TED talk outline
– I want you all to do me a favor, and just image a home-cooked meal. With fresh asparagus from the garden, warm, salted potatoes, creamy butter, and juicy, natural steak. A meal you would miss when you go off to college.
– Before the rise of the fast food industry, this type of meal was considered the norm. People didn’t have to go out and search for organic produce or products that were high in nutrients. Before the rise of the fast food industry, the production, quality, and standard of food was completely different.
– I have a very specific example, and it is the McDonald’s fast food chain. In 1975, the McDonald brothers invented the drive-thru, which revolutionized how people bought food. This food was fast, cheap, and tasted amazing to most consumers.
– So McDonald’s invented this mock factory environment in all their restaurants. They trained all their employers to do one thing so they could, consequently, pay them less and produce more. Suddenly, all fast food chains acquired the same system of training.
– Very quickly, the food industry was greatly influenced by this sudden demand for faster and cheaper food. The fast food industries became the leading purchasers of beef, pork, potatoes, apples, and tomatoes. This caused farmers and food companies to subsidize crops, such as corn and soybeans, in order to mass-produce processed food.
– Consequently, because all these processed foods are made from reengineered subsidies unhealthy products, such as chips, soda, and fast food, have become cheaper.
– Since the market has become so skewed toward these “bad calories” a class of consumers has arisen. The food market is forcing low-income families to feed their children fast food simply because it is cheaper than organic produce.
– Due to this change in consumerism, the newest predictor of obesity is income level. Looking at these charts, there is a clear correlation between poverty level and obesity rates in specific areas of the country.
– 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.
– 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.
– 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 influence, low-income households would not be forced to resort to buying inexpensive, processed foods and many consumers would live healthier lifestyles fueled by organic, wholesome products.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/poverty-obesity_b_1417417.html