A note for those who eat beef and McD's...

*Edited*
So Train Wreck told me this email was on Snoops and it's false. Since I am open minded enough to go and check it out Snoopes does have it and sure enough, they say it isn't true. I am including the link to the specific article
Snoopes
so if you're nosey enough you can check it out. As for us, we're not big Mickey D's fans anyway so it's neither here no their to us. Interesting read though.

This has been floating around the net for at least a few weeks now and I have decided to try and get on the bandwagon. I'm not a terribly Crunchy person, I recycle and we use cloth napkins, etc but I am not by any means a vegetarain. And nor will I ever be, I like my beef, it's good and it makes me happy (yeah go there, you know you want to!). We don't eat seafood, it grosses us out. Life is too short to try and make yourself love a food that just tastes nasty. For the fish lovers out there more power to ya, I'm a beef eater that occasionally eats chicken. We do eat at McDonalds on occasion, we have a kid and we work full time. Yes we eat fast food and don't start with me about the bad health issues blah blah blah. I gave birth to a stick, my kid could eat Micky D's 6 times a day and still not get fat. We just don't see the need to, we eat it maybe once a week if that. Still when I do buy my meat it's normally of the grass fed variety, it's about the same price here and I'm semicrunchy, it makes enough of a difference that I will pay the extra change. This current letter bothers me, I don't want my kid eating meat from South America. This is not good, both for our ranchers here and for the health of the US people. One big major health scare and Micky D's is going to hell in a hand basket but I tell you what, my kid isn't going to be part of that health scare. Nope, not in my household, we prefer Freddy's Frozen Custard anyway. :

To those of us whose living depends on the cattle market, selling cattle, raising the best beef possible… this is frustrating. This will keep us from ever stopping there again, even for a drink.

McDonald’s claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their restaurants. Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are looking to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the people of the USA are the ones who made McDonald’s successful in the first place, but we are not good enough to provide beef.

All Americans that sell cows at a livestock auction barn had to sign a paper stating that we do NOT EVER feed our cows any part of another cow. South Americans are not required to do this as of yet.

McDonald’s has announced that they are going to start importing much of their beef from South America. The problem is that South Americans aren’t under the same regulations as American beef producers, and the regulations they have are loosely controlled.

They can spray numerous pesticides on their pastures that have been banned here at home because of residues found in the beef. They can also use various hormones and growth regulators that we can’t. The American public needs to be aware of this problem and that they may be putting themselves at risk from now on by eating at good old McDonald’s.

American ranchers raise the highest quality beef in the world and this is what Americans deserve to eat. Not beef from countries where quality is loosely controlled. I’m sorry but everything is not always about the bottom line, and when it comes to jeopardizing my family’s health, that is where I draw the line. Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

David W. Forrest, Ph.D ., PAS, Dipl.

ACAP Department of Animal Science
Texas A&M University
2471 TAMU College Station , TX 77843-2471