244 largest purchaser of agricultural commodities in France: Cited in Carla Power, “McParadox,” Newsweek International, July 10, 2000.
“servile slaves at the service of agribusiness”: Quoted in John Lloyd, “The Trial of Jose Bove,” Financial Times, July 1, 2000.
“Non à McMerde”: Quoted in John Lichfield, “St. Jose Makes His Stand Against the Chicken ‘McMerde,’” Independent, July 1, 2000.
“epitomises everything we despise”: Quoted in Christopher Dunkley, “The Greens Take a Bite at Big Mac,” Financial Times, May 17, 1997.
245 “What’s Wrong with McDonald’s?”: See “What’s Wrong with McDonald’s? Everything They Don’t Want You to Know,” London Greenpeace, 1986.
246 McDonald’s threatened to sue at least fifty: See Vidal, McLibel, pp. 46–47.
about $18 billion: “McDonald’s History Listing,” McDonald’s Corporation, 1996.
the court record included 40,000 pages of documents: Cited in Colleen Graffy, “Big Mac Bited Back,” American Bar Association Journal, August 1997.
247 McDonald’s did “exploit” children: Quoted in Dick Beveridge, “McDonald’s Wins Marathon Libel Case, but Loses Publicity Battle,” AP, June 19, 1997.
“McDonald’s don’t deserve a penny”: Quoted ibid.
248 During the trial, Sidney Nicholson… officers belonging to Special Branch: See testimony of Sidney Nicholson, McDonald’s, McDonald’s Restaurants, Ltd., v Helen Steel, David Morris, Day 249, May 14, 1996, pp. 32–38.
“At no time did I believe they were dangerous”: Quoted in “Interview: McDonald’s Spy Fran Tiller on Infiltration and Subterfuge, Big Mac Style,” www.McSpotlight.org.
248 For Dave Morris, perhaps the most disturbing moment: Interview with Dave Morris.
249 some of the similarities between Dave Morris and Ray Kroc: See Vidal, McLibel, pp 58–62.
“Fitting into a finely working machine”: Quoted in Nick Hasell, “McDonald’s Long March,” Management Today, September 1994.
250 Plauen has lost about 10 percent of its population: Interview with Markus Schneider.
251 Plauen’s unemployment rate is about 20 percent: Ibid.
“It was dumb luck”: Quoted in Roger Thurow, “For East German Pair, McDonald’s Serves Up an Economic Parable,” Wall Street Journal, November 8, 1999.
a third of the young people in eastern Germany: Cited in Leonard Ziskin, “Fa and Antifa in the Fatherland,” Nation, October 5, 1998.
Epilogue: Have It Your Way
My views on how to restructure the nation’s food safety system were influenced by a recent report by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. Ensuring Safe Food: From Production to Consumption (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998) contains many reasonable recommendations that should not be — as so much of the previous food safety advice from National Academy of Sciences has been — ignored. Dale Lasater was a gracious host during many of my visits to Colorado. His ranch is a national treasure. The family’s role in the southwestern cattle industry is eloquently described in Dale Lasater’s Falfurrias: Ed C. Lasater and the Development of South Texas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1985). Laurence M. Lasater’s The Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1972) outlines a holistic system of range management that treats both the animals and the land with respect. The Shortgrass Prairie (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing, 1988), by Ruth Carol Cushman and Stephan R. Jones, conveys through text and photographs the beauty of an American landscape that is largely unappreciated.
I am grateful to the Conway family, who allowed me to poke around their restaurants and hang out in the kitchens. The last hamburger I ate was served at the Conway’s Red Top on South Nevada in Colorado Springs. It was as good as it gets.
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255 “Nature is smart as hell”: Interview with Dale Lasater.
257 Recent findings that grass-fed cattle: See Francisco Diez Gonzalez, Todd R. Callaway, Menas G. Kizoulis, and James B. Russell, “Grain Feeding and the Dissemination of Acid-Resistant Escherichia coli from Cattle,” Science, September 11, 1998.
259 one of America’s most profitable fast food chains: It is difficult to gauge In-N-Out’s financial details because the company is privately owned. Nevertheless, a decade ago the financial analyst Robert L. Emerson speculated that “In-N-Out enjoys the highest level of return on invested capital in the fast-food industry.” See Emerson, Economics of Fast Food, p. 94.
259 generating more than $150 million in annual revenues: The estimate of $150 milion comes from a recent Los Angeles Times article on the chain and its future after Esther Snyder. The actual figure may be as much as two times higher; in 1990 Emerson claimed that individual In-N-Out restaurants had annual revenues of $1.7 million. See Greg Hernandez, “Family-Owned In-N-Out at Crossroads,” Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2000; Emerson, Economics of Fast Food, p. 93.
The starting wage of a part-time worker: Representatives of In-N-Out declined my requests for an interview, citing the Snyder family’s wariness of the press. The information on the chain’s wages and food preparation techniques come from the In-N-Out Web site and from the following articles: Greg Johnson, “More Than Fare: A Simple Menu, Customer Service, and a Familial Touch Prove to Be a Recipe That Is Working for In-N-Out,” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1997; Deborah Silver, “Burger Worship: In-N-Out — the Small Fast Food Chain with the Big Following,” Restaurants and Institutions, November 1, 1999; Hernandez, “Family-Owned In-N-Out at a Crossroads.”
260 In-N-Out ranked first: See Deborah Silver, “Primary Choices,” Restaurants and Institutions, March 1, 2000.
the lowest-quality food of any major hamburger chain: Ibid.
262 “advertising directed at children”: Quoted in Harry Berkowitz, “Pediatricians Want Check on Kids’ Ads,” Newsday, February 9, 1995. See also “Policy Statement: Children, Adolescents, and Television,” American Academy of Pediatrics, October 1995.
more than 90 percent of the children in the United States: Cited in Rod Taylor, “The Beanie Factor,” Brandweek, June 16, 1997
263 safest food supply in the world: The National Academy of Science’s Committee to Insure Safe Food from Production to Consumption recently found “little evidence to either support or contradict that assertion.” The committee’s reluctance to pass judgment was based on the unreliable reporting system for foodborne illness in the United States. The panel did not compare the American food safety system with systems in Western Europe. See Ensuring Safe Food, p. 25.