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If beef, the staple of McDonald's burger heavy menu is such a burden on the environment, why don't they offer some sort of plant-based alternative.
如果麦当劳汉堡菜单上的主食——牛肉对环境造成了如此沉重的负担，为什么他们不提供某种植物性的替代品呢？
That's a great question. And honestly McDonald's has given some pretty unsatisfactory answers.
这是个很好的问题。老实说，麦当劳给出了一些不太令人满意的答案。
In a wave of conversions, Burger King, A&W and White Castle have all added some form of plant-based burger to their menu, but McDonald's has been slow to act and has yet to do the same in the US, which hosts the majority of their stores.
在一波转型浪潮中，汉堡王（Burger King）、艾德熊（A&W）和白色城堡（White Castle）都在菜单上添加了某种形式的植物性汉堡，但麦当劳行动迟缓，在其大部分门店所在的美国尚未采取同样的行动。
The CEO of McDonald's, Steve Easterbrook says that they're hesitant about adding a plant-based burger to their menu, because it creates complexity.
麦当劳首席执行官史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克表示，他们不愿在菜单中添加植物性汉堡，因为这会增加复杂性。
So we know there's complexity.
我们知道有复杂性。
The question is: will the demands make it worth absorbing the complexity because it will drive the business.
问题是：需求是否会让它值得吸收复杂性，因为它将推动业务发展。
So like almost all for-profit companies, McDonald's will only consider the environmental consequences of their food if it's good for their bottom line.
因此，就像几乎所有的营利性公司一样，麦当劳只会在食品对他们的底线有好处的情况下才会考虑它对环境的影响。
We can see this mindset in their collaboration with Ford to divert 62 million pounds of coffee chaff that would usually go to landfill into durable, lightweight car parts, a move that will definitely eliminate a large amount of food waste, which is awesome.
我们可以从他们与福特的合作中看到这种思维模式。他们将通常会被送往垃圾填埋场的6200万磅咖啡渣转化为耐用的、轻便的汽车零部件。此举肯定会消除大量的食物垃圾，这是非常棒的。
But it also might bring McDonald's more business from coffee drinkers looking for a sustainable option.
但这也可能为麦当劳带来更多生意，因为有的咖啡饮用者在寻求可持续的咖啡。
McDonald's has also worked to transition their packaging from styrofoam and plastic towards biodegradable and recyclable products.
麦当劳还努力将其包装从泡沫塑料和塑料转变为可生物降解和可回收利用的产品。
But of course these transitions are not without faults.
但当然，这些转变并非没有缺陷。
McDonald's switched from plastic straws drew sharp backlash from the disabled community for being ablest as well as from some of the environmental community, who claimed that the new paper straws weren't even recyclable.
麦当劳放弃使用塑料吸管的做法遭到了残障人士的强烈反对，因为他们无法使用纸吸管，也遭到了一些环保团体的强烈反对，他们声称新的纸吸管不能回收利用。
And in some cases like in the European Union where single-use plastics will be banned in 2021, this is less of an act of goodwill than in response to regulation.
在某些情况下，比如欧盟将于2021年禁止一次性塑料，这样做与其说是一种善意行为，不如说是对监管机构的回应。
So while McDonald's has instituted some effective environmental initiatives, we should also note that McDonald's has the power and ability to do so much more.
因此，虽然麦当劳已经制定了一些有效的环保举措，但我们也应该注意到，麦当劳有能力做得更多。
They have the opportunity to be a sustainable trailblazer, and yet they seem to simply be following in the footsteps of others.
他们有机会成为可持续发展的开拓者，但他们似乎只是在跟随他人的脚步。
Yes, they have announced some emissions reductions targets, but they're conservative and lack actionable steps.
是的，他们宣布了一些减排目标，但他们很保守且缺乏可执行的措施。
On their website the company asserts that they will partner with franchisees to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to McDonald's restaurants and offices by 36% by 2030.
该公司在其网站上声称，他们将与特许经营者合作，到2030年将与麦当劳餐厅和办公室相关的温室气体排放量减少36%。
And also through collaboration and partnership with other suppliers and producers, the company also commits to a 31% reduction in emissions intensity across their supply chain by 2030.
此外，通过与其他供应商和生产商的合作，该公司还承诺到2030年将整个供应链的排放强度降低31%。
This is a great first step and their waste diversion of coffee chaff demonstrates some amount of effort to reach these goals.
这是很好的第一步，他们把咖啡渣转化为汽车零部件表明了他们为实现这些目标所做的一些努力。
But a few sentences about how they're going to work across supply chain and franchises to implement low-carbon solutions seems more like marketing fluff than substantial plans.
但是，有关他们将如何联合供应链中的供应商和生产商以及特许经营者实施低碳解决方案的几句话似乎更像是营销上的空话而不是实质性的计划。
McDonald's can definitely be more aggressive in its climate action.
麦当劳肯定可以采取更积极的行动以应对气候变化。
There are companies, its size like IKEA, pursuing more drastic targets, but instead it seems as if McDonald's has to be dragged kicking and screaming towards a better environmental stance.
有一些像宜家这样规模的公司在追求更极端的目标，但相反，麦当劳似乎不得不被硬拉着走向一个更好的环保立场。
Indeed a group of investors worth 6.5 trillion dollars recently called on McDonald's and five other fast-food chains to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and water usage of their meat and dairy suppliers.
其实，一群价值6.5万亿美元的投资者最近呼吁麦当劳和其他五家快餐连锁店减少其肉类和乳制品供应商的温室气体排放量和用水量。
One of the investors Jeremy Caller notes that other high-emitting industries are beginning to set clear yet ambitious climate targets, making animal agriculture one of the world's highest-emitting sectors without a low-carbon plan.
投资者之一杰里米·卡勒指出，其他高排放行业开始制定明确而雄心勃勃的气候目标，在没有低碳计划的情况下，使畜牧业成为世界上排放量最高的行业之一。
It's this type of pressure than not necessarily environmental damage or climate change that seems to get McDonald's to make sustainable changes.
正是这种压力而不一定是环境破坏或气候变化似乎让麦当劳做出了可持续的改变。
At the end of the day, McDonald's exists within and in many ways has co-created an industrial food system that externalizes all sorts of environmental, social and physical costs onto its communities.
最终，麦当劳存在于内部，并在许多方面共同创造了一个工业食品系统，该系统将各种环境、社会和物质成本外部化到其社区。
Refusing to eat at McDonald's is certainly a way to use individual action to influence change, but for many, McDonald's offers a cheap and convenient way to consume food.
拒绝在麦当劳就餐当然是一种利用个人行动来影响改变的方式，但对许多人来说，麦当劳提供了一种既便宜又方便的吃东西的方式。
As professor of food and nutrition policy at Virginia Tech Vivica Crack argues it's not people's fault.
正如弗吉尼亚理工大学食品和营养政策教授维维卡·克拉克所说，这不是人们的错。
The environments they live in foster overconsumption and unsustainable choices.
他们生活的环境助长了过度消费和不可持续的选择。
So we must also address the food system that has been forged on the griddles of fast-food companies through a dual prong structural approach.
因此，我们还必须通过双管齐下的方法来解决在快餐公司的煎锅上锻造出来的食品系统。
We need to be supplying people with healthy, delicious, ethical and sustainable food options by supporting smaller farmers and ethical food operations, something that McDonald's just isn't doing all the while simultaneously working with regulatory channels in much the same way the European Union did by banning single-use plastic in order to shape McDonald's into a more ethical and sustainable food source.
我们需要通过支持小农场主和有道德的食品公司，为人们提供健康、美味、合乎道德和可持续的食品选择。而麦当劳并没有一直在这么做，同时麦当劳在与监管机构合作，比如欧盟禁止使用一次性塑料，以将麦当劳塑造成一个更有道德、更可持续的食品来源。
But the fact of the matter is that for over 50 years McDonald's alongside its fast-food competitors has fostered a supply chain and a food system how bent on creating food that cast aside the environment, animal welfare and community well-being to expand profit margins.
但事实是，50多年来，麦当劳与其快餐竞争对手一起培育了一条供应链和一种食品系统，它们是多么地专注于创造出罔顾环境、动物福利和社区幸福的食品，以扩大利润率。
Change from within McDonald's is important, but its roots are rotten.
麦当劳内部的变革固然重要，但它的根基已经腐烂。
McDonald's very existence and its profitability rely heavily on our current food system.
麦当劳的生存和盈利在很大程度上依赖于我们目前的食品系统。
So don't expect it to do anything drastic soon.
因此，不要指望它会很快做出任何极端的举动。
Only outside pressure from us together can make that change.
只有来自我们共同的外部压力才能促成这种改变。
