-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Burger King boycott
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:43:24 -0600
From: Andy Driscoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: The Driscoll Newswire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From Rake's/Daily Planet's Jeremy Iggers: The ingredients list below is
paralyzing -- but it doesn't show up at the take-out window. (So, just
what is autolyzing, as in autolyzed yeast extract?) And is all of this
really necessary for a chicken sandwich? Frightening.
*I'm joining the Burger King boycott
*
BY JEREMY IGGERS, THE RAKE
I'll admit it's not a big sacrifice on my part ---_ my cons_umption of
Junior Whoppers and Spicy Chicken Patties works out to about one
sandwich a year. But after reading Eric Schlosser's op-ed piece in The
New York Times about the giant fast food company's refusal to pay an
extra penny a pound for the tomatoes harvested by migrant workers in
Florida, I'm taking the pledge --- no more BK until they do the right thing.
According to this news story in the Times, both McDonald's and Yum
Brands, which owns Taco Bell, agreed to a deal negotiated with the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to pay an additional penny a pound for
tomatoes, with the proceeds passed along to the farm workers. That deal
has been in effect since 2005, and McDonald's joined this year. It's not
making the farmworkers rich, by any means - according to a Coalition of
Immokalee Workers report, tomato pickers earn, on average, $10,000/year.
The piece rate of 45 cents per 32 pound bucket of tomatoes hasn't
increased since 1980, which means that the farm workers have to pick
more than twice as many buckets as they did in 1980 to earn minimum wage.
Continued advertisement Theater All Year
The penny a pound deal only covers a small fraction of Florida's migrant
tomato pickers, and even after the increase, their earnings are still at
the poverty level. But the deal may fall apart because Burger King has
refused to sign on, and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange is
threatening growers who participate with a $100,000 fine. The Tomato
Growers call the surcharge "un-American" and say that allowing the
surcharge would violate anti-trust and labor laws. But according to one
legal expert quoted by the Times, it's the tomato growers who may be
violating anti-trust laws, by preventing their members from participating.
Responding to a reporter for the DeLand-Delton Beacon, a Burger King
spokesperson said that "Any dispute over wages and pay should be settled
between the employer and employee, and Burger King is not a party to
this dispute." But as Schlosser points out, Burger King doesn't hesitate
to tell its suppliers how to treat their livestock - if Taco Bell and
McDonald's can sign on to fairer wages for the people who harvest their
tomatoes, so can Burger King.
And if the moral argument doesn't persuade you to skip those spicy
chicken patties, maybe a look at their ingredient list will:
Chicken breasts with rib meat, Water, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG),
Flavors, Chicken Fat, Propylene Glycol, Water, Sunflower Oil, Artificial
Flavors, Sodium Lactate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Chicken Broth,
Polysorbate 60, Polysorbate 80, Sodium Hydroxide, Medium Chain
Triglycerides, Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean &
Cottonseed Oil, Papain, Chicken Powder, & Thiamine Hydrochloride,
Flavoring. Breaded with: Bleached Wheat Flour, Enriched Wheat Flour
(Enriched with Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate,
Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Salt, Spice, Dextrose, Leavening (Sodium Acid
Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate) Onion Powder, Garlic Powder,
Extractives of Paprika, Soybean Oil, set in Partially Hydrogenated
Soybean Oil. Battered with: Water, Bleached Wheat Flour, Modified Corn
Starch, Salt, Spices, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium
Bicarbonate), Soybean Oil, Onion Powder, Dextrin, Extractives of
Paprika, Yellow 6, Red 40 Lake, Natural & Artificial Flavor (Including
Butter Flavor), Lactic Acid, Not more than 2% Sodium Silico Aluminate
added to prevent caking. Predusted With: Wheat Flour, Modified Corn
Starch, Salt, Wheat Gluten, Spice, Extractives of Paprika, Soybean Oil,
Onion Powder, Not More Than 2% Silicon Dioxide Added to Prevent Caking.
Contains: Wheat.
Posted: Mon, 12/03/2007 - 19:59
Article Tags:
Both Food and restaurants Working
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Andy
*/-/*
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