In addition to the carbon in the footprint, we might want to add the broader environmental impact in terms of water use and soil degradation, together with the hidden health costs of treating diet-related illness such as diabetes and heart disease. While none of these costs are reflected in the drive-thru price of a Big Mac, they still have to be paid by someone.
It's just that they are paid not by the McDonald's Corporation but by society, as a whole, when we pay the costs of environmental disasters, climate-change-related migration and higher health care costs.
According to a report by the Centre for Science and the Environment in India, a burger grown from beef raised on clear-cut forest should really cost about two hundred dollars. That particular number may seem exorbitant but when examined on a grand scale the full costs of a four-dollar Big Mac may be higher because, in addition to not paying their externalized costs, corporations often get a range of subsidies. Consumers in the United States are paying for cheap hamburgers directly through their tax dollars.
The meat in McDonald's hamburgers is fattened on corn, the most highly subsidized crop in the United States. A report from Tufts University claims that the American beef industry saves some $562 million a year, on average, by fatting cattle on subsidized corn. Total subsidies to corn topped $4.6 billion in 2006.
Raj Patel. The Value of Nothing. How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. 2009.
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