Original article (in BCS) was published on 30/11/2023; Author: Marija Manojlović
In a recent display of discontent, farmers in the French town of Vesoul unloaded a truck full of manure in front of a local McDonald’s restaurant. The reason was the fast-food giant’s decision to import meat from overseas, which they saw as undermining local agriculture. Some media outlets described this event as a protest against the company’s support for Israel.
On November 25, 2023, the web portal Stav published an article about farmers who dumped manure in front of a McDonald’s restaurant in France. This event was presented as a protest against the company’s support for Israel.
RESISTANCE AGAINST PRO-ISRAELI COMPANIES IS GROWING
In front of McDonalds in France, they dumped out the manure
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All over the world, including in Western Europe, there are increasingly loud condemnations of the crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people.
Most of the governments of Western countries find justification for Israel, but ordinary people generally do not agree with this and in various ways condemn mass crimes, the demolition of schools and hospitals, and the killing of children.
The boycott of companies that support Israel is already producing serious results. The last case happened in France when a truckload of manure was dumped in front of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant.
A tweet with a video of a truck unloading fertilizer in front of McDonald’s facilities is embedded in the article. In the video’s description, written in Turkish, this event is also linked to McDonald’s alleged support for Israel.
The article was shared on Facebook with a status that undoubtedly links the protest in France with the war in Gaza.
The article was also published by the web portals Slobodna Bosna and Kakanj-x.
What are the facts?
The footage published by the mentioned media was indeed recorded in France, where fertilizer was dumped in front of the McDonald’s facility as a sign of protest. However, the protest was not about support for Israel, as claimed in some media outlets. The French farmers were protesting the importation of foreign meat. International fact-checking platforms Facta, Reuters, India Today, Newtral, Logically facts and Fact Crescendo already covered this issue.
The video was made on November 24, 2023, in Vesoul, in eastern France, where a protest against fast food chains McDonald’s and Burger King was held that day. This event was reported by the French media (1, 2).
On the same day, the web portal L’est Republicain released an article detailing how farmers in Vesoul took a dramatic stand against fast food giants. The report describes a scene where approximately thirty tractors converged on the McDonald’s parking lot early Friday morning. There, they unloaded tons of fertilizer on the driveway and in the surrounding areas, before moving on to stage a similar protest at Burger King.
The article also published a video of the protest. The first four seconds show the same frames that can be seen at the end of the video published by the media in Southeast Europe (SEE) (0:16).
In their coverage of the event, some news outlets reported that 150 farmers from Haute-Saône took part in the protest, dumping manure in front of the McDonald’s and Burger King restaurants in Vesoul. Additionally, it was mentioned that the Federal Federation of Agricultural Trade Unions (FDSEA) of Haute-Saône issued a statement on Facebook regarding the protest. In their announcement, they highlighted, among other points, that both Burger King and McDonald’s “massively import foreign meat (about 50%) for the production of hamburgers”. The post also included photographs from the event, giving a visual context to their claims.
The French media also reported the reaction of the companies. Reuters reached out to McDonald’s France for their comment on the matter.
Yannick Augrandenis, an associate at the communications consultancy representing McDonald’s France, told Reuters in an email that the video shows the Nov. 24 protest. He also included a statement sent to local media that said 75% of McDonald’s France’s raw agricultural materials were sourced domestically in 2022, from 29,400 French farms and livestock holdings.
Therefore, it is clear that this incident has nothing to do with the war in Gaza, as presented in the analyzed articles. This is not the first time that McDonald’s has been the subject of disinformation in the context of the conflict in Gaza. A video went viral on social networks in which a blue-and-white branded wrapper from a McDonald’s restaurant was incorrectly presented as company’s proof of support for Israel. Raskrinkavanje wrote about this in the analysis back in October 2023.
McDonald’s is an American multinational corporation, and restaurants of this brand, in addition to the USA, are located in more than 100 countries and territories in the world thanks to its franchise business model. Many of these restaurants operate independently and are owned by local entities that have purchased the franchise rights. In the analysis from October, Raskrinkavanje noted:
It is this business model that has enabled a situation where one company that owns a franchise expresses support for Israel, while other companies in the Middle East distance themselves from similar statements – even though in both cases the companies work under the McDonald’s brand. Namely, after the escalation of the conflict in Israel and Gaza and the announcement by the owners of the McDonald’s franchise in Israel that they would distribute free meals to the Israeli army, the world media reported that the owners of McDonald’s franchises in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain and Turkey distanced themselves from their Israeli counterparts and collectively promised to allocate more than three million dollars to aid the Palestinians.
The corporation itself issued a statement at the beginning of November, saying that McDonald’s “does not support or finance any government in the conflict between Israel and Gaza” and that the actions of their business partners, who are holders of local franchises, were undertaken independently, without the consent or approval of McDonald’s. This announcement was also published by the French franchise on the X account on November 7, 2023.
Accordingly, the claim that a protest was held in front of McDonald’s in France because the company supported Israel is rated as disinformation.