McDonald's
Statement for the Annual Meeting, May 24, 2007
Topic: Cloning and Genetically Modified Food

Presented by: Regina McKillip,
Sinsinawa Dominicans

Mr. Chair, Members of the Board and Shareholders,

At McDonald's you get 100% fresh ground beef. Or ….fresh ground cloned beef?

At McDonald's you get milkshakes…… fresh from a cloned cow? With synthetic bovine growth hormone?

At McDonald's you can get fish sandwiches…..or genetically engineered fish sandwiches?

Not now. But maybe in the future? And how will anyone know?

I am Regina McKillip, a Sinsinawa Dominican representing the eight faith-based institutional investors, proponents of Proposal 3, regarding genetically engineered and cloned food products.

In submitting this proposal, we are advocating for the consumer right to know and for protection of the company.
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Cloning is essentially a food experiment. Listen to these cautions:

--Rudolph Jaenisch of MIT, a leading cloning scientist, alerted in 2006 that 'one cannot make a normal clone.'

--Ian Wilmut, lead scientist responsible for creating the cloned sheep Dolly, warned that even slight imbalances in a clone's hormone, protein or fat levels can compromise the safety of its milk or meat.

Will McDonald's hamburger come from cloned cattle? Cheese and milkshakes from cloned dairy cows? How will customers know?
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Genetically engineered fish have potential for affecting wild and native fish populations. They are not yet approved for commercialization, but what will McDonald's do?

Recent events-the discoveries of E. coli in spinach and salmonella in peanut butter- have shown that the FDA is understaffed and unable to adequately follow through on food safety issues….. is McDonald's in good stead by trusting the food regulatory agencies?

FDA approval of foods is not indemnity or protection from liability. FDA cannot force a creator of transgenic crops to submit data on safety testing….the process is voluntary.

A recent review of scientific literature, Transformation-induced mutations in transgenic plants: Analysis and Biosafety implications, concludes that The assumption that transgenic plant breeding methods are precise is undermined by the available scientific data. The scientific review continues….. there are currently no standardized species-specific guidelines to help regulators determine which differences [between commercial transgenic cultivars and control plants] are potentially harmful and which are not.

What does all this mean? It means that genetically engineered foods, while commercialized for over decade, have not been studied for long-term health consequences.

Reliance on the oversight of regulatory agencies will not protect McDonald's.

The only protection McDonald's has against a potential adverse reaction to a product of genetic engineering or cloning is full transparency, i.e. labeling.

Labeling is an indication of due diligence to the sources of food. Labeling allows the consumer to make a choice. Labeling indicates that the company trusts its products, rather than fearing that consumers will know what they are eating.

Vote for Proposal 3, to Label Products of Genetic Engineering or Cloning.

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