McDonald's Goes "Green" With Localwashing Scheme

Is McDonald's a responsible purveyor of local foods? That's what a series of billboards in Seattle would have potential customers believe. The billboards (courtesy of Grist) feature pictures of McDonald's french fries side by side with potatoes that were supposedly grown in the neighboring area. But while this may be an egregious display of localwashing, it might also be true.

Localwashing--the practice, in this case, of hawking local ingredients that only tell part of a much larger...