Hospitality Management - Research Paper Example

Research Paper: Hospitality Management Research Paper: Hospitality Management Section One Food supply in the United s has beenprogressive for the last century with the use of innovative methods such as canning, freezing, and observing hygienic storage environments (Elert, 2010). Nonetheless, foodborne illnesses have reached record highs in the past few decades, with the rapid growth of agriculture and food processing attributing to these effects. The chemical content of America’s food supply largely depends on the farming or preservation techniques used by growers and retailers (Martino, 2014). Despite modern, safe methods of ensuring healthy chemical contents in America’s food supply, the fast food industry has retained conventional methods that taint their products. For instance, consumers of pizza were found with traces of DDT, the main chemical component of pesticides, in a 2010 study. The most prominent food producers and processers in the United States are PepsiCo Inc., with record sales of 37,806, Tyson Foods Inc. with 32,999, and Nestle with 27,300 in 2013 (Robertson, 2010). The largest producers of beef in the United States are the states of Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, California, and Oklahoma (Beef USA, 2015). The largest producers of grain seeds in the United States are DuPont Pioneer, which leads in the production of hybrid seeds, Iowa, and Illinois, leading in the production of corn seeds (Economic Research Service, n.d.). Major pesticides used in agricultural activities in the United States are herbicides, insecticides, nematodes, and fungicides (Center for Food Safety, 2008). One sectors of the socioeconomic population most affected by fast foods is obesity. Obesity is a popular attributor of the effects of uncontrolled consumption of fast foods. Equally important, obesity is an aspect of the socioeconomic population closely linked to both bourgeois lifestyles and poverty. Obesity is largely common in lower socioeconomic demographics in the United States, and especially women (Center for Food Safety, 2008). This prevalence lowers access to economic and social life opportunities for the obese. Gender is another aspect of the socioeconomic population as findings show that women make up the biggest demographic of fast food consumers in the United States. A third sector affected by fast foods is healthcare (Dolan, 2008). Excessive consumption of fast foods can cause women to give birth to overweight babies and raise their risks of dying during conception. Increases in such risks lead to increases in social costs or welfare expenses, which are another socioeconomic sector affected by fast foods directly. The soft drinks industry is supposed to limit the advertisement of soft drinks to children, selling less soft drinks in learning institutions, and correctly labeling their products to prevent misleading purchase behaviors by consumers (Center for Food Safety, 2008). Soft drink companies are also responsible for meeting the utmost criteria for safety and quality for their products and even services. Section 2 Genetically modified foods are foods grown from organisms whose genes have been changed in an artificial manner (WHO, 2015). The development of genetically modified foods has affected food supply in the United States in terms of contamination of non-genetically modified foods. The effects that genetically modified foods have on consumers can spread to foods grown with natural means, which is an unintended consequence. In the process, food supply in the United States has become hard to track in terms of benefits because of contamination. Food supply in America has also seen a rise in stringent regulations over the past ten years. Since 1999, all food producers and distributors have been forced to undergo rigorous regulation and inspection protocols to ensure their products are labeled appropriately (Dolan, 2008). Lastly, food supply in the United States has seen a deviation into the mass production of genetically modified foods because of their extremely low costs of production. In the process, the control of food supply in organizations that produce and sell foods that are modified artificially has seen consolidation as well. As of December 2014, EU members can ban GMOs without requesting or consulting with industry players or experts. This most recent EU convention allows governments to inhibit the selling of GMOs in their markets whether the EU approved of it earlier or not (Teffer, 2014). More specifically, this convention enables EU members to bar sets of GMOs determined by “crop or trait,” which enables regulation panels to refrain from undergoing the entire protocol several times. A former compromise by EU ministers needed negotiations between relevant GMO-producing organizations and regulatory panels. This protocol no longer applies as the recent compromise fosters governments’ freedoms to overlook EU permissions when dealing with GMOs (Teffer, 2014). One positive aspect of GMOs is better taste, more nutrients, higher disease and pest resistance than non-genetically modified organisms. This aspect leads to quicker outputs of crops by growers. According to FAO, the nutrients and taste are basic characteristics of food, and any type of food that improves on these features is advantageous (Martino, 2014). Quicker yields of GMOs means growers are capable of nurturing more GMOs on less land with genetically modified inputs such as cattle feed, grain seeds, and veterinary care, which forms another positive aspect of GMOs. This aspect makes GMOs friendlier to the environment since they save soil, water, and energy (Dolan, 2008). One negative aspect of GMOs is likely health risks to consumers. These risks include allergies and resistance to antibiotics. Largely considered a controversy, the likely risks posed by GMOs on human consumers are negative, if not unknown consequences. Another negative aspect of GMOs is interfering with natural processes of reproduction by artificially changing the genetic material of plants and animals for largely commercial purposes (Dolan, 2008). Section 3 Small-scale farming nowadays has a practicing ethic that is crucial for retail and restaurant consumers. A common sense of organic farming is getting rid of consumers’ exposure to harmful chemicals aimed at eliminating pests. Other than a common sense, this attribute serves as an ethic in sustainable practices by small scale, organic growers. Today, farmers normalize organics that divides the organic industry into two streams: industrial and domestic (Daniells, 2014). The industrial stream is extensive and supplies to huge retail chains and the domestic one feeds retail and restaurant consumers. Small-scale and organic farmers today dominate the domestic stream to the extent that there is no room for medium enterprises to grow within this sector. As a result, restaurant consumers today often have to dwell on organic foods that retail restaurants supply. America’s department of agriculture has regulations for determining whether a labeled product is natural or organic. The USDA asserts that an organic label means the commodity has a minimum of 95% organically made and processed elements. The Natural Organic Program, under the USDA, says food producers should include the percentage of natural material in the food product’s label (Daniells, 2014). On the other hand, the United States does not regulate the use of the word natural on food labels apart from meat products. A natural label on grown foods is very common in the United States because of the lack of stringent regulation. Under the regulation for meats, USDA states that meat products cannot have synthetic flavors, coloring, additives, or sweeteners. In the process, meat processing is at an all-time low in the United States. Over the past decade, American markets in terms of revenue have been influencing the market of organic produce. This revenue has been supporting the expanding local production and increased awareness about the benefits of organic foods over genetically modified ones (Dolan, 2008). The demand for organic produce has risen 81% since 2004 as American households abandon genetically modified produce. Correspondingly, the production of organic produce reached a rise of 240% in 2012 in contrast to a 3% rise in the production of GMOs (Martino, 2014). The organic produce market has dealt with challenges such as shortfalls of organic raw materials like organic seeds and sugar, and competition from natural or domestically grown foods. Free-range food is meat preserved or eggs laid by birds nurtured in natural conditions and free of constant movement. The USDA defines grass-fed as livestock fed any type of grass grown naturally, without the help of herbicides or insecticides. The organic movement has affected retail grocers and restaurants is the statistically lower pricing of prepackaged organic produce than that not packaged at all. Another impact is the higher pricing of organic produce by retail grocers with more than 100 workers (Dolan, 2008). In conclusion, America’s food supply largely comprised of organic components and later dominated by fast foods. This prevalence occurred because of developments in agriculture and biology in terms of producing, preserving, and prolonging the benefits of food by altering its chemical content. These innovations saw the development of big farms in the United States and their production of GMOs. Controversies surrounding genetically modified foods and fast foods have raised awareness of the benefits of organic produce and caused a substantial rise in their demand and thereby and correspondingly, production. My favorite fast food is pizza, which contains dough made up of flour, salt, yeast, and water; tomato sauce for flavor comprised of natural acids; and cheese with large amounts of calcium (Nania, 2014). My favorite soft drink is sprite, which consists of carbonated water, sugar, citric acid, malic acid, acid regulators, and natural lemon savors (Coca-Cola, 2010). I know whether the produce I purchase at my local grocery store has GMOs by comparing labels with similar produce categorized as organic or natural. References Beef USA. (2015). Beef Industry Statistics. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Retrieved from http://www.beefusa.org/beefindustrystatistics.aspx Center for Food Safety. (2008). Agricultural Pesticide Use in U.S. Agriculture. Obama-Biden Transition Project, 3 pages. Coca-Cola. (2010). Sprite. Coca-Cola, UK. Retrieved from http://www.coca- cola.co.uk/brands/sprite.html Daniells, S. (2014). US organic food market to grow 14% from 2013-18. Food Navigator. Retrieved from http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Markets/US-organic-food-market-to- grow-14-from-2013-18 Dolan, M. M. (2008). The Impact of the Organic Mainstream Movement: A Case Study of New England Organic Produce Prices. Masters Theses 1896 - February 2014, 93 pages. Economic Research Service. (n.d.). Corn. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn/background.aspx Elert, E. (2010). U.S. Food Still Tainted with Old Chemicals. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chemical-tainted-food/ Martino, J. (2014). This Is What’s REALLY In A McDonald’s Hamburger. Collective evolution. Retrieved from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/05/15/this-is-whats-really-in- a-mcdonalds-hamburger/ Nania, R. (2014). All in the chemistry: Science says pizza is delicious. Washington’s Top News. Retrieved from http://wtop.com/news/2014/11/all-in-the-chemistry-science-says-pizza-is- delicious/ Robertson, K. (2010). Americas Biggest Food Companies. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/investopedia/2010/11/02/americas-biggest-food-companies/ Teffer, P. (2014). New deal: EU countries can ban GMOs without asking industry. Euobserver. Retrieved from https://euobserver.com/environment/126793 WHO. (2015). Food, Genetically Modified. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/ Read More