Adrian Mitchell

• ...when a huge corporation decides to use its resources to prosecute a few people for distributing a few leaflets by hand, something seems wrong to me.
  
  
• The leaflet is evidently written by people of principle whose main motive is their concern for animals, for children and for people they believe are being misled. They make a strong plea for vegetarianism which is their absolute right. Under the heading `Your influence counts' they make the statement; `we tend to undervalue our personal responsibility and influence. This is wrong. All changes in society starts from individuals taking the time to think about the way they live and acting on their beliefs'. I find this a strong and admirable moral statement.

Animals

Clare Druce

• ...the modern broiler chicken is a genetic freak, the product of generations of selection for fast growth. This selection has shown a marked lack of concern, on the part or poultry scientists, for the birds' well-being. Birds slaughtered at only a few weeks of age are frequently diseased, lifeless and crippled. Those kept for a little longer than the usual seven weeks or less suffer from painful and crippling leg weaknesses to an even greater degree.

Animal Welfare Researcher

James Erlichman

• McFact: "Chickens are reared on deep litter, in environmentally-controlled houses which minimise distress to the birds. Temperature and ventilation are constantly monitored, as is the supply of food and drink."

Described thus, a McChicken may appear to live a life of uncommon luxury. But dissect this dressed up public relations jargon, and you discover that the described conditions deviate not one jot from the intensive methods of rearing deplored by animal welfare groups.

Thousands of McChicks are put into large sheds when just a few days old. They will never again see natural daylight.

• McFact: "Only prime cuts of lean forequarter and flank are used for McDonald's 100 per cent pure beef hamburgers."

Well, yes...sort of. The truth, reluctantly conceded by a McDonald's spokeswoman, is that some of their burger beef comes from "spent" dairy cows - older animals which are killed becasue they are past their birthing and milking best. And according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the word "prime" has no precise meaning in food law. Nothing wrong with eating old dairy cows, as such. you could even say that every old mum you eat spares a younger animal from the same fate... at least, for a little while. But does the meat really deserve the appellation prime?

• McFact: "McDonald's will not accept beef originated from cattle subjected to growth promoters or hormone treatment."

Many phone calls and faxes to McDonald's London HQ finally elicited an admissionthat growth-promoting antibiotics are fed to young cattle

Journalist, Consumer Affairs Correspondent (The Guardian)

Alan Long

• Human wit and resource have failed to oust the ugliness and cruelty inflicted on the animals in these conditions.
  
  
• The market in manufacturing beef is an evil by-product of the dairy industry: 1 lb of "vegetarian" cheese is as objectionable - or more so - than 1lb of this beef.
  
  
• ... about 1 million birds die each year on British roads, just in transit from "units" to "packing stations".
  
  
• Intensive production and slaughter of poultry (even so-called "free range" and in laying systems) are attended by all the signs of cruelty: broken bones, osteoporosis, leg disorders, congestive heart failure and ascites, smothering, cannibalism, and the constant need for medication against viral and bacterial threats. Pig-rearing in the EC and N America has, likewise, become farming-by-needle, dependent on "farmerceuticals".
  
  Farming research advisor; see also: cv

Andrew Tyler

• Perhaps my most illuminating experience was when I worked a week (for research purposes) from August 15 1988 at an intensive pig farm ....... The fate of the breeders was procreation without pause. For the female constrained throughout in a variety of tight fitting crates, stalls or crowded group pens, this meant a constant cycle of pregnancies - her young removed three weeks after birth and her almost immediate forced reimpregnation.
  
  
• The stunner admitted to me on audio tape that he was stunning the animals for substantially less time than required by Ministry regulations.
  
  
  It inevitably meant that many of the animals passing through his hands were still conscious when they were shackled by a back leg, hoisted several feet in the air and had their throats cut.
  
  
  
• For all these reasons, I regard the way 'livestock' animals are killed in this country to be a form of murder - one of the Oxford English dictionary meanings of murder being to 'kill wickedly or inhumane'.

Furthermore, based on my experience, I would argue that the way livestock animals - pigs being the species I am most familiar with - are bred, fattened and bartered, more often than not amounts to inhumane torture - given that one of the dictionary meanings of 'torture' is the infliction of severe physical or mental pain.

Journalist and animal welfare expert

Vikki Watkins

• Upon entering one of the chicken sheds, I found that many of the birds had been left to suffer in the most distressing conditions. I found that many of the birds were suffering with grotesque hip and leg deformities, some so crippled that they were unable to stand. Some birds were dying, unable to drag themselves to the feed and water points.

Animal Welfare Campaigner

Environment

Jean Carriere

• It appears that up to 1988, Mcdonald's were using beef from land that had been deforested as recently as 10 years before that date.
  
  This was ecologically irresponsible behaviour given that the rate of deforestation in Costa Rica during the 1960s and 1970s was among the highest in Latin America, and that much of the deforestation was taking place for the purpose of clearing land for pasture.

Environmental expert, specialising in Latin America and Costa Rica

Siegfried Pater

• I am able to show the link between the expansion of the biggest fast food chain, the worldwide expanding corporation McDonald's (McD) and the escalation of the hunger in the world. Whereas in Brazil about half of the population suffers of hunger. Soya is not been sold or distributed to the people. But is for export where it will be fed to McD cattle.

Third World Expert

Sergio Quintana

• Here in the Montesillos cooperative, we do not just produce for the export market. We also produce for our internal market. It is true that we slaughter approximately 70% of the cattle for our internal market.We also process the meat into different cuts of beef and into sausages. We started producing in this area about eight years ago. We also make minced meat for hamburgers which we sell here and in our branches.
  
  However, recently, we have become one of the largest suppliers to the fast food chains in this country and in particular to McD. We now sell a total of between 20 and 24 tonnes of minced meat for hamburgers per month, which is produced here in the Montesillos Cooperative.

Meat plant manager, as captured on the Jungleburger clip from 1982.

Charles Secrett

• Therefore, it is my considered view that, as McDonald's are unable to categorically prove that all the beef supplies used in their United States restaurants at all times only came from cattle reared in the U.S., and never originated from South or Central American countries as the overwhelming weight of circumstantial evidence points toward for the 1970s and up at least until the end of 1986, it is surely right for McDonald's to now admit publicly that uncertainty, for their public statements to the contrary to be withdrawn, and for them to recognise that critics of the beef-purchasing and use practices and policies have been entitled to raise such concerns in public.

Director of Friends of the Earth

Douglas Shane

• In the case of McDonald's Corporation, the company has only maintained that their US franchises do not use any imported beef. (McDonald's has said that their franchises operating in tropical Latin American countries, such as Guatemala and Panama, do use beef form the countries in which they are located).
  
  A US Department of Agriculture meat inspector who was stationed at Equity's facility near Philadephia, PA, in the late 1970's told me that imported beef from Australia and New Zealand - "Not much from elsewhere" - was used in the preparation of ground beef for distribution to McDonald's franchises.

Consultant on rainforest issues

Employment

Siamak Alimi

• ...if anyone joined a Union or even seriously considered joining a union, they would be sacked.
  
  
• ...I knew of cases where employees in my store worked as much as 26 hours in a row.
  
  
• Every time you were seen not smiling you were called to the corner and told to smile.

McDonald's Training Squad, Colchester (UK), 1985 - 1987

Adrian Brett

• ......staff were only allowed to go for "a uqick fag or coffee" or a burger out the back to keep them awake.
  
  
• The shake machine was never cleaned properly and on one occassion maggots were actually found in the shake machine in Bury St Edmunds.
  
  
• Syrups and shake mix were always watered down ona regular basis, i.e. daily.

McDonald's 2nd Asistant Manager, Colchester (UK), May 1986 - May 1991

Alan Cranna

• Most of the crew in store were generally made to feel as if they were fully expendable.

McDonald's management, West Ealing, London (UK), 1984 - 1986

Simon Gibney

• Looking back now, I find it alarming that the labour rate was the only thing taken into account when setting stafing levels, safety played absolutely no part.

McDonald's Floor Manager, Colchester (UK), June 1984 - Nov 1987;
Milton Keynes (UK), Nov - Dec 1987

Kevin Harrison

• I believe there was very much a hidden agenda of expoitation of crew members wherever possible by all levels of management.

McDonald's 2nd Assistant Manager, Colchester and Ipswich (UK), 1986 - 1987

Nicholas McGill

• I am of the view that McDonalds brain washes its employees. The general Management practice was that where a person was not liked or was perceived not to be pulling his or her weight, that person's life was made a misery and he or she generally left. I would describe the McDonalds' style of employment as being similar to rats running round a maze, being prodded with an electric probe in order to correct deviation. The majority of the employees worked well over the 39 hours per week specified in the Handbook. The limit was a joke. Most people did not object to working over 39 hours because they needed the money. A few people at the store even did 24 hour shifts.

McDonald's crew member, Marble Arch (UK), Oct 1986 - March 1987

Sean Mrozek

• So in conclusion I would state that McDonalds have a definite anti-trade union policy. After all low wages means higher profits.

McDonald's crew member and union organiser, Dublin (Ireland), 1979

Elin Odlolien

• I have the impression that McDonald's think they are above the rules and regulations that others must follow.

McDonald's crew member in Lillehammer (Norway), as of Oct 30th 1995

Phillip Pearson

• In at least one case a lay union organiser found that he had trade union material stolen from his locker and was told by management that they can do what they like. They admitted to the employee that they did steal the material.

TGWU union official (London), April 1980 - Nov 1992, on practices

Peter Sutcliffe

• In stark contrast with conditions for its staff in Britain, the McDonald's employees who have the best deal are found in Nicaragua. There the union is recognised and all the workers have 90 days paid leave a year to attend the unions education schools! McDonald's also subsidises their workers travel costs and it even provides a works library. I don't mean that 'only under socialism' will workers at McDonald's or elsewhere get a better deal, but only if the labour movement gets its act together can there be any real improvements in the world of fast food.

McDonald's crew member, East Ham, London (UK), 1986 - 1987

Ian Whittle

• The Manager openly agreed that women - the prettier the better - should operate the tills, especially on a Saturday. This would encourage male custom. Despite the presence of Asian, Black and Oriental managers, the store was blatantly racist.

McDonald's crew member, Sutton (UK), 1983 - 1986

Food Poisoning

Stephen Dealler

• The major problem with BSE is that there is no evidence that BSE will not infect humans to produce a similarly untreatable, undiagnosable, fatal disease (indeed we can estimate that there is a 70% chance that humans could be affected).
  
  It was therefore known at that time that a risk was present to humans and that the calculation of this risk was currently impossible.
  
  
• In 1993 I published a more precise scientific article, fully based on MAFF data and published scientific facts, and using conservative assumptions, and standard epidemiological and mathematical techniques to calculate the risk to humans. This assumed that all cattle with disease were reported by farmers, that all cattle with BSE disease were diagnosed, and that BSE behaved like any other TSE. This showed to the risk to be unacceptably high.

Medical microbiologist

Marja-Liisa Hovi

• The slaughterhouse and the cutting premises operated with a considerable overcapacity causing the meat to be cut and dispatched at temperatures higher than required (+7 C) leading to an added risk of contamination and bacterial growth.
  
  No hygiene checks or quality control measures were carried out at the premises and my suggestions to set up a surface swab programme were met with strong resistance.
  
  There was no proper separation between the "dirty" and the "clean" side of the slaughterhouse leading to a considerable risk from airborne contamination of the dressed carcasses.
  
  Throughout the plant there was a shortage of facilities for disinfection of hand tools and knives leading to contamination of the carcasses and meat.
  
  There was no separate, chilled detention room for condemned or detained carcasses. This often lead to a situation where detained carcasses were kept in the same chillers with carcasses that had past the inspection. This practice easily leads to either contact or airborne contamination.
  
  The carcasses were washed with high pressure water before the inspection. This practice is dangerous as it can lead to the inspectors missing pathological changes and leads to airborne contamination.
  
  The chillers were as a rule overfilled this leading to contact contamination and preventing proper chilling of the carcasses.
  
  This list is by no means exhaustive .....

Veterinary surgeon

Richard North

• As regards health and safety matters, I am prepared to comment on these and, from the evidence so far presented to me, am prepared to say that the number of irregularities so presented - including the prosecution records - do not suggest to me that McDonalds is a company which can entirely claim to take its health and safety duties as seriously as would be expected of a UK-based company.
  
  
• To that extent, high volume production - with its adverse hygiene implications is "driven" by the very nature of McDonalds, which is a high volume business. In this sense, it is fair to say that the McDonalds operation, taken as a whole, is intrinsically unhygienic - despite the emphasis on wholesome appearance and allied attributes.
  
  
• In effect, the consumer safety relies almost exclusively on systems in the various shops, with no defence in depth, the previous processing having ensured that spread of contamination has been maximised.

Independent health officer for the hotel and catering industry

Nutrition

Neal Bernard

• As a result of their high content of fat and cholesterol, McDonald's products contribute to heart disease, certain forms of cancer, and other diseases. The links between high-fat diets and certain diseases are established beyond any reasonable doubt.
  
  
• McDonald's advertising has been misleading regarding its fat content.
  
  
• Heart disease can actually be reversed in 82% of patients using a combined regimen of a vegetarian diet along with other lifestyle measures(Ornish 1990). A diet containing lean meat has been demonstrated to make plaques worse over time. (Ornish 1990, Blankenhorn 1987, Brown 1990). A diet including food products such as those sold at McDonald's could not accomplish this result, and, instead, tends to encourage the progression of heart disease.
  
  
• Cancer risk is elevated by foods that are high in animal fat, such as those sold at McDonald's.
  
  
• The U.S. National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 30 percent of cancers are linked to foods. The U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services l988) stated:
  
  "Indeed, a comparison of populations indicates that death rates for cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are directly proportional to estimated dietary fat intakes."
  
  
• International comparisons have shown that fat in the diet, especially animal fat, increases the risk of breast cancer. (Armstrong 1975, Carroll 1985, Rose 1986)
  
  
• Lung cancer rates are significantly lower in vegetarian populations, even in studies which control for smoking.
  
  
• Strong links have also been found between the consumption of meats and other fatty foods and colon cancer.
  
  
• Eliminating meats has also permitted hypertensive patients to eliminate medication use.
  
  
• Those who avoid fatty meat products, such as those sold at McDonald's, have a much lower incidence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes, compared to non-vegetarians.
  
  
• The McDonald's Corporation aggressively aims promotions at children, using the Ronald McDonald character, Saturday morning advertising, popular movie themes, and bright, attractive play areas at each store.
  
  
• During March, 1993, (National Nutrition Month), McDonald's distributed attractive plastic toys and booklets on what the restaurant chain considers to be good nutrition. One of these toys is a plastic beef steak named "Slugger," which flexes its toy muscles as if to suggest that meat gives strength. The accompanying booklet states that eating two servings a day of foods in the meat group "can make it easier to do things like climb higher and ride your bike farther." The meat group includes beef, pork, poultry, fish, and also eggs, beans, and nuts.
  
  
• Foods in the meat group do not increase endurance or athletic prowess, and do not improve a child's capacity to climb or ride a bike. The concept that high-protein foods are essential for endurance was proved false many years ago.
  
  
• An accurate description of the effects of meat consumption would note its links to heart disease, cancer (particularly colon and prostate cancer), obesity, and other health problems.
  
  
• As the director of the Framingham Heart Study Dr. William Castelli, has said:
  
  "When you see the golden arches, you're probably on the road to the pearly gates."

Medical expert in preventative medicine. See also: cv

Jane Brophy

• Most people involved in health education know that a typical McDonald's meal does not comply with current healthy eating recommendations and that is why their literature states that the two golden rules for healthy eating are "variety" and "moderation" - vague terms which do not help the average person choose a health promoting diet.
  
  In my opinion an average McDonald's meal is high in fat, (particularly saturated fat found mainly in animal products) sugar, and salt (sodium), and is low in fibre and some vitamins which could lead to diseases such as heart disease and certain cancers.

Nutritional consultant

Geoffrey Cannon

• The United Kingdom diet is unhealthy largely because it contains too much fat, saturated fats, sugar & salt and is correspondingly inadequate in bread and cereal foods (preferably wholegrain), vegetables and fruit. lnsofar as the Defendants are making this point in their criticism of the foods available at Mc Donalds, what they say is valid and now generally accepted not only by the scientific comunity but also by government.

For example, the evidence that a diet high in meat as typically eaten in the UK is an important cause of colon cancer, is agreed to be very strong, and with cancer a diet high in fat generally, not saturated fat in particular, evidently increases the risk of various cancers.

• The published statement made by London Greenpeace complained of by McDonalds is:
  A diet high in fat, sugar, animal products and salt (sodium) and law in fibre - which describes a typical McDonald's meal - is linked with cancers of the breast and bowel, and heart disease.
  
  This is accepted medical fact.

Food expert, chairman of National Food Alliance

Peter Cox

• The plaintiffs are in the business of selling hamburgers. Had they left it at that, they could not be reasonably criticised for "deliberately misleading the public as to the nutritional value of the food they sell". However, the plaintiffs have deliberately sought to pass their products off as "a very valuable part of a healthy diet".In these health-conscious times, this is no doubt an extremely effective marketing device. But that is all it is.
  
  It is not the truth.
  
  
• None of the plaintiffs' promotional literature I have seen can be fairly said to give a truly balanced viewpoint. It is, therefore, essential that public comment and indeed vigorous criticism be allowed, no matter how ruffling it may be to the plaintiffs' own self-esteem.
  
  
• Bad food patterns set at an early age can literally condemn a child to a lifetime of ill health or an early grave. Many, many specialists are increasingly concerned that large numbers of children are eating a nutritionally inadequate diet.

Food and Health researcher

Michael Crawford

• During my visit to Indonesia and Malaysia this spring, deep concern was being publicly experessed by health workers, that this had already happened: diabetes and heart disease were appearing as a new health problem. The high profile Western foods and fast foods outlets such as McDonald's, is seen as playing a significant part in the introduction of these diseases which are new to these parts of the world.

Director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children (London)

Tim Lobstein

• The problems which we have in our modern diet are those linked to the excess of fat, salt and sugar - and the criticisms of McDonald's food is that McDonald's tends to take the basic food ingredients and add fat, salt and sugar, so encouraging their customers to eat a worse diet.
  
  Nutritional expert

Eric Millstone

• Consequently I am satisfied that, despite the fact that all the additives referred to by the Defendants may lawfully be used in the UK, some of them may be undesirable, and that there is evidence that they may pose a hazard to some consumers.

Food additive expert

Publication

Recycling and Waste

Paul Connett

• In my view, the only chance one would have of getting "controlled combustion" with the burning of polysterene packaging in a commercial incinerator would be if the incinerator was designed and built only to burn polysterene packaging, and all other trash was handled elsewhere. The moment other materials are introduced - even paper - the chances of maintaining a controlled burn to laboratory standards are highly unlikely.
  
  If this was the case IN THE LAB with just TWO PLASTICS, consider the far greater difficulty when polysterene is burned with A MULTITUDE OF OTHER MATERIALS in a COMMERCIAL INCINERATOR!

Professor of chemistry, St Lawrence University

Theo Hopkins

• I believe that the temperate and boreal forests that were the source of the paper used by the MacDonalds Corporation in 1989/1990 are and were not fully sustainable, and specifically, were not ecologically sustainable.
  
  
• As these forests were not ecologically sustainable, I believe that the use of products using material from these forests was self evidently damaging to the environment.

Ann Link

• In order to minimise use of resources and the production of waste, items should benecessary and durable, so that they can be REUSED many times.
  
  The existence of McDonald's in its present set-up increases the amount of solid waste which has to be dealt with.
  
  
• The EPA's Reassessment has increased concern about the health effects of the levels of dioxin in the general population.
  
  Non-cancer effects include lowered sperm count, endometriosus, impaired immune system, and behavioural effects on children, caused before or around birth.

Paper bleaching, dioxins and organochloride expert, currently working at the Women's Environmental Network

Brian Lipsett

• CCHW research determined that McDonalds contributed 1.3 billion cubic feet of foam food packaging waste to the nation's waste stream annually. Although McDonalds claimed that they would recycle foam, this assertion was brought into doubt when the plastic industry began ranking plastics by their recyclability.Polystyrene foam received the lowest classification, an 8 on a scale of 1-8. One plastics recycler, unable to handle McDonald's foam, shipped several tons of the material back to the company along with a bill to cover the cost of rodent control problems resulting from the storage of foam packaging contaminated with food waste.

Research analyst for Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste

Colin McIntyre

• McDonald's has bought a steady diet of pollution to an otherwise mainly residential neighbourhood.
  
  For a few brief weeks they operated a so-called 'litter patrol', long since discontinued. This did not stop the then Manager assuring a Council committee, considering a late night extension to midnight for their restaurant, that the litter-patrols existed. This was a blatant lie which went unchallenged at the time.

Local resident and press officer for over 30 resident groups