Daily Nebraskan

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: News

McDonald's signature sandwich meal is a prime example of the diversity of the human food supply. The meal - a Big Mac burger with full garnish, French fries and coffee - contains ingredients originating from at least 10 different countries in eight centers of cultivated plant diversity.

"We were curious about how diverse the human diet was compared to other animal species," said researcher Jana Vamosi in an e-mail. Vamosi is an evolutionary ecologist from the University of Calgary.

Vamosi chose the No. 1 Extra Value Meal because of its variety of ingredients. The study dissected the meal's plant products and chose to focus on their location of origin. For instance, corn, chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes originated in South America.

Along with beef, the sandwich includes "Mac" sauce made with garlic and cucumbers, onions, pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup on a sesame bun - ingredients which originated in the Mediterranean, India, Turkey, Iran, Mexico, New Guinea and China.

"Everyone eats internationally, in terms of origin," said Laurie Hodges, an associate professor and extension specialist of commercial vegetables at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "There weren't any tomatoes in Europe until Columbus, and Italian cuisine is based on tomatoes."

Food importation is at least 5,000 years old and was practiced by civilizations like the Phoenicians and Vikings, she said. Ancient Greeks and Romans also imported bread from Egypt.

Broccoli appeared in the United States' diet in the 1920's, and the South American grain called kenwa was recently added.

"The exchange is still going on now and it's wonderful we're doing that," said Hodges, who teaches on East Campus, which is, incidentally, where the McDonald's McRib sandwich was invented.

The McMeal study raised important questions about the security of America's food resources.

"The issue of the globalization (of food) has a lot to do with food security," Hodges said.

Hungry for inexpensive fruits and vegetables, the United States imports 50 to 60 percent of the commercial produce consumed in the country. Hodges said this creates an insecure and dependent system that is highly sensitive to catastrophes such as natural disasters or conflicts.

While it is important to realize and appreciate the history of food, Hodges said there is a much more important political issue of sustainability and the carbon footprint of food transportation.

Vamosi said it is important to look where at the origin of meals because the United States is expanding fuel to ship the ingredients far distances.

"Although most ingredients in the Big Mac originate in places far from where (it's) consumed, most species are grown more locally," Vamosi said. "So I couldn't say that a Big Mac is necessarily better or worse than the food you can get from your local supermarket in terms of carbon spent on transportation."

Vamosi said McDonald's Corporation has not commented on the study and when she goes to McDonald's, she orders chicken McNuggets and a chocolate shake.

"I haven't analyzed the plant species in those," she said, "but I'm sure they're lurking in there somewhere."

kiahhaslett@dailynebraskan.com

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