McDonalds in the Barossa Valley …. can’t have that, can we?   Plans by McDonald’s to open a restaurant in Nuriootpa have upset some of the Barossa’s most high-profile food and wine identities, including celebrity cook and food manufacturer Maggie Beer and wine legend Margaret Lehmann.

"We need to protect the culture of the valley that brings us so many tourists. We have to keep working on the Barossa as a gourmet destination. For me, McDonald’s would be like a thorn in the valley’s side. We would be seen as talking the talk, but not living the life."

said Ms Beer.  Ms Lehmann, of Peter Lehmann wines, said the burger joint would just be "out of place".

"I think it’s sad.  We have a wonderful, unique food culture but McDonald’s is exactly the same everywhere in the world; it irons out all the differences that regions produce."

she said. Ms Beer also said she would

"love to see a hamburger joint in the Barossa that uses local produce, proper meat from our butchers, fresh lettuce, free-range eggs from the markets, smoked bacon.  It’s not fast food I’m against, it’s about (supporting) using local food".

Another person working to brand the Barossa Valley as a gourmet food region, Jan Angus, the founding chair of Food Barossa, said nearly a decade of work was threatened.  She said:

"The only way to keep that and preserve it is to continue to have that as a viable enterprise and that usually doesn’t come about through globalisation."

I think the crunch of the opposition to the McDonalds is most likely to be found in the following views expressed by some of the locals.  Philip Lehmann, a winemaker, said it would be difficult for the region’s restaurants and cafes to compete with the low prices of McDonald’s.  Rachel LeBherz fears her family’s business, the Barossa Roadhouse, could be forced to close if it went ahead.  She said:

"McDonalds would crush them and many other small businesses. People don’t realise it’s not just the takeaway stores that will suffer, it’s our local suppliers and many other connected businesses."

Personally, I reckon the locals against the Maccas are being quite precious.  If people want to eat McCrap that’s their choice.  Equally if they don’t want to eat it, nobody’s force feeding it to them.  I doubt very much that there is much leakage of customers from the gourmet food end of the market to McDonalds, or vice versa.

Anyway, McDonalds in the Barossa will be good for the wanker in the current McAds on TV – he would really be able to enjoy a glass of red with his Grand Angus.