See below, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. So what does this mean?
Didn't Andrew or someone say the beef in Australia is grass fed?  Would this
be a good thing?  Grass fed McDonald's burgers?  Without the bun, of course.

 Aileen



 Posted on Thu, Sep. 12, 2002

McDonald's owner longs for a Lone Star Burger
Staff and Wire Reports

VICTORIA - Texas hamburgers for Texans had a nice ring when a McDonald's
franchisee suggested it this week. But a Lone Star Burger made from Texas
beef is probably a long way from hitting the menu.

Scott Spencer, who owns four McDonald's restaurants in Victoria,  proposed
the Lone Star Burger during a meeting between the fast-food giant's top beef
buyer, franchisees and cattle raisers. The meeting aimed to explain
McDonald's test program to use more beef from Australia and New Zealand in
some of its restaurants in the Southeast.

"One of the local beef producers asked if there was something to promote
Texas beef. I suggested this," Spencer said.

Increased demand for leaner beef has produced something of a shortage of the
low-fat trimmings commonly used to make ground beef, said Bob McCan, first
vice president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in
Fort Worth. That has prompted McDonald's, which bills itself as the largest
U.S. purchaser of beef, to look offshore for meat.

Spencer said about 400 Texas McDonald's franchise owners are trying to
persuade the company's corporate office in Chicago to back the Lone Star
Burger. But that's no easy task.

"We've been trying to get a branded Texas product for three years. It's
tougher than it sounds," he said.

McDonald's did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

 Beef used by Texas McDonald's restaurants comes from an Oklahoma processor,
Spencer said.