Not Everything Corporations Do is Evil

Hal Cranmer
September 24, 2025

That may seem like a pessimistic headline. Unfortunately far too often these days corporations seem to do evil things.

I don’t want to dwell on the evil deeds. You have all kinds of social media, network and cable news programs and the internet in general to do that.

Instead let’s look at something a corporation is doing right, in my opinion. That corporation is, believe it or not, McDonald’s.

Recently McDonald’s announced a $200 million program called the “Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative”. Micky D’s is also partnering with other corporations that are part of its supply chain, such as Cargill and Coca-Cola to make this initiative work. In addition the Federal Government is lending a hand from the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is also lending a hand.

From the National Fish and Wildlife website (linked above):

“This initiative seeks to improve the health and resilience of 4 million acres of grasslands over seven years, with significant investments expected in the Great Plains, Rocky Mountain West, Midwest, West Coast and Southeast.

As part of this initiative, NFWF will manage and invest conservation funding to advance ranchers in their voluntary conservation efforts. NFWF has already begun collaborating with its conservation partners across America’s grasslands to identify impactful landscape-scale projects that will generate the greatest possible benefits to both wildlife populations and the productivity of vital U.S. ranch lands.”

In a day and era where it seems most mainstream voices want to vilify meat and beef producers, this is a refreshing change.

McDonald’s will try to reach the goals of this program in the following ways:

Grazing Management - Optimizing stocking rates and livestock movement to encourage plant growth that maximizes soil function
Grassland Restoration - Reseeding native plants, controlling invasive vegetation and using fencing to facilitate wildlife migration
Protection and Restoration of Water Resources and Wildlife habitats

All of these actions should lead to better ranching practices which should, in turn, lead to better quality beef.

This should have a big impact on the beef industry. There are about 30 million beef cattle reared in the US annually. McDonald’s takes about 5.5 million of them. Cargill is one of only 4 main meat production companies who control almost all the meat on the planet.

Incidentally, don’t just disparage the beef people buy at McDonald’s because it comes from a fast food restaurant.

The beef you buy at the fast food chain is real beef, without seed oils, additives or preservatives. When people tell you how awful McDonald’s is for you, they’re generally right. Everything else that comes along with the beef is really bad.

Especially the French fries and soda.

So if you feel the need to eat at a McDonald’s, order just burger patties. I’ve seen many times where they will just charge you $1 for the patty with nothing on it. It may not be the best beef in the world, but you could do a lot worse.