Cargill Recognized by McDonald's® USA for Its Animal Welfare and Environmental Efforts

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing the ability to balance long-term sustainability goals with the need to perform competitively, McDonald's USA has selected Cargill for its 2010 U.S. Sustainability Award.

"One of Cargill's strengths is that when we face a challenge the best of the company comes together to solve it," said Pete Richter, president, Cargill global McDonald's business unit. "This award shows the progress we've made in leveraging our leadership in food and agriculture to tackle complex economic, environmental and social challenges throughout our supply chains."

McDonald's U.S. Supply Chain Management team established the award three years ago to recognize the importance of sustainability as an area of growing importance to the business. "Cargill has demonstrated a proactive, systematic approach to understanding and seeking solutions to address how our supply chain affects, and is affected by, the world around us," said Susan Forsell, McDonald's vice president, quality systems.

McDonald's cited these examples of Cargill's accomplishments:

• Managing and proactively improving animal handling practices in the company's red meat business using remote video auditing;
• Managing the administration of the research that will be conducted with the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply. This research requires the coordination of suppliers, non-governmental organizations and academia, and potentially will play a leading role shaping the egg industry of the future;
• Promoting science-based animal welfare programs through the North American Food Animal Well-being Commission;
• Sponsoring, with McDonald's, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Global Conference on Sustainable Beef in Denver, Colorado, in November 2010. The conference is designed to reach out and engage other beef industry leaders and trade associations to address sustainability concerns; and
• Establishing 2015 environmental goals for Cargill in energy efficiency, greenhouse gas intensity, renewable energy use, and freshwater efficiency; as well as reporting annual progress against those goals.

The U.S. Sustainability Award follows McDonald's recognition of five Cargill business units in its "2010 Global Best of Sustainable Supply Report," which was released earlier this year, as well as Cargill Meats Europe earning McDonald's European Sustainability Supplier of the Year Award 2010. The award was announced in September at the company's U.S. Suppliers Summit in Schaumburg, Illinois.

About Cargill

Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 131,000 people in 66 countries. Cargill helps customers succeed through collaboration and innovation, and is committed to applying its global knowledge and experience to help meet economic, environmental and social challenges wherever it does business. For more information, visit www.cargill.com.

About McDonald's

McDonald's USA, LLC, is the leading foodservice provider in the United States serving a variety of wholesome food made from quality ingredients to more than 26 million customers every day. Nearly 90 percent of McDonald's 14,000 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by local business men and women. Customers can now log online for free at any of the 11,000 participating Wi-Fi enabled McDonald's U.S. restaurants. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com, or follow us on Twitter (@McDonalds) and Facebook (Facebook.com/McDonalds) for updates on our business, promotions and products.

© 2010 McDonald's

SOURCE Cargill

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