According to Schlosser, the expansion of the fast-food industry is influenced by major adjustments in American culture. This resulted from the lowering of the hourly wage of most US workers from 1970. This made many mothers seek other jobs where most of them work outside their homes. This led to a trend where many of them rely on fast foods for their daily meal instead of preparing their own meals at home. In addition, most mothers tend to buy and stock these fast foods in their homes for their family’s daily consumption creating more demand for these foods at home.
The dependency of most mothers on fast foods rendered their families no other option other than following the same trend. In terms of businesses, the fast-food industries seem to replace small businesses as more American civilians tend to prefer these fast foods other than a home-prepared meal. According to Schlosser, companies like McDonald’s corporation seem to dominate the food industry as their target children and their parents. They deal with beef, pork, chicken, and potatoes that in most cases tend to add the amount of cholesterol to the body. Cholesterol is vital to patients suffering from diabetes or even obesity. However, many Americans do not seem to be alarmed rather they seem to opt and appreciate the fast-food culture.
In addition, he observed that technology changes have made many people be workaholics leaving little time for preparing meals at home as well as paying very little attention to the kind of food they eat i.e. whether it is balanced or not. Further, he argues that the growth of the fast-food industry over the years was triggered by their exclusive advertisements that seem to convince many Americans that fast foods are the best. They appeal to the civilians by convincing them that it is the American culture and it’s unique, hence many Americans have come to appreciate and respect it blindly.
More so, most of the fast foods target schools for their businesses by offering sponsorships that tend to be conditional i.e. if they donate books they tend to promote their products in these schools, contrary to adhering to these terms and conditions they stand to lose the sponsorship. Others have opted for the high schools to sell fast foods to students in their cafeterias; this contributed to the expansion of these corporations’ profits at the expense of young Americans. The extensive opening of kiosks in high schools that sell exclusively fast foods has led to the expansion of the fast-food industry as many students have been accustomed to the daily consumption of these foods.
Further, Schlosser observed that the meat industry has been exploiting workers who happen to be immigrants in their efforts to make big profits. They normally do not mind the health of these workers yet they understand the dangers prone to these workers. The appraisal of fast foods has made the health of many Americans deteriorate from good to worse, just in the name of making money. The extensive use of very sharp equipment to slaughter makes the workers prone to cumulative trauma disorders (CTO).
These chronic injuries such as tendonitis and tenosynovitis destroy the soft cells, nervous system, and tissues that may cause crippling and organ mutilation or dysfunction. Most of the researches carried out reveals that many of these factory workers suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. These are mainly caused by the vibrating knives and other equipment applied for meat extraction and processing.
According to pollan, the farm bill has been in the forefront to promote the consumption of fast foods with most of them being processed hence not appropriate for consumption in large amounts in a society where diabetes and obesity seem to be prevalent. The bill tends to promote the usage of hydrogenated oils and corn syrup that contain a large amount of fructose by subsidizing the farmers of the corns yet the government understands the hazards associated with these foods. In addition, the bill endorses factory farming by grants and subsidies despite these companies polluting the environment with their wastes. Further, the bill seems to favor the consumption of soft drinks like coca-cola instead of water where these soft drinks enjoy the tax cut by the government compared to water industries.
On the international front, the effects of the bill have prevalent in other countries that produce these crops that include cotton, corn, wheat, and Soya beans, which tend to be favored by the bill where many of these countries tend to be encouraged by being offered grants and subsidies to produce more of this products. The production of more wheat tends to make fast foods easier to produce compared to other more nutritious and healthier foods that are never favored by the bill in terms of their production costs, distribution, and marketing.
However, the reformation would greatly change the fast-food culture adopted as the bill exclusively seems to promote the consumption of processed foods and soft drinks, rather than naturally produced foods without chemicals. The subsidies offered tend to lower the prices of these foods in the market making them affordable by many Americans at the expense of their health. On the other hand, the prices of agricultural foods tend to soar high rendering them unaffordable. Therefore, reforming the farm bill would greatly influence the preference of fast foods, as it would make naturally produced foods affordable.
Conclusion
The excessive consumption of fast foods is injuries and hazardous to human health due to the fact that many of these foods contain high levels of cholesterol and fats that tend to various kinds of diseases such as heart diseases and dysfunctional of other body organs as they t5end to block the veins and arteries. The major causes of these food’s consumption are their easy accessibility, change in culture, and the policy changes that tend to favor the production and consumption of fast foods at the expense of other agriculturally produced foods. These agricultural foods tend to be nutritious, less hazardous but they have been rendered expensive as the farm bill does not support their production at all rather promotes the production and consumption of fast foods. In addition, they have been attributed to the increase in diabetes and obesity cases in America and other developed countries due to their high levels of fats and cholesterol.
References:
Schlosser, E. Fast food nation, Houghton Mifflin publishers, New York 2001.
Bonnie RJ, Fulco CE& Liver man CT (1999) Reducing the burden of injury: advancing prevention and treatment. National Academy Press, Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine.