Today, McDonald’s Is Less Offensive To All Life Forms Than It Was Yesterday

I just sent a letter to McDonald’s to congratulate them on their recent pledge to ensure the palm oil, beef, fiber-based packaging, coffee, and poultry in their products does not contribute to tropical deforestation. Apparently, their decision to head in the right decision here was the direct result of the work by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and its supporters who sent over 140,000 emails (including mine) to tell McDonald’s and the rest of America’s fast food chains that there’s no excuse to continue buying palm oil that could cause climate change, loss of endangered species habitat, and tropical deforestation.

Even when all this is in place, they’ll remain purveyors of childhood obesity, diabetes and malnutrition, cruelty to animals, refusal to pay their 1.8 million employees a living wage, etc.

But we need to accept progress wherever we can find it. This is a reminder of a phenomenon we see so often: a large number of tiny actions can make a big difference.