting Commission in May to ban fast food firms from using free gifts in their television advertisements. And we'll work to entirely ban fast food ads on television during primetime when the number of children watching is highest," a CMEJ member said.

For their campaign, Britain's two environment and anti-fast food activists sent a message supporting the group's movement. Activists Helen Steel and David Morris have fought against McDonald's in a case called 'McLibel', in which they were sued by the firm in 1990 for distributing leaflets denouncing damages the company caused.

One day before McDonald's' birthday, the British broadcaster BBC also aired the documentary 'McLibel', which describes the story of the trial.

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