That Was There...

McDonald's Canada released a video showing how Chicken McNuggets are made. And a spokesperson said that it's also pretty much the way they're made in the United States. Critics are skeptical, and some have gone so far as to allege outright deceit, on the basis that Canada is not the United States, and the rules are different there. But the fact that McDonald's could theoretically make McNuggets under a different process in the United States than they use in Canada is not, in and of itself, proof that there are actually process differences (namely, process differences detrimental to Americans).

There seems to be an assumption that in the United States corporations are so evil, government is so corrupt, regulation is so hobbled and the public so dim that businesses can, and will, virtually pick trash out a landfill, toss it in a blender with some colors and flavorings, profitably sell it as food and then claim that they use "only the highest quality ingredients." McDonald's unsurprisingly, has run afoul of this. Not to say that they've never done anything to give people reason to be suspicious of their processes, but there is a difference between the understanding that if someone had lied to you in the past and/or has a reason to lie to you now that one shouldn't simply take them at face value and understanding that anything less than abject confession to the wrongdoing you suspect is automatically false.

No matter what evidence someone comes up as to how a particular food is produced, McDonald's is going to remain the poster child for "Evil Corporations That Are Pushing Trash And/Or Poisons As Food In The Name Of Unfair Profits." As long as people see corporate boardrooms as the cradles of Hateful Conspiracies Against The Masses, and the government as a bought-and-paid-for enabler of same, the idea that McDonald's food is the product of people being up to no good will remain. Which is something of a shame, because if giving people a look behind the curtain is an exercise in futility, the curtain isn't likely to be raised.