‘McDonald’s is a big supporter of British agriculture and farmers are well placed to deliver high quality, sustainable food to the restaurant chain’s customers.’ That was the key message from Nina Prichard, Head of Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing McDonald’s UK & Ireland, when she addressed farmers at the NFU Cymru Ceredigion County Conference.
She stated that the company’s ability to serve over four million customers a day in non-Covid times was only possible because of the working relationship they enjoy with over 23,000 British and Irish farmers, many of whom have worked with McDonald’s for more than 40 years.
Ms Prichard said: “We’re a big supporter of British agriculture. We only use 100% British and Irish beef and we only use free range eggs and have done for over 20 years. We only use British RSPCA-assured pork, we use UK organic milk for our teas, coffees, porridge and Happy Meal milk bottles, and we only use British potatoes for all of our fries. So the British farming industry is an extremely important part of our supply chain. Without farmers and without those quality ingredients we basically don’t have a menu and the ability to serve all of those customers.”
During her presentation, Ms Prichard stated that sustainability was ‘key’ to McDonald’s and defined this using ‘three Es’ - environment, economics and ethics – each of which the business was looking to develop holistically and simultaneously.
She said: “More and more, customers are telling us that they want high quality, safe food, but they also want it to be produced in a way that is good for the planet, that is positive for people working within the supply chain and within our restaurants, and that it has high animal welfare standards.”
Ms Prichard told NFU Cymru members that climate change was presenting a challenge to all businesses and that McDonald’s was committed to ‘embracing change and finding solutions’. She referenced a scheme where McDonald’s had worked with 200 beef farmers over a six-year period, looking at ways to lower those businesses’ carbon footprint by improving efficiencies such as daily liveweight gains and home-grown forage. Ms Prichard stated that, over a six-year period, those participating farmers had reduced their carbon footprint by 23% and identified annual cost savings of up to £23,000.
She added that she believed that the low carbon footprint of beef produced in the UK and Ireland, in comparison to other regions of the world, was a unique selling point and a great advert for the industry’s sustainable values.
NFU Cymru President John Davies thanked Nina Prichard for her presentation and the support McDonald’s showed to British farming and its produce. Mr Davies provided NFU Cymru members with an update on a number of areas of the union’s work, including its work with supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic, country of origin labelling, BPS support, lobbying on the UK/EU trade deal, net zero and bovine TB.
NFU Cymru Ceredigion County Chairman Glyn Davies said: “I’d like to thank Nina Prichard for joining our county conference this evening and providing members with such a detailed view of McDonald’s work with the farming industry. I know that the McDonald’s restaurant in Aberystwyth is very popular with customers and it is great to know that so much of the food purchased from the site is produced by British farmers.”
NFU Cymru would like to thank HSBC UK for sponsoring all 11 of this year’s virtual county conferences.