Finally saw McLibel, coming across it unexpectedly in a stack of DVDs at a professor’s place that my friend Amy’s housesitting.
The story: 2 ordinary peeps — Helen Steel and Dave Morris — get sued by McDonald’s, basically for distributing fact sheets about the McCorp’s environment, animal rights, health/nutritional, advertising abuses. The 2 people go to court — and win :)
What’s really amazing is the amount of money and work McDonald’s did to try and silence these two people. Among other things, McDonald’s sent in 7 spies to infiltrate their Greenpeace meetings, so the corp could figure out what individuals to serve with papers. If the big corp had actually put their energies toward changing some of their business practices…
In any case, the results of the trial luckily ended up defending the public’s right to criticize multinational corporations, paving the way for fascinatingly funny films like Supersize Me. Watch those two and read Fast Food Nation, and you may swear off McDonald’s for life –
Update, 5/9/06: And now, Disney disses McDonald’s. An LAT article reports: Disney is not renewing its cross-promotional pact with the fast-food giant…. One reason, say multiple high-ranking sources within Disney, is that the company — which prides itself on being family friendly — wants to distance itself from fast food and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity.”
They are Gods! Here in the UK (and possibly the world) they awakened the possibility in many peoples minds that corporations were fallible.
Absolute heroes!
Namaste
Al
Comment by Al — May 7, 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Hi Siel,
Coincidentally, I am visiting your page to see if you’ve written on or know anything about slow food L.A. (slowfoodla.com) or slow food-like movements that protest the global food industry by buying directly from local, organic, sustainable farms. If you haven’t already, you should read Michael Pollan’s article in the most recent issue of Mother Jones (the reason for my impromptu research) And, if you’re interested, he’s giving at the central library this week.
Hope you’re well!
Best,
Jen
Comment by Jen — May 7, 2006 @ 2:57 pm
hi siel
both an encouraging and amazing story! is it because of that that mcd always (at least in sweden) have pamflets about the nutritional values of the food in stock? sadly the anti-mcd movement has taken some wrong turns such as wrecking an outlet in france and burning down one in sweden. but has any of this change mcd? sure they have sallads, but the bag of dressing is 75ml (ca 2.5 fl oz). has it decreased their sales? probably not.
i just read your article the vol 1 iss 1 of Just Things. I guess the problem with cost of attaining fair trade certification is the same as for organic farming. i have read that there are small farmers in sweden that basically do everything according to the book but the cost of cartification is too much. that would mean that attaining double certification for single farmers in africa and elsewhere is completely out of reach?!
the first form of organic farming in sweden started out as a ngo in which the control was made by volunteers. it worked becauase most of the farmers that (still) follow that scheme (Demeter) is in one part of the country.
are there any other fair trade certifiers that already have schemes for making it economically possible for single farmers to attain fair trade certification?
what is it that makes the certification so expensive? i.e. in comparison to what small farmers can afford. does the certification fees needs to be paid prior to first sale?
Comment by Johan — May 8, 2006 @ 2:23 am
Bravo, heroes! Yup…I’ve seen and read those two you mentioned. Must seen and read for sure :-)
Comment by Maya — May 8, 2006 @ 5:11 am
Incredible! Instead of focusing on keeping the two people quiet, McDonald’s would have been better off addressing the problems they’re guilty of causing. Imagine if all that money and effort went towards cleaning up their business practices. Then there’d be nothing to expose about the company.
Comment by Lynn — May 8, 2006 @ 11:40 am
I have just started volunteering with a group called “Campaign against Climate Change” and our new offices in London are above Housmans bookshop. This is a long term centre of pacifism and home of ‘peace news’ aswell as being where the mc libel case fundraising was centred! Thats a really cool little factoid, #9 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London…thats where the whole thing was based and all the appeals where sent out from.
Comment by Calvin Jones — May 8, 2006 @ 2:50 pm
McAmazon the story continues …
Comment by johan — May 10, 2006 @ 9:55 am
Hey Jen — I’m a fan of the Slow Food movement, though I haven’t been terribly involved with it, unless you consider general avoidance of chain fast food franchises as involvement :) I’ve added it to my list of things to check out!
johan — Coffee farmer co-ops are indeed expected to fork over a tidy sum — a few thou, I believe — before they can sell with the fair trade label. This used to not be the case — Before, co-ops could get in free. I wrote about it a little here — but this is still a topic of continuous debate –
Comment by Siel — May 11, 2006 @ 11:29 am