Amid falling sales and continued financial worries, McDonald’s will be closing a record 700 stores by the end of the year. The news comes just as states like Vermont push forward with major GMO labeling initiatives that would likely brand many of McDonald’s’ ‘balanced’ meal options as full of genetically modified ingredients.
I’ve been very passionate about the latest financial developments regarding both McDonald’s and Monsanto, as they represent a key shift in the way that we view our food supply. With McDonald’s continually losing money on a monthly basis and attempting to appeal to the natural lifestyle crowd in order to stay afloat, we now stand at a pivotal point in our food supply’s history: will we finally be able to oust our monopolizing food corporations who refuse to remove many dangerous ingredients from their food?
As The Washington Times reports on the subject of store closures:
“After decades of aggressive expansion, the chain, now with 35,000 outlets worldwide, has been retrenching in recent years. Even before the turnaround plan was unveiled, the company said it would double the number of store closures this year to around 700.”
An unprecedented closure for a company that has traditionally been ‘exploding’ around the globe.
Meanwhile, we see sales figures for organic crops absolutely skyrocketing across the board — to the point where farmers are being forced to import organic crops from international vendors in order to meet the demand. As Christina Sarich reported back in February of this year for Natural Society:
“Over 20,000 stores now offer organic food products. A report has shown that in 2012, more than $28.4 million was spent on healthful organic food, and that number has grown since the report published such findings. According to Nutrition Business Journal, organic food sales will reach a startling $35 billion this year. For those of us who don’t take our health for granted, this is just the beginning of a food revolution.”
The only hope for McDonald’s is to convince their current and future customers that they are, in fact, ‘going natural.’ And with the announcement of procuring (partially) antibiotic-free chicken ‘sometime’ in the future for their chicken-based products, we see this trend beginning. The real question, however, is this: who will buy their new narrative after years of neglecting our concerns?
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Photo Credit: Time – Justin Sullivan—Getty Images
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