By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — McDonald’s Corp. has reached an agreement with social investor groups and a student group to take steps to better monitor pesticide use on its potatoes.

Through the agreement, McDonald’s has agreed to survey its current U.S. potato suppliers and compile a list of “best practices” in pesticide reduction that will be recommended to the company’s global potato suppliers. It has also agreed to communicate its findings related to best practices with its shareholders as well as in its annual corporate social responsibility report.

“They’ve been so responsive. I’m really proud of McDonald’s for taking this step,” said Katherine Burstein, a senior at Bard College in New York and a member of Bard’s committee on investor responsibility.

She said Bard students started the drive to pressure McDonald’s to take steps to better monitor pesticide use on its potatoes. They approached college officials about it and received their stamp of approval. Those officials thought it would be a good way for students to get involved, Burstein said.

“For accuracy purposes, the agreement wasn’t to take steps toward reducing pesticide use, but to formally gather and share internally and externally the information on the sustainable pesticide practices they already are using with their growers, which may include reductions and alternative methods,” said Lisa McComb, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s Corp.

In a separate statement released April 3, McDonald’s said of the agreement: “McDonald’s has a long history of working with our suppliers to make our potato supply chain more sustainable and we regularly engage in dialogue with them ... including those related to pesticides. We know our U.S. potato suppliers are already working with their growers to advance sustainable pesticide practices ... We agreed to conduct a survey in 2009 to more formally summarize those practices ...”

Charles Liroff is the founder and executive director of a social investor group called Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), based in Falls Church, Va. The group’s website states that it manages more than $41 billion in assets. His group helped the students work out the agreement with McDonald’s.

Liroff is hoping this agreement may be the beginning of more steps that will lead to less pesticide use on McDonald’s potatoes.
“The whole idea of this project is that it can be kind of exploratory,” Liroff said. “There’s a pretty good chance a lot of the growers who grow for Sysco also grow for McDonald’s or ConAgra. Sysco supplies Wendy’s and is a competitor with Wendy’s. Sysco has been reporting publicly how much they’ve reduced the use of pesticides and how much the growers have been using acres using an integrated pest management system.

“We’re an investment firm. We want the companies to be good, long-term viable investment performers.”

John Keeling, vice president and CEO of the National Potato Council, doesn’t have any problem with the agreement.
“We think that basically this showcases the kinds of things the industry has already been doing,” he said. “We’ve had ongoing programs like this for years. I think what they’re attempting to do is quantify it a little bit better.”