Pizza Hut 2008 Annual Report Download - page 45

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ITEM 6: SHAREHOLDER PROPOSAL
RELATING TO FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
(Item 6 on the Proxy Card)
What am I voting on?
The Sisters of Charity, the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of United Methodist
Church, the MMA Praxis Growth Index Fund and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia have advised us
that they intend to present the following shareholder proposal at the Annual Meeting. We will furnish the
addresses and the share ownership of the proponents upon request.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
SECURITY and SUSTAINABILITY
WHEREAS:
Nearly two-thirds of corporate executives worldwide surveyed by McKinsey & Company said ‘‘their
companies face a rising level of risk to their ability to supply customers with goods and services cost
effectively.’’ Yet, the survey found
[f]ew executives are confident that their companies can manage these risks successfully and businesses
are making surprisingly little use of some well-known analytical tools and simple best practices that
could help.
The McKinsey Quarterly 2007 Number 1, pages 10-12.
The global food production system faces numerous challenges:
• Severe droughts and increasing water scarcity in key agricultural regions linked to global warming;
• Rising prices for oil and petroleum-based agricultural inputs; and
• Competing use of food crops for bio-fuels.
Several dramatic events have undermined consumer confidence by highlighting weaknesses in the
Proxy Statement
food safety system:
• Closure of Topps Meat Co., the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburger, following recall of
21.7 million pounds of hamburger contaminated with e-coli.
• Nationwide recall of spinach from California, which produces 74% of the U.S. spinach crop, due to
e-coli contamination.
• Contamination of the long-grain rice supply in the southern United States with genetically
engineered rice not approved for human consumption, leading Japan to ban imports of U.S. long
grain rice and the EU to require testing of all U.S. rice shipments.
• Sale of poisoned pet food, tainted seafood and other products from China containing toxic
ingredients
According to a Consumer Reports survey, 92% of Americans want to know the country of origin for
their food. http://greenerchoices.org/products.efm?product=crfood&pcat=food
Pesticide residues on imported fruits and vegetables, which account for about one-third of U.S.
consumption of these products, are ‘‘major and growing’’ contributors to dietary risk. While U.S. farmers
have adopted lower-risk use patterns, growers outside the U.S. continue using older, higher-risk pesticides.
Impacts of the Food Quality Protection Act on Children’s Exposures to Pesticides, pages 10-11 (2006).
http://www.organiccenter.org/reportfiles/7452_ Landrigan _AAAS%20Paper.pdf
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