Make up
your own mind

1 A bit of background

My name is Kym Norman (play/pause), father to son Joshua and husband to Kay. I am a self-employed management consultant and PRINCE2 Practitioner. My working life is involved with Health and Safety, Quality and Environmental Management and Project Management. For as long as I can remember I have been interested in the protection of the environment and associated environmental issues. I hold a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management and Technology.

As a parent I hold concerns regarding the quality of food that I and my partner Kay provide for our son Joshua. But this is not limited to additives and preservatives. My belief is that if food has been genetically modified or steroid enhanced, at any stage of food production, and that if any animal has suffered unduly, then at the very least, everybody should be made aware so that they can make well informed choices concerning diet and human health.

This is the stance I have taken with McDonald’s from my first application to become a Quality Scout. In their response, McDonald’s has provided me access to farms and animal welfare and research establishments and allowed me to ask the most brutal and sensitive of questions. This has been my experience.

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2 What exactly is the Food Animal Initiative?

On Wednesday 21st February 2007, I, together with Kay and Joshua, was invited to the Food Animals Initiative in Oxford of which McDonald’s is a core sponsor. The FAI is a working collaboration between, commercial farmers and Oxford University's Zoology Department (play/pause). The farm is used for training and research and the development of sustainable farming methods (play/pause), which covers human health, animal welfare and environmental sustainability among other things. The FAI rationale is Environments Fit for Animals Fit for their Environments. www.faifarms.co.uk

We were introduced to Roland Bonney (play/pause), Communications and New Business Development Director of the Food Animal Initiative (FAI). Roland has been a key figure in setting up an international partnership with the World Society for the Protection of Animals establishing the FAI model in other countries.

David Thomas (play/pause) is the Senior Agricultural Assurance Manager of McDonald's Restaurants Ltd. David trained in agriculture and is a qualified animal welfare officer.

Roland and David delivered a presentation introducing the FAI, the history of the working relationship and the collaboration (play/pause) and the initiatives currently being undertaken.

During the presentation we were encouraged to ask as many questions as we wanted to. After the presentation we were taken on a guided tour of the farm and were shown the living conditions and feeding and watering systems of pigs, cattle, chickens and turkeys. We also observed a live experiment concerned with sheep transportation systems.

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3 Tail-biting in pigs

Of the initiatives, experiments are being conducted to eradicate completely the practice of removing the tails of pigs.

We were made aware that a pig’s habitat can have a profound affect on its behaviour towards other pigs (play/pause). As highly intelligent animals they are sensitive to their living conditions. A pig’s natural instinct is to build nests so that they may protect themselves and litters from predators and to provide shade from the sun. However, if a pig’s environment contains nothing to satisfy its natural instincts, the animal becomes bored resulting in aggressive behaviour towards its neighbours, culminating in tails being chewed off. Currently, pigs' tails are removed as this method is accepted as the only means to stop pigs injuring and harming each other. The FAI provided simplistic, stress free environments (play/pause)

in which the pigs have access to nesting materials, distractions to occupy them and sufficient space to allow weaker animals to escape from those with more dominant tendencies. The research in this area has proved so successful that of the pigs and litters we observed, all clearly had tails, none were aggressive towards each other and our presence did not alarm them.

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4 Free Range Eggs

The issue of free range eggs and the welfare of chickens was the subject of much debate between us (play/pause). It was explained to us that the concept of free range did not necessarily mean that chickens should be allowed to roam freely in fields. More so, that in a chickens natural environment, ground cover is essential to the chicken’s psychological wellbeing, as this environment provides the chicken with an avenue to hide from and evade natural predators. The FAI has concluded that the practice of providing chickens with environments that include undergrowth and tree cover promotes well being and has not impeded laying capacity. The importance of this means that commercial farmers can be shown that this method of egg farming has the potential to compete with and out-perform the use of intensive battery farming methods, in this and other countries.

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5 The future of farming

It has been easy for me to point fingers at farmers and industries involved in the production of food from livestock chains. Whilst I feel vindicated that some of my beliefs concerning farming methods are true, I have to accept that these are traditional farming methods handed down from generations (play/pause) and accepted as the norm in colleges and on working farms. Without proven alternatives and with a lack of knowledge these are the only methods that can be monitored and benchmarked for ensuring animal welfare by DEFRA and the RSPCA. The pioneering research at FAI is positively challenging these beliefs and pro-actively seeking and researching new methods, which not only promote animal welfare, but address the wider issues such as environmental sustainability and of course human health. The proven methods are being championed by McDonald’s and supply chains are being advised (play/pause) and encouraged to adopt these new practices.

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6 My responsibility as a Quality Scout

I am extremely conscious that in my role of Quality Scout, I have an opportunity to help other parents (play/pause) to make informed decisions concerning the health, well being and welfare of our children and families. But more importantly a responsibility to truthfully pass on my experiences of McDonald’s behaviour and attitude towards the production of food for its restaurants (play/pause). This is my second assignment in that role. I can honestly say that with everything I have witnessed so far, I am slowly becoming more and more convinced that the McDonald’s approach is ethically and morally sound.

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