{"id":9201,"date":"2010-11-05T10:45:13","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T15:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=9201"},"modified":"2010-11-05T10:45:13","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T15:45:13","slug":"mcdonalds-happy-meal-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/mcdonalds-happy-meal-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco’s Regulation of McDonald’s Happy Meal: A Victory for Kids…and for Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"
Amidst all the hubbub of elections this November 2nd, one potentially revolutionary vote was cast: San Francisco\u2019s Board of Supervisors voted eight to three to prohibit free toys in McDonald\u2019s infamous Happy Meals in the city.<\/p>\n
Specifically, as reported by Reuters<\/a>, the law would allow free toys only in restaurant meals for kids that have less than 600 calories, include fruits and vegetables, and come with beverages that do not contain \u201cexcessive\u201d fat or sugar. The goal, according to supporters of the ordinance, is \u201cto promote healthy eating habits while fighting childhood obesity.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, this is a huge win for opponents of deceptive marketing campaigns that peddle unhealthy foods and lifestyles to kids, in a country where 15% of children are classified as obese, and lifestyle diseases like heart attacks and diabetes ravage the population as a whole.<\/p>\n But this is also a victory for animals, since it provides a serious blow to the fast-food industry and, through that, the cruel abuses of factory farms. <\/p>\n Despite the fact that consumers get a large proportion of their animal products from factory farms, and despite the relentless campaigns to spread awareness of the horrid torture inflicted on animals in factory farms, there is still a pervasive cultural blindness to the reality of the situation. It is too easy to see processed animal foods as somehow separate from, unrelated to, the living beings that had to suffer and die for them.<\/p>\n Fast food takes the convenience and separation phenomena one step further. The menu items are so far removed from living animals, are marketed with such cunning and conniving ploys to all demographics, and are the acme of convenience, that it takes effort to connect the food to the animals and so to the cruelty of the entire industry.<\/p>\n And although some fast-food restaurants, including McDonald\u2019s, have taken steps to reduce cruelty in the farms and slaughterhouses they use\u00a0(after much effort from animal-rights organizations and conscientious consumers), they are still one of the largest outlets for, and so supporters of, factory farming. You can learn more about the industry\u2019s willing support of (supposedly) cost-cutting, assembly-line efficient animal production at websites such as McCruelty.com<\/a> or (the lowest of the low) KentuckyFriedCruelty.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nMcDonalds Happy Meal: a Boon for Factory Farms<\/h2>\n