Source : Perth Now news
Environmental groups have launched an extraordinary campaign over the future of the Great Barrier Reef in Las Vegas, accusing McDonald’s of selling burgers potentially linked to deforestation.
The campaign, organised by green advocacy network Mighty Earth, targeted an awards ceremony for the international fast-food giant in Nevada over the weekend, with electronic billboards featuring the iconic McDonald’s ‘M’ made out of dead coral.
“Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. I’m killin’ it,” the poster stated.
Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Nathaniel Pelle urged Australia to bring forward implementation of its 2030 deforestation target, which would ensure that it only sourced beef from properties verified as being “deforestation-free”.
“Australian beef finds its way into 70 per cent of McDonald’s restaurants globally, a lot of it from the Great Barrier Reef catchment, so there is a strong chance there are Big Macs out there that can be linked to deforestation that is damaging the reef,” he said.
“It’s positive that McDonald’s has a deforestation commitment and is prioritising Australia but it should take deforestation off the menu well before 2030 to save the reef.”
Australia is considered a high-priority country, alongside beef giants Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, in McDonald’s deforestation-free beef procurement policy.
McDonald’s, in its beef procurement policy, said it had worked with producer groups over a number of years to “better understand and address the links and drivers between beef production, deforestation and conversion”.
“Suppliers provide information to the company annually and we provide tailored feedback to further strengthen our collaboration to eliminate deforestation,” it stated.
“We are currently evaluating options to enhance our risk assessment work in Australia, given the unique environment.”
McDonald’s Australia has been contacted for comment.
It comes as the reef is expected to make the agenda of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting in Korea next month.
Last month, five leading Australian environmental groups wrote to the United Nations urging for greater scrutiny of Australia’s pledged to act on deforestation in catchment areas for the reef, which experts say can lead to hard sediment and toxic pesticides flowing into the world-famous site and suffocating coral.
Under reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the Albanese government has sought to restrict land clearing within 50m of waterways leading into reef catchments to those with federal approval.
In an earlier statement, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government was committed to supporting the reef with almost $4bn invested by the federal government since 2014-15.
Mr Watt said the rule change would “support further improvements for the quality of water flowing to the reef”.
“This is a change that the environmental groups who have sent this letter to UNESCO had been calling for, for many years,” he said.
