A Letter to McDonald's

Dear McDonald’s

I am writing you this letter because I love your burgers. They are undeniably delectable, and billions of people know it. In the last few years though, they’ve developed an increasingly bad reputation. You’ve tried to fight that by adding healthy food choices to your menu. You’ve tried to fight it with an advertising campaign that promotes good health and an active lifestyle. This is all well and good, but greasy, delicious cheeseburgers are always going to be the point of going to McDonalds.

As a great lover of your food, I have a suggestion.

It is no great secret that the McDonalds cheeseburger tastes so good because of it’s chemical content. You start with beef, and in order to preserve and season that beef, you add substances, some of which have long sounding names, but taste incredible. But here’s the thing: the mass production of beef has a terrible impact on the health of the planet. I recognize that your company has aspired to become more Green, and to do more for the environment. Every pound of beef produced takes 12000 gallons of water, a great deal more than the production of vegetables. The production of beef protein requires eight times more fossil fuels than the production of plant protein.

So here is my suggestion: forget wraps. Forget salads. Forget bottled water. Make your burgers big, greasy, and loaded with chemicals, just like the burgers we’ve loved for generations. But don’t make them out of beef anymore. For that matter, don't make them out of animals at all. McDonalds has great taste down to a science. You don't need your burgers to be made out of beef for them to be good. You could make your burgers out of vegetable protein, they would be every bit as tasty, and you would be performing a tremendous service to the planet earth by doing so.

As a restaurant that serves forty seven million customers every single day, you would really make a difference. People are always going to eat beef, but to serve that many people consumes a staggering amount of natural resources. These are not natural resources we have to spare.

Thank you for your time, and your attention.

Sincerely

Ryan Adam Murray