Who Run The World? Fast Food.
Beyoncé thinks girls run the world, but she is sadly mistaken. Fast food ~literally~ runs the world.
The Five Things You Need To Know Before You Eat Another Fast Food Meal!
Right place at the right time.
The founding fathers of the fast food industry won the ultimate lottery. Seriously, they started a post World War II empire when the economy was poppin’ and the American Dream was at short reach. These entrepreneurs were alive at the right time. For example, the Interstate Highway Act was passed by Congress, which meant thousands of miles of roads for people to travel on. From that point everything started falling into place. The auto industry was booming, meaning more rides through the drive thru. Fast food businesses even deliberately placed their restaurants on the new freeway off-ramps. The McDonald brothers were the brains of the brilliantly thought out operation. They started the speedy service system and other vital strategies. Fast food businesses like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell kind of just tagged along to their grand ideas.
Friend or Foe?
The game plan: marketing strategies to bring in as many customers as possible. Once again, major success. A lot of fast food brands use traditional media to target young children, you know, the vulnerable generation. They may tempt kids through brand characters, such as the McDonald’s crew who offer them the best day ever if they visit their restaurant. Kids are persuaded through various methods, like being able to play on the playland inside the restaurant or getting a toy that comes with their kids meal wrapped in a colorful box. Everything is strategically planned to be appealing to the eye. The kids beg their parents to take them to this amazing looking restaurant. This marketing method not only brings the children in but their guardians as well. The Federal Trade Commission says that food makers spend $1.6 billion annually to reach children through the traditional media as well the Internet, in-store advertising, and sweepstakes.
Did you know that McDonald’s spends more money on advertising and marketing than any other brand?
Scientifically modified flavors.
The taste of your fast food burger is coming from man-made additives that are called “natural flavors” or “artificial flavors” designed by someone wearing a lab coat. The flavor is not made in the kitchen at all, it’s made at International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), a flavor factory. IFF is making the scent of your perfumes as well as the flavors of your french fries. Gag me with a spork. These scientist’s careers revolve around making food taste superb by mixing over a dozen of chemicals together. They are pretty good at it too, because unfortunately McDonald’s fries are damn good.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To become a new chicken.
In 1979 the chairman of McDonald’s told a supplier that he wanted a boneless chicken finger-food the size of a thumb. Then the world renowned Chicken McNugget happened. It was such a big hit that McDonald’s became best buddies with Tyson Foods, one of the nation’s leading chicken processors at the time. Tyson needed to facilitate the high chicken demand so they literally developed a new breed of chicken to produce these lil’ nuggets. The new breed has unusually large breasts and they named it Mr. McDonald. Weird right? The impact of the McNugget forever changed the chicken industry.
This is not real life.
Today, there are thirteen large packinghouses that slaughter most of the beef consumed in the United States. The meat packing system arose to keep up with the nation’s fast food chains. Once again the fast food industry is running the world. The rise of slaughterhouses and hamburger grinders have given pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 a means of nation-wide dispersion. Over twenty years ago, the only food poisoning cases involved a small group of people at a wedding or church pot-luck. Today, E. coli O157:H7 is emerging through recent social and technological changes, in particular, the massive amount of uniform ground beef from these packinghouses. Did you know that the U.S. government can demand nationwide recalls to items like sneakers and stuffed animals, but they cant order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated ground beef from fast food kitchens and grocery stores? Even though E. coli O157:H7, an illness transmitted through contaminated food, kills people, the fast food industry clearly doesn’t seem to care. These meatpacking firms have some serious street cred.
Is eating at a fast food joint even worth it at this point?
We all open our doors to food industries, but do we really know what their intentions are? What kind of ramifications are we going to be subjected to if we continue to eat their products without really knowing what we are consuming? I have a sense of betrayal because I was once the child that fast food restaurants were compelling to eat their food. Little did I know what was really going on behind closed doors. But now, their doors are open. Fast Food Nation taught me to be aware of my surroundings. I’m more aware of the facts of the fast food industry, as well as some other food brands. This book depicts nothing but awful truths about fast food restaurants, and you want to know everything that I know now. Fast Food Nation is appealing to the mind and not the stomach, in the greatest of ways.
