Kim Jurczyk Jurczyk 1
Lori Bedell
CAS 137H
10/22/12
Throughout mankind’s history, humans have acquired, grown, and hunted for food simply as a means to stay healthy and survive. Now with the turn of the century, a paradigm shift has occurred where humans actually receive too many calories from unhealthy, genetically modified food that, consequently, has created a health and weight crisis in America. Now, people can no longer afford natural foods that sustain their health, but rather are forced to purchase foods that cause illnesses from diseases that didn’t exist before the influence of the fast food industry, such as E. Coli 0157: H7. Because of the entrepreneurial success of fast food and the demand it created, the production, standard, and quality of food has drastically changed, therefore, causing unhealthy, inexpensive, and genetically altered foods to become the norm. Consequently, a class system of consumers has emerged where cost makes natural, whole foods inaccessible to those with low income, therefore, compromising the consumer’s health.
The rise of the fast food industry came into being in 1975 when the McDonald brothers introduced the revolutionary idea of the “drive thru”, which would hypothetically cut costs and increased revenue for the business (“About McDonald’s.”) Suddenly, car hops and waiters disappeared, ushering in a new way of acquiring food where people purchased food more quickly and at a much cheaper price. Because of the demand for faster food, McDonald’s decided to create a mock factory environment in all their restaurants, which forced all McDonald’s employees to be trained to do one act repeatedly. More and more restaurants were built with this kind of system and by 1983 McDonald’s had enormously increased production, establishing 7, 778 restaurants in over 32 different countries (“About McDonald’s.”) This introduced a new way to market and sell fast food, which caused other fast food restaurants to use McDonald’s system. Wendy’s Old Fashioned Burgers mimicked this system in 1969 and quickly became the third largest fast food restaurant in the world with more than 6,700 restaurants in North America (Nottingham). Burger King, Taco Bell, and Arby’s also began mass-producing meals in order to sell large amounts of food for cheaper prices.
Thus, fast food chains became the leading purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, apples, and tomatoes, which actually influenced how food companies grew and treated food (Food Inc.) By subsidizing produce, food companies could now sell enormous amounts of corn and soybeans at a fraction of the cost to big name companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. Today, processed food is simply a rearrangement of corn that becomes additives in fast food, including high fructose corn syrup, cellulose, and xanthan gum (Food Inc.) The subsidization of these crops and the reengineering of corn and soybeans have actually caused unhealthy foods, such as soft drinks, chips, and fast food, to be cheaper than fruit and vegetables. Companies, also, created vast amounts of processed food because their shelf life is longer than that of organic products. This allows fast food companies to create products that can be frozen, shipped, and reheated in the restaurant in order to serve their customers products that taste the same everywhere.
This paradigm shift occurred over a long period of time and has, inevitably, forced low-income households to no longer feed their children organic produce because purchasing an item from a fast food restaurant has become cheaper than buying organic produce at the supermarket. Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant, mainly because of the price of food (Super Size Me.) Before the shift, most families were eating at home and cooking for their families, consequently, spending more money on healthy foods that would assure their children received the necessary nutrients. Since the food market has become so skewed toward the “bad calories”, a class system of consumers has risen, consequently, causing children to be less health conscious and making the main predictor of obesity the families income level.
Due to this shift, an obesity crisis has risen in America not only because of the fast food industry but, also, because of the changes in the consumer’s lifestyles. Many parents feed their children fast food at an early age, which causes the children to become dependent on these unhealthy foods. Child obesity has reached an all-time high in America and scientists predict that one in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime (Super Size Me.) If left unabated, obesity will be the leading cause of preventable death only second to smoking. Obesity has been linked to several health problems such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, asthma, reproductive hormone abnormalities, and impaired fertility (Super Size Me). And yet nearly 60 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese, and the number of weight loss programs and weight loss surgeries increase every year.
Many people have questioned the fast food industries ethics in serving customers genetically modified produce and food that legitimately causes health related problems. The meat packing companies have been know to cleanse their products with ammonia hydroxide simply to kill a disease called E. Coli 0157: H7 that was created by forcing cows to feed on corn instead of grass (Food Inc.) Because of the fast food industries success and the subsidization of corn, animals are being forced to eat something that they are biologically incapable of digesting. This causes the cow to become sick with E. Coli, which if ingested by a customer can cause severe illness and even lead to death. Several health programs have been created as a response to the obesity crisis, such as the Let’s Move program that promotes healthier lifestyles for children growing up in America. But without the fast food companies influence, most of these weight loss programs, surgeries, and corporations wouldn’t be necessary to ensure healthier generations.
Because of the influence of fast food companies, food has been reengineered and subsidized causing consumers to be forced to either search for organic foods or resort to buying inexpensive, processed foods. The paradigm shift in the quality and standard of food has caused obesity to become an epidemic in America and consumer’s health are genuinely at risk when it comes to ingesting these products. Without the fast food industries success, the changes in our food might not have come into being and many consumers would live healthier lifestyles fueled by organic, wholesome products.
Citations
Nottingham, Dacy. “Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers.” When Did It Happen?. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2012. <http://whendidithappen.com/wdih/restaurants/1960.htm>.
Spurlock, Morgan, dir. Super Size Me. 2004. Film. 18 Oct 2012.
Kenner, Robert, dir. Food Inc.. 2008. Film. 18 Oct 2012.
“McDonald’s History.” About McDonald’s. McDonald’s, 2012. Web. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html>.