How the Fast Food Industry Changed the Entire Food Industry - Essay Example

? How the Fast Food Industry Changed the Entire Food Industry; Of What We Eat and the Way We Eat Introduction It can be safely concluded that perhaps, fast food industry is the single major factor that has changed the face of the entire food industry. Fast food industry became the largest purchaser of ground beef, pork, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, even apples that it can now dictate how these foods are being supplied. That in the process it has caused in the unintended result of changing the way we eat and how our foods are being grown, processed and packed. Body It is this idea of selling foods that are cheap, convenient and tasty to respond to the customer’s preference that really changed the way and how we eat. It all started when McDonald brothers had a very successful drive-in restaurant and decided to cut cost and simplify. They fired all their carshops and got rid of the things on the menu and mechanized the entire food preparation. This basically brought the factory in the restaurant kitchen and revolutionized how to run a restaurant. This proved to be a huge success that it inadvertently altered how and what we eat. This idea of cheapness and convenience brought by the fast food industry however is not necessarily healthy. It basically skewed our food preference towards the mechanized meat that produces unhealthy calorie that it is now cheaper to buy a burger than a carrot. The effect is devastating to our health. Statistics showed that one out of three children who were born from 2000 in America will contract diabetes and among the minorities, that will be one in two or 50 %. And this new method of feeding corn to the cows (the feedlot operator can buy corn at fraction of what it costs to grow) resulted in E. coli that is acid resistant. This is the more harmful E. coli as its mutation evolves to a strain called "E. coli 0157:h7". And it's a product of the diet that is being fed to the cattle on feedlots. A diet of corn which cows were not made to eat by natural evolution but by deliberate government policy of heavily subsidizing corn which is central to U.S. agriculture. Where it is grown in greater volumes and receives more government subsidies than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006, corn growers received $56 billion in federal subsidies, and the annual figure may soon hit $10 billion (Heffern, 14). This E. coli 0157:h7 is so lethal that a child named Kevin, went from being perfectly healthy to being dead because of E. coli hemorrhage after eating just three hamburgers (Food Inc.). We may not know it but we also eat oil when we consume industrial food. Just to bring a steer to slaughter, it consumes 75 gallons of oil. Overall, the industry guzzles up petroleum fuel of about 40,000 gallons per year. Consuming oil in food production not only makes the food industry vulnerable to oil spikes just like what is happening today with the recent crisis in Libya,it also makes the food more unhealthy with all its carbon dioxide emissions. Also, just when we thought that we were able to save money when we avail of fast foods as they are cheap, we are in fact very wrong. There are a myriad of hidden costs associated when we avail fast foods. When these hidden costs are factored in and included in the accounting its true cost, it is in fact more costly. In fact, experts had this consensus that “consumption of fast food, which have high energy densities and glycemic loads, and expose customers to excessive portion sizes, may be greatly contributing to and escalating the rates of overweight and obesity in the USA (Rosenheck, 246). Similarly, other studies have also concluded that “our findings suggest that increase in the supply of fast food restaurants have a significant effect on obesity” (Currie). Cheap does not also means we are able to save. Just when we thought we were able to save with the cheap price of fast foods, the industry took us for a ride. They worked against us with the typical allure of fast food chains that they are cheap and convenient . . . . For a few more dollars, you can upsize your order through bundling of its “value meals”. McDonalds Big Mac retail cost is estimated at around $3.50 and for few dollars more, you can have French fries and soda. Same with outer food chains like Wendy, Cinnabon etch. This is a doable marketing proposition of the fast food chain operators because “for food companies, the actual monetary costs of larger portions are small, because the cost of the food itself is small (on average about 20% of retail costs) relative to labor, packaging, transportation, marketing, and other costs (Nestle). But just when we though we got value from it, it is in fact a bad bargain as larger portions not only provide more calories, but studies showed that when people are served more food, they eat more food (Young & Nestle; Wansink; Booth et al). As portion sizes have grown over the past two decades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. adults and children also has risen. Obesity is one of the leading public health challenges of our time. Overweight and obesity affect the majority of American adults (61%) (NCCDPHP). The negative health consequences of the rising obesity rates already are evident. Rates of diabetes (most of which is type 2, which is largely due to obesity, poor diet, and physical inactivity) rose 50% between 1990 and 2000 (Mokdad et al, 1195). But these are the only more obvious unaccounted cost of fast foods as it can be easily inferred due to the high caloric and glycemic level of fast foods. There are however, other hidden costs as enumerated by Erika Freeman that prove fast foods are indeed costly than what they seemed; 1 The Big Mac has 540 calories and supplies 30 percent of a woman’s daily average of caloric needs and almost 25 % of the man’s average. It has 10 grams of an unhealthy saturated fat which is half the limit of daily saturated fat for almost all women and 40 % for almost all men. To treat this food related disease in the United States is estimated to cost up to $ 375 billion yearly; too much meat intake has been pointed as the main culprit in obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. 2 The amount of greenhouse gases of the production of meat in the world is assessed to exceed all kinds of industrial process or vehicle emission combined. In the production of 550 million Big Macs in the US alone already emits 2.66 billion pounds of carbon dioxide yearly. To get rid of this carbon dioxide emission could total to as $36.4 million. 3 Fast food industry pays a poverty line salary. The average pay of a full time fast food crew is only $17,000 per year. This is being supplemented in taxpayer funded direct payments, food stamps and Medicaid of $1 billion per year. As Salatin puts it in the movie Food Inc., “the industrial food is not honest food. It's not priced honestly. It's not produced honestly. It's not processed honestly. There's nothing honest about that food. Hope and Alternative Not so long ago, Michelle Obama has taken on the cause of promoting locally grown food and healthier eating through a produce garden she planted on the White House lawn. She also helped open a farmers' market near the White House (Heffern, 14). While the gesture was merely political, it however sent a strong message of the necessity of having an alternative method on how our foods are grown by the industrialized agriculture. The primary manifestation of an alternative to industrialized agriculture has been the organic food movement. The original movement emphasized the agrarian ideals of small-scale food production, community engagement, and ecological responsibility (Johnston et al, 509). While at least a rhetorical commitment to those goals is maintained, today's organic food sector has moved considerably beyond small-scale "farm to table" distribution to a corporate model of large factory farms supplying distant supermarkets (Guthman), a phenomenon we refer to as "corporate organics". Organics is one of the fastest growing sectors in agriculture in both the United States and Canada (Canadian Organic Growers), with annual growth rates in both countries around 20 % (Canadian Organic Growers; Oberholtzer et al). This include farmers' markets, community supported agriculture (CSA), and food box schemes, all of which are represented as alternatives to a corporate supermarket system that sells food grown, processed, and controlled thousands of miles away. As an alternative, eating locally is also a way for communities to obtain greater control over the food system and engage in more meaningful interactions with food producers (Brecher et al). Local food is a unifying theme among social movements challenging the modern agri-food system, "coming to signify all that is believed to be the antithesis of a globally organized system where food travels great distances, is controlled by behemoth, transnational corporations, and is wrought with environmental, social and nutritional hazards. One approach that can be taken that has proven to be viable in the revival of small to mid-sized farms was to develop an initial local market for the locally grown food. Classic example is when the Woodbury County enacted its mandatory Local Food Purchase Policy on January 10, 2006. This policy mandates that when the county was obligated to procure food for its jail, juvenile detention center, and work release program, the county`s food service contractor would be required to buy locally grown organic food when available. The policy provides that all local food purchases must be procured from a single source local foods broker. These provisions were used to jump start a demand cycle for locally grown foods and encourage its production (Marqusee). Over the last few years, the program progressed and has proven to be a viable method of sustaining small to midsized farm. Obstacle While there has been a model that has proven that small to medium sized can be viable, there are still hindrances to obtaining a larger supply of locally grown food. Typical is the issue about aging farmers who are hesitant to take a chance in farming practices. Especially when they can hedge their bets with federal subsidy dollars, have the availability of crop insurance, and have a commodities market. Furthermore, ``marketing`` of products from a small farm requires a significant time commitment and marketing savvy. Since most federal dollars are bound to the conventional food system, organic farming is seen as an ``alternative`` that is not on equal par with large economics of scale farming. If the Federal Government continues to perceive organic farming in this light, Americans can expect to see a shrinking indigenous food supply, while international agricultural trade deficits continue to mount. (Marqusee). Conclusion: Given the current thrust of how foods are being supplied by the mechanized farming and how we are eating, it will inevitably take toll on our health. In America alone, experts predicted that one out of three children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes and the ratio is more alarming with the minorities with an average of 50%, with one of two children will likely to suffer from diabetes. Worst, this method of farming developed an E. coli 0157:h7 which is already resistant to antibiotics due to the pesticides and chemicals applied and added to it during its production. It is so lethal that it only took three burgers for perfectly healthy child Kevin to die of hemorrhagic E. coli infection. It is already very obvious that there is a need to change on how our foods are produced. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States made this political statement when she planted in the lawn of the White House. But beyond political gesture, there has to be concrete government political will wielded through government policy with public support. We eat how we eat today partly by the government’s inducement and our preference for certain foods. McDonalds may have started the idea of mechanizing food production but it is the government thrust of crop (corn, soya, wheat) subsidy that made the whole system transcendental. Meat was made cheaper due to the subsidy to its feedlot (corn) that it became cheaper to buy a cheeseburger than to buy a carrot or broccoli. And we assented every time we put that meat on our grocery bags. This skewed our eating habit to the unhealthy foods which is high in calorie and glucose while low in nutrition. This has also made eating undemocratic as healthy eating can now be tied up with income status with vegetables and fruits becoming more expensive than meat. In the new food pyramid, the bulk of the availability of food is now concentrated on meats while on its apex are the fruits and vegetables. This is diametrically opposed to the suggested ideal food pyramid of keeping one’s body healthy which should be high on fruits and vegetable and low on meat. Time will come and it is already showing now, that an average family will have an awful dilemma of how to allocate its resources to keep itself healthy; either by buying medicines to keep oneself healthy from the contracted disease or buying a more expensive healthy food which is vegetable and fruits. The consumer however is not powerless. There is already a growing consciousness on the importance of eating organic and eating right. But this has to be supported by the government to make it more viable. The classic case for this is the Woodbury County which enacted its mandatory Local Food Purchase Policy on January 10, 2006 mandating the county to procure food for its jail, juvenile detention center, and work release program and its county`s food service contractor required to buy locally grown organic food when available. To date there has been significant progress to enumerate; Cherokee, a nearby county has implemented a comparable Organics Conversion Policy. There are also two nearby counties that are now mulling the passage of a similar policy. The County of Woodburry has also implemented its own distinct Northwest Iowa Farm/Farmer Exchange Board. The County of Woodburry Department of Planning and Zoning is also running innovative policies of addressing the reassignment of development rights and density laws. The same County, Woodburry is mounting an indigenous food brand that will spur its mass production with indigenous and countrywide distribution. A regional ``Local Organic Foods Marketing Group`` is in the offing between Woodbury, Cherokee, Monona, and Plymouth Counties in Iowa. Tours with organic farm themes has given many aggrupation in the country with understanding and backing for the organic farming opportunity and its part in developing the economy. A local restaurant which serves organic foods, a broker and a food shop now engages 14 people unlike 2 years ago where there were only volunteer workers. A local bakeshop, that bakes organic biscotti pastries, has added the number of its employees from 3 to 10 (Marqusee). This new development only meant that scaling to small to medium localized farming can be done if the government has the political will to do it. Another indication that organic and small to medium farming is desirable is the recent corporate organic marketing strategy of big food corporations. Though doubtful, they endeavour “to maintain the image of a connection to a locally scaled place of food production, some brands prominently feature "home farms"... As part of its "proud history", Cascadian Farm's website details the company's origins on a single farm in the Upper Skagit Valley of Washington's North Cascade Mountains. In the final analysis, the consumer is not powerless as he thinks he is. Everytime he makes his purchase on the grocery store, he is making a vote on what kind of food should be available to him. As the movie Food Inc. concluded “people have got to start demanding good, wholesome food of us. And we'll deliver. I promise you. We're very ingenious people. We'll deliver.” REFERENCES: Belliveau S. Resisting global, buying local: Goldschidt revisited. Great Lakes Geographer. 2005 Brecher J, Costello T and Smith B. Globalization from Below. Boston: South End Press. 2000 Canadian Organic Growers. Organic quick facts. 2006 Currie, Janet; Della Vigna, Stefano; Moretti, Enrico; Pathania, Vikram; The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain; American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2010, v. 2, iss. 3 DuPuis E M and Goodman D Should we go "home" to eat? Toward a reflexive politics of localism. Journal of Rural Studies. 2005 Erika Freeman, Fast Food: The Real Cost of a Hamburger. March/April 2010. Eatingwell.com. Date of Access May 19, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/green_sustainable/fast_food_the_real_cost_of_a_hamburger. Guthman, J. Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2004(a) Heffern, Rich. National Catholic Reporter. Vol. 46 Issue 1. 10/30/2009. P.14 Johnston, Josee; Biro, Andrew; MacKendrick, Norah. Antipode. Lost in the Supermarket: The Corporate-Organic Foodscape and the Struggle for Food Democracy , , Vol. 41 Issue 3, June 2009. P. 509 Kenner, Robert, Elise Pearlstein (Producer). Kenner, Robert (Director). Food Inc.[Motion picture]. United States: River Load Entertainment. 2008.  Marquesee, Robert B. Department of Rural Economic Development. FDCH Congressional Testimony. 04/18/2007 Mokdad AH, Bowman B, Ford E, Vinicor F, Marks J, Koplan J. “The Continuing Epidemics of Obesity and Diabetes in the United States.” Journal of the American Medical Association 2001, vol. 286, no. 10, pp. 1195. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Obesity and Overweight—A Public Health Epidemic.” 2005 Nestle M. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2002. Rosenheck R, Obesity Reviews: The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain. An Official Journal Of The International Association For The Study Of Obesity [Obes Rev], ISSN: 1467-789X, 2008 Nov; Vol. 9 (6). Young LR, Nestle M. “The Contribution of Expanding Portion Sizes to the U.S. Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Public Health 2002, vol. 92, pp. 246. Read More