Ten years ago in January, McDonald’s announced it would begin sourcing “verifiable, sustainable beef” for its hamburgers. The fast-food chain didn’t have a clear definition of “sustainable beef” or a plan for when it might reach its “aspirational goal” of buying only sustainable beef for all 34,500 of its restaurants around the world.
It might take ten years or more to reach the 100% goal, I wrote in January 2014 in the first of a three-part series on McDonald’s and sustainable beef.
After ten years, I decided to look back at what had happened since then: what McDonald’s, which has promised to reach net-zero carbon by 2050, had accomplished in that time, and what it takes to change an entire industry for the better.
McDonald’s 2014 announcement was a bold move. It took the company a while to start making a plan for how it would get its suppliers and their suppliers to use more environmentally friendly methods. Even though McDonald’s is a big company around the world, it’s not the biggest buyer of beef—it usually buys between 1 5 and 2 percent of total beef consumption where it operates. To meet its goal, it would have to engage its suppliers, competitors and others.
A lot of cattle ranches raise beef for McDonald’s. Their herds range in size from less than a dozen to tens of thousands of animals. In more than 100 countries, the company would have to work with all of these groups in order to make the changes it wanted and had promised the public.
What I learned while reporting for several months shows what can happen when a company with good intentions tries to change complicated global supply chains in the real world. And it shows a big, slow-moving business that, like cows, seems to spend a lot of time thinking about what “sustainable beef” means and how to get a big group of sometimes stubborn players to go in a different direction.
For McDonald’s, progress has been slow and nuanced, but also undeniable. On the one hand, there has been a lot of activity, especially around the farmers and ranchers at the beginning of the hamburger supply chain, who have the most significant environmental effects. McDonald’s is the undisputed leader when it comes to beef sustainability, at least among the larger players. From ranchers to retailers, everyone in the beef value chain sees the company as a key driver of projects and partnerships that are slowly but surely making the sector better.
But even after ten years, the company and the global beef industry as a whole are still trying to come up with basic definitions, metrics, and goals for sustainable beef, as well as setting goals and timelines for progress. Big Mac and Quarter Pounder lovers won’t be buying a sustainable burger any time soon. And McDonald’s has yet to set any companywide sustainability goals for beef.
Marion Gross is McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief supply chain officer. I asked her what information is in the company’s supply chain that shows if the company is actually making progress. She admitted that the company still lacks clear answers.
“We are still learning what are the right measures,” said Gross. “How do we measure and validate? Some of the pilots we’ve done around the world have shown that regenerative farming can store carbon and lower emissions, but I don’t think we have the final answer yet for how to measure it.”
“It’s very complicated, and it will take years before we can say for sure that we are making a difference and how much.” ”.
Moreover, the company changed the goal. A few years after the announcement, McDonald’s switched from using the phrase “sustainable beef,” which means “ideal outcome,” to “beef sustainability,” which means “ongoing journey.”
“Some people inside the company thought we should have started with the term ‘beef sustainability’ instead of’sustainable beef,'” Jenny McColloch, the chief sustainability officer of the company, told me. “‘Beef sustainability’ is a long-term ethos and journey. That was a semantic shift that was deliberate in our earlier years. ”.
A decade later, the story of McDonald’s and beef sustainability raises more questions than answers. How much can one company, even a big one like McDonald’s, change supply chains and markets? How much is an agricultural industry that has been around for hundreds of years willing to change? And finally, and this may be the most important question, can beef production become sustainable at the current rate of consumption? In other words, will the phrase “sustainable beef” always be a contradiction?
A lot of bad things happen to the environment when cattle are raised, like trees being cut down, greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and land degradation.
As one of the largest fast food chains in the world, it’s no surprise that McDonald’s requires a massive amount of beef to satisfy customer demand. But just how much beef are we talking about here? The numbers are simply staggering.
In the United States alone McDonald’s buys around 800 million pounds of beef every year. This accounts for at least three percent of total US beef consumption – a huge market share from just one company.
Let’s break these statistics down further and examine the environmental impact supply chain, and future sustainability efforts around McDonald’s beef usage.
McDonald’s – The Biggest Beef Buyer in the USA
With over 13,000 locations in the United States, McDonald’s serves up a mind-boggling amount of burgers each day. To keep up with demand, they purchase around 800 million pounds of beef annually from suppliers across the country.
This makes McDonald’s the largest buyer of beef in the United States. To put their beef consumption into perspective, 800 million pounds is enough to make around 3 billion quarter pound burgers per year.
Given that the average American eats almost 50 pounds of beef a year, McDonald’s use of 800 million pounds represents around three percent of total US beef consumption. That’s a huge market share for just one restaurant chain.
The Environmental Impact of McDonald’s Beef Usage
Unfortunately, producing such large quantities of beef has a significant environmental impact. Beef production generates high levels of greenhouse gas emissions due to the methane released by cattle, as well as the resources needed to raise them.
Experts estimate beef accounts for 41% of livestock emissions and livestock represents 14.5% of total global emissions. With global beef production projected to increase in the coming years, reducing beef consumption is key to lowering emissions.
As one of the largest beef buyers worldwide, McDonald’s production and supply chain emissions are estimated to top 53 million metric tons per year. That’s more than some entire nations produce.
Clearly, McDonald’s beef usage contributes significantly to climate change. Reducing how much beef they serve could go a long way in lowering their carbon footprint.
The McDonald’s Beef Supply Chain
To obtain the 800 million pounds of beef they need annually, McDonald’s has an extensive, complex supply chain.
They purchase beef from about 20 suppliers globally. These suppliers source cattle from independent feedlots and ranchers, with some estimating McDonald’s supply chain touches over 30,000 ranches.
On these ranches, cattle are born and grazed for around 8 months. They are then sent to feedlots to be fattened up on grain for 3-4 months. Once they reach the target weight of 1,200 – 1,400 lbs, they are sent to be processed.
The beef is then delivered to distributors, who portion it into cuts like chuck, brisket, ribeye, etc. The trimmings left over are what become the hamburger patties at McDonald’s.
This long supply chain makes it difficult for McDonald’s to enforce sustainability measures at every step. However, they have started requiring their top 10 beef suppliers to adhere to basic animal welfare standards.
The Future: Can McDonald’s Beef Usage Become More Sustainable?
In recent years, McDonald’s has faced growing pressure from consumers and environmental groups to reduce its beef consumption and adopt more sustainable practices.
They have set ambitious emissions reductions goals, pledging to cut restaurant and office emissions 36% by 2030. For beef production, they aim for a 31% drop in emissions intensity.
Some ways they can achieve this include:
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Serving smaller, less beef-intensive burgers
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Offering more poultry and plant-based options
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Supporting improved cattle grazing and ranch practices
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Investing in innovative manure management technologies
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Pursuing deforestation-free beef supply chains
McDonald’s recently debuted the McPlant burger, showing a willingness to diversify their menu. But reducing beef usage remains crucial to lowering their environmental impact.
While McDonald’s has a complex task ahead, transparent monitoring of supply chains, menu innovation and supplier collaboration will be key to creating a greener fast food future.
McDonald’s scale as the largest beef buyer in America carries great environmental responsibility. At 800 million pounds per year, their beef usage amounts to three percent of total US beef consumption.
This contributes significantly to climate change through emissions from cattle and resource use. However, through supply chain improvements, menu diversification and other solutions, McDonald’s can lessen its beef reliance and environmental impact.
Lowering beef consumption overall is an urgent climate priority. As a fast food leader, McDonald’s has the opportunity to drive this change forward. The coming years will reveal if they can turn around their beef usage for a more sustainable future.
From pilots to progress
A lot of bad things happen to the environment when cattle are raised, like trees being cut down, greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and land degradation. Because beef is grown in almost every country, those impacts are global. And with beef consumption set to increase dramatically, they are certain to grow in the coming years. McDonald’s hopes to be a leader in the food industry when it comes to sustainability, but even if the company meets its own goals, it won’t make a big difference in the damage.
In 2012, McDonald’s, in partnership with several NGOs, trade associations, ranchers and other retailers, launched the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, whose members are “committed to making a difference in the sustainability of their industry.” GRSB, in turn, spawned a dozen national and regional roundtables, from Australia to Argentina to the Americas, which focus on issues particular to their region.
GRSB spent much of its first decade simply wrangling members and building consensus. The executive director of the group, Ruaraidh Petre, told me from his office in Aberdeen, Scotland, “It’s a lot of people and a lot of moving parts.” “It’s been a lot of work to get a big industry with a lot of different stakeholders to work together. Some of them are pretty conservative, let’s be honest.” ”.
In 2021, after nearly a decade, GRSB established a series of 2030 goals focusing primarily on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving land use and ensuring animal welfare. They’re voluntary and not overly ambitious. The climate goal, for example, aims for a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases “of each unit of beef,” a relative goal that will likely be overwhelmed by the overall increase in beef consumption: Between now and 2030, the global appetite for beef is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.8 percent, according to Grand View Research. That pencils out to just over 40 percent aggregate growth over the next six years, more than enough to offset that 30 percent emissions cut. The industry has no absolute goal to reduce beef’s overall planetary impacts.
During the first couple of years after its 2014 announcement, McDonald’s engaged in a pilot project, working with the various regional roundtables “to define what principles and criteria were for sustainability across the sector,” said McColloch. The company said, in effect, “We’ll source some beef from those supply chains that are aligned with those principles and criteria.”
Between 2014 and 2016, McDonald’s started doing just that. It purchased a small portion of its beef from verified sustainable Canadian ranches. (Canada is one of the few countries with a program to certify beef sustainability. Nearly 9,000 cows were used in that project, which produced about 300,000 pounds of beef that McDonald’s used to make 2 4 million “sustainable” hamburger patties. That’s roughly one-tenth of a percent of the 2. 5 billion burgers the company sells each year worldwide.
Among the project’s objectives: to bring the GRSB’s Principles and Criteria to life and to accelerate development of an industry-led beef sustainability framework.
People who raise Charolais cattle in Ponoka, Alberta, and have been on the board of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) told me, “The indicators that McDonald’s used in the pilot project were a starting point for the indicators that the [CRSB] used in their certification process.” “They did a lot to help build trust between the people who raise animals and the people who buy our products.” ”.
From 2016 on, the company worked on building the industry’s infrastructure and a network of on-farm research programs to show how sustainable beef could be. “We chose 10 sourcing markets that made up about 85% of our beef volume and said, ‘In all of those markets, we’re going to have a farmer network, we’re going to set up flagship farms, and we’re going to do research on beef standability programs that are in line with the GRSB criteria and principles,'” McColloch explained. “And from every one of those markets, we will source some portion of beef from those supply chains. ’”.
The US still eats more meat than almost every other country, but developing countries are beginning to catch up.
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FAQ
How many cows a year does McDonalds use?
How much ground beef does McDonald’s use a day?
Is McDonalds the largest buyer of beef?
Does McDonald’s sell more chicken or beef?
How much beef does McDonald’s sell?
In the United States alone, McDonald’s sells more than 1 billion pounds of beef and more than 500 million cups of coffee each year.
How much food does McDonald’s sell?
McDonald’s sells a tremendous amount of food each year in the U.S. alone — by some estimates, more than 1 billion pounds of beef (from 5-1/2 million head of cattle) and more than 500 million cups of coffee. Globally, the company buys 3.4 billion pounds of potatoes every year, and serves more than 9 million pounds of french fries every day.
Is McDonald’s a major meat supplier?
In addition, McDonald’s points to Philadelphia-based Keystone Foods as a major meat supplier providing the chain with more than 150 million pounds of beef, 300 million pounds of chicken, and 15 million pounds of fish each year.
Will McDonald’s change the beef industry?
Still, it’s clear that McDonald’s is committed to some ambitious changes that could lead to a massive overhaul in the beef industry, especially in the United States. That’s because McDonald’s is the biggest buyer of beef in the U.S., buying about 800 million pounds of beef every year and accounting for three percent of U.S. beef consumption.