To the Editor:

A false rumor about McDonald’s has been circulating via e-mail and the internet in various forms for at least seven years. The rumor claims McDonald’s refuses to buy U.S. beef, and imports potentially unsafe beef from South America.

The e-mail asks recipients to boycott McDonald’s and send chain letters by e-mail encouraging others to stop eating at McDonald’s. Unsuspecting individuals have fallen victim to this effort because it came from friends whom they trust. Most of the information included in the e-mail is fictitious and should be ignored.

The first e-mail on this topic surfaced in 2002 and it has resurfaced again in 2005, 2007 and again in 2008. The e-mail makes the claim that the Texas Cattle Feeders Association originated the e-mail.

This is not true and the TCFA issued the following statement regarding the rumor: “Texas Cattle Feeders Association is not connected in any way with the e-mail you received. The e-mail, which has been in wide circulation in various forms for several years now, makes a false claim when it identifies the Texas Cattle Feeders Association as the original source of the message.”

The e-mail also represents David Forrest at Texas A&M University as the e-mail originator. This also is untrue. Forrest does not know how his name got associated with the rumor and, in regard to the e-mail, Forrest has said: “I had nothing to do with composing this e-mail, the information it contains is false, and I do not support any of the actions called for in the e-mail.”

The phone number listed for Forrest in the e-mail is, indeed, the number for the TAMU animal science department.

This e-mail is definitely a hoax and if you receive it hit the “Delete” key immediately. The Minnesota Beef Council staff has been in contact with McDonald’s as well as with Forrest at Texas A&M.

Forrest assures us that the e-mail is a hoax and he had nothing to do with it. We received the following message from McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s provides customers with food that is freshly prepared and made with real, high-quality ingredients. We source from the most trusted industry-leading suppliers and serve 100 percent U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected beef. Due to a well-documented shortage of lean beef in the United States and to meet the needs of our customers, we do purchase a relatively small percentage of high-quality imported lean beef from New Zealand and Australia. We do this to supplement to our domestic beef purchases. McDonald’s remains one of the largest purchasers of U.S. beef, and where possible, our preference is to always purchase locally and domestically.”

Those who feel stirred to boycott McDonald’s would be well advised to first acquaint themselves with the facts before giving up their Big Macs. Most of what is in the chain e-mail is false information.

Instead of encouraging folks to boycott McDonald’s, we should be thanking them for being one of the largest customers for U.S. beef, eggs, dairy products, pork and other products.

In regard to beef from South America, only Uruguay can export fresh beef to the United States; all other South American beef must be in cooked or canned form due to foot and mouth disease concerns.

The United States has traditionally been the largest customer for beef from Australia, New Zealand, Central America and Uruguay.

Almost all of these imports are in the form of lean trim used either in quick-service hamburgers or case-ready frozen hamburger.

While there is a market for extra lean beef trimmings for quick-service restaurants, it is not economical for U.S. beef producers to target this market.

Ronald F. Eustice

Minnesota Beef Council Executive Director