I have not eaten at McDonald's in over a year, but I'm glad for the chickens. Hopefully more will follow suite

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/inside-mcdonalds-bold-decision-to-go-cage-free/ar-BBvLl8V?ocid=spartanntp

...

Easterbrook, 49, has been McDonald's CEO since March 2015, and he has clearly delivered on the first of his maxims. In a year and a half at the helm he has begun paring costs and decided to move McDonald's (MCD) headquarters from the suburbs back to Chicago. More important, in the U.S. market he launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high-fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of key antibiotics in the company's chickens, and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds that lay its eggs from the cages in which they have long been confined. The latter two changes are potentially transformative not only for McDonald's--where chickens and eggs now account for 50% of the items on the menu--but for the entire American food industry.

It's perhaps a surprise that it has fallen to an -Englishman--educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and St. Chad's College at Durham University, where he played cricket--to revive this most American of institutions. Sitting in a conference room at McDonald's Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters and wearing a pink dress shirt tucked neatly into blue jeans, Easterbrook is the picture of British diffidence, quick to deflect attention from himself.

.......

Now McDonald's isn't waiting for the supply--it's creating it. But the seemingly simple change to cage-free eggs involves complex and expensive logistics, as we'll see, and there's a long, long way to go: Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free. Still, to Easterbrook, it's a key piece of his turnaround plan. "When we can bring aspirational experiences to the majority of our customers at affordable prices," he says, "good things start to happen."

The launch of All Day Breakfast lifted McDonald's out of its deep rut. It has now had four straight quarters of increasing sales in restaurants open for more than a year. But the revival is far from assured. The company's results fell below analyst expectations in its most recent quarter. And it will be hard to keep the momentum going, especially because the one-year anniversary of All Day Breakfast this fall means McDonald's will be trying to surpass better results. If it can do that, and if it eventually manages to serve 2 billion cage-free eggs in the process, it may just change the way America farms and the way it eats yet again.

You might think that raising hens without cages is an obvious improvement over keeping them in tiny cells--how could freedom be anything but good?--but the issue is considerably more complicated. Indeed, if McDonald's had followed its own research, its fowl might well be looking at a future of continued confinement.

In 2009, McDonald's and agricultural giant Cargill, which obtains and manages the egg supply for the fast-food chain, became founding members of the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply. The coalition studied the differences among three henhouse systems. We humans might view the distinctions as akin to different classes in an airplane. First, there were the cramped traditional enclosures. They house six hens per cage, leaving each bird with 80 square inches of floor space, less than the dimensions of a standard sheet of paper. The second option is what egg folks call the "enriched colony" cage. Think of it as the "economy plus" section, or perhaps even business class. Enriched enclosures grant hens 116 square inches, leaving enough room for a perch, a nesting area, and a scratch pad. Finally, there is first class, or what's known as the aviary, or cage-free, approach. Here the hens are allotted 144 square inches each and can roam anywhere they want inside a complex decked out with perches, nest areas, and litter areas.

........

Free the chickens!

love all birds!!!!

OldFriends4Sale said:

I have not eaten at McDonald's in over a year, but I'm glad for the chickens. Hopefully more will follow suite

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/inside-mcdonalds-bold-decision-to-go-cage-free/ar-BBvLl8V?ocid=spartanntp

...

Easterbrook, 49, has been McDonald's CEO since March 2015, and he has clearly delivered on the first of his maxims. In a year and a half at the helm he has begun paring costs and decided to move McDonald's (MCD) headquarters from the suburbs back to Chicago. More important, in the U.S. market he launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high-fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of key antibiotics in the company's chickens, and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds that lay its eggs from the cages in which they have long been confined. The latter two changes are potentially transformative not only for McDonald's--where chickens and eggs now account for 50% of the items on the menu--but for the entire American food industry.

It's perhaps a surprise that it has fallen to an -Englishman--educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and St. Chad's College at Durham University, where he played cricket--to revive this most American of institutions. Sitting in a conference room at McDonald's Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters and wearing a pink dress shirt tucked neatly into blue jeans, Easterbrook is the picture of British diffidence, quick to deflect attention from himself.

.......

Now McDonald's isn't waiting for the supply--it's creating it. But the seemingly simple change to cage-free eggs involves complex and expensive logistics, as we'll see, and there's a long, long way to go: Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free. Still, to Easterbrook, it's a key piece of his turnaround plan. "When we can bring aspirational experiences to the majority of our customers at affordable prices," he says, "good things start to happen."

The launch of All Day Breakfast lifted McDonald's out of its deep rut. It has now had four straight quarters of increasing sales in restaurants open for more than a year. But the revival is far from assured. The company's results fell below analyst expectations in its most recent quarter. And it will be hard to keep the momentum going, especially because the one-year anniversary of All Day Breakfast this fall means McDonald's will be trying to surpass better results. If it can do that, and if it eventually manages to serve 2 billion cage-free eggs in the process, it may just change the way America farms and the way it eats yet again.

You might think that raising hens without cages is an obvious improvement over keeping them in tiny cells--how could freedom be anything but good?--but the issue is considerably more complicated. Indeed, if McDonald's had followed its own research, its fowl might well be looking at a future of continued confinement.

In 2009, McDonald's and agricultural giant Cargill, which obtains and manages the egg supply for the fast-food chain, became founding members of the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply. The coalition studied the differences among three henhouse systems. We humans might view the distinctions as akin to different classes in an airplane. First, there were the cramped traditional enclosures. They house six hens per cage, leaving each bird with 80 square inches of floor space, less than the dimensions of a standard sheet of paper. The second option is what egg folks call the "enriched colony" cage. Think of it as the "economy plus" section, or perhaps even business class. Enriched enclosures grant hens 116 square inches, leaving enough room for a perch, a nesting area, and a scratch pad. Finally, there is first class, or what's known as the aviary, or cage-free, approach. Here the hens are allotted 144 square inches each and can roam anywhere they want inside a complex decked out with perches, nest areas, and litter areas.

........

I'm not entirely sure it's a bold decision. McDonalds have been challenged repeatedly over the years by animal welfare groups for putting profit before animal welfare. If I were in charge of marketing I would be trying to portray the company as a kinder, healthier version of what has gone before. Many supermarkets have gone free range only as have many restaurants and pre-packed foods; this is neither new nor radical - just a CEO using 'aren't we great, we care about our birdies' tactics to try and entice new customers or customers who may not have visited for some time. Whilst I applaud McDonalds (and any other company) for making the move, let's not pretend it has anything to do with animal welfare and see the reality - that it has everything to do with generating more profit.

The question that I'm more interested in is to Oldfriends - Why did you stop eating there a year ago and would this story entice you back?

My parents once mentioned that when they were young, eggs didn't spoil if not refrigerated.

So I googled it.

Apparently our chicken coops are so disgustingly filthy that eggs need to be washed in hot water to get the nasty stuff off them...which also washes off the protective layer that would otherwise seal the eggs and protect them from the microbes that can make us sick.

maplenpg said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I have not eaten at McDonald's in over a year, but I'm glad for the chickens. Hopefully more will follow suite

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/inside-mcdonalds-bold-decision-to-go-cage-free/ar-BBvLl8V?ocid=spartanntp

...

Easterbrook, 49, has been McDonald's CEO since March 2015, and he has clearly delivered on the first of his maxims. In a year and a half at the helm he has begun paring costs and decided to move McDonald's (MCD) headquarters from the suburbs back to Chicago. More important, in the U.S. market he launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high-fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of key antibiotics in the company's chickens, and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds that lay its eggs from the cages in which they have long been confined. The latter two changes are potentially transformative not only for McDonald's--where chickens and eggs now account for 50% of the items on the menu--but for the entire American food industry.

It's perhaps a surprise that it has fallen to an -Englishman--educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and St. Chad's College at Durham University, where he played cricket--to revive this most American of institutions. Sitting in a conference room at McDonald's Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters and wearing a pink dress shirt tucked neatly into blue jeans, Easterbrook is the picture of British diffidence, quick to deflect attention from himself.

.......

Now McDonald's isn't waiting for the supply--it's creating it. But the seemingly simple change to cage-free eggs involves complex and expensive logistics, as we'll see, and there's a long, long way to go: Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free. Still, to Easterbrook, it's a key piece of his turnaround plan. "When we can bring aspirational experiences to the majority of our customers at affordable prices," he says, "good things start to happen."

The launch of All Day Breakfast lifted McDonald's out of its deep rut. It has now had four straight quarters of increasing sales in restaurants open for more than a year. But the revival is far from assured. The company's results fell below analyst expectations in its most recent quarter. And it will be hard to keep the momentum going, especially because the one-year anniversary of All Day Breakfast this fall means McDonald's will be trying to surpass better results. If it can do that, and if it eventually manages to serve 2 billion cage-free eggs in the process, it may just change the way America farms and the way it eats yet again.

You might think that raising hens without cages is an obvious improvement over keeping them in tiny cells--how could freedom be anything but good?--but the issue is considerably more complicated. Indeed, if McDonald's had followed its own research, its fowl might well be looking at a future of continued confinement.

In 2009, McDonald's and agricultural giant Cargill, which obtains and manages the egg supply for the fast-food chain, became founding members of the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply. The coalition studied the differences among three henhouse systems. We humans might view the distinctions as akin to different classes in an airplane. First, there were the cramped traditional enclosures. They house six hens per cage, leaving each bird with 80 square inches of floor space, less than the dimensions of a standard sheet of paper. The second option is what egg folks call the "enriched colony" cage. Think of it as the "economy plus" section, or perhaps even business class. Enriched enclosures grant hens 116 square inches, leaving enough room for a perch, a nesting area, and a scratch pad. Finally, there is first class, or what's known as the aviary, or cage-free, approach. Here the hens are allotted 144 square inches each and can roam anywhere they want inside a complex decked out with perches, nest areas, and litter areas.

........

I'm not entirely sure it's a bold decision. McDonalds have been challenged repeatedly over the years by animal welfare groups for putting profit before animal welfare. If I were in charge of marketing I would be trying to portray the company as a kinder, healthier version of what has gone before. Many supermarkets have gone free range only as have many restaurants and pre-packed foods; this is neither new nor radical - just a CEO using 'aren't we great, we care about our birdies' tactics to try and entice new customers or customers who may not have visited for some time. Whilst I applaud McDonalds (and any other company) for making the move, let's not pretend it has anything to do with animal welfare and see the reality - that it has everything to do with generating more profit.

The question that I'm more interested in is to Oldfriends - Why did you stop eating there a year ago and would this story entice you back?

I'm happy for the change for the chickens

But I never ate much chicken at McDonalds

I think there was something a saw back then about some pink stuff added to the meat that caused my gag reflex to kick in. I had a hard time going back. It was good because it helped me kick back on eating out for lunch, and try preparing my lunch from home more often.

I doubt they are. Too expensive.

This bird-friendly story is certainly "tweet" worthy.

Chikin twat with rice. mmm

2freaky4church1 said:

Chikin twat with rice. mmm

They have McRice?