The Food Industry as Dr. Evil

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

The fast food industry is the biggest driver behind the human and animal abuses occuring in food production and processing. Factory farms, poorly trained slaughter workers causing food animals undue pain, small farms struggling to make ends meet, companies taking advantage of workers through poor pay, benefits and working conditions... the list goes on.

A recent US case comes to mind where part of a woman's finger was found in a bowl of chili from a fast food restaurant. As far as I know, they never figured out where it came from because OSHA did not receive an accident report on the matter. It is most likely that the woman in question was either threatened or paid off to keep quiet so the plant she works for would not be investigated.

Another argument against the food industry is cultural. Again, the fast food industry specifically is the driving force behind changing not only global consumer tastes but whole ways of life. Large fast food chains that operate their own farming systems (though they are not the only ones) have exported their methods into LDCs and altered the way food is grown and harvested - factory and industrial farms now exist in places where the average farmer might work a communal plot or graze animals on communal land. People too poor to make ends meet in the Third World, let alone the First, are suddenly in the same company as McDonald's and ConAgra.

So... do you believe this is a serious problem? If so, what can we as consumers do to change the food industry's attitude? Or is this a run-away freight train with no brakes? Is it too late to alter global methods of food production? Do most consumers care enough to try? Consider the poll responses.

[Plissken]

Just watch "Supersize Me", then send a copy to all your friends. We'll wipe out the sales of Fast Food empires within a few months.

Seriously, Fast Food is just one of the Corporate Riders of the Apocalypse (technically "Famine", I believe).

[lurch]

There is no short reply to this topic. The American Food Industry has become corporate. Mass production, as predicted, has and will continue to change the industry .
Its been long said that one county in Indianna or Illinois could produce all the wheat necessary for the whole world to eat. If you can, put aside the moral issues of anybody on this planet starving these days. Just focus on the land itself, the dirt. The dirt is drained of its natural ingredients that get passed on into the crops grown. Yes, we " rotate" land usage and fertilize the dirt with chemical supplaments. Yet, even that,,over prolonged application isn't enough. The crops, products, we eat today are already known not to have the same percentages of minerals and vitamins and nutriments that the same crops had 25 or 50 years ago. The dirt has been depleted and what is put back is producing only a ghost of what it use to be.
So, what do we have today. We have a burgeoning food supplement business that is supposed to fill in what our food isn't providing. aaaaammm, That the Corporations that control some of the largest food processing businesses are also big in the food supplement business, isn't well known, nor draw much concern. It should be.
I find it interesting how the concept of ," The Masses" has become a seperate reality. What the individual body requires for good health and longevity, is not met by what is mass produced. But what is mass produced is done so for the betterment of the masses...???????? Horse pucky,its for the betterment of the corporate bottom line. Which has nothing to do ones health maintenance or longevity.
I can complain endlessly. But the problem is already manifesting its self in the next generations. Girls, 8-10 years old going into puberty. Obesity rampant amongst the youngsters. Juvenile diabeties on the up swing. Oh well. You are what you eat. I hope they can live with it.......MEL

[dennisrwood]

I'll agree with Lurch here. McDonalds is just one of the many evil corporations though. and as a nation we will be paying the health costs for a long time.

[Avatar]

Seriously, Fast Food is just one of the Corporate Riders of the Apocalypse (technically "Famine", I believe).

I'm minded of the "Famine" in Pratchett & Gaiman's Good Omens, who invented a fast food so totally devoid of nourishment that people who ate it first became hugely obese, and then died of malnutrition.

Great posts Alynna and Lurch. I agree. And especially with the impact of fast food on the ever hastening march of globalisation. I'm very much afraid that one day soon, everywhere that doesn't look like an American city will look like Somalia.

Cultures are selling unique heritages for Nikes and McDonalds.

Can anything be done about it? A cultural revolution? I'm not sure. I'm more than half-afraid that it's too late. I hope that we realise that we can communicate through cultural divides without tearing them down.

And in terms of the fast food culture, Lurch makes very important points on early puberty, obesity and the like. That can only be changed by re-education I think. But I can see how easily it has become a culture. The convenience which modernity places such high importance on.

--Avatar

[Cail]

I haven't eaten fast food in well over a year, and any urge I may have had to try it again evaporated when I watched Supersize Me. I stopped eating it just because my metabolism has slowed down in my old age and I don't want to be fat.

Nasty stuff.

[drew]

I think that almost all food producers are to blame, not just fasat food places...it's just that Fast Food plaaces serve more food.

I feel almost bad for Mcdonalds, as they were picked on in Supersize Me..it's not like they're any worse than the rest of the restaurants...

When I was still a courier, I saw PETA protesters in fron of the Local KFC all the time, dressed up like Colonial Sanders, but wearing a butcher smock..stuff like that...what bothered me, is that there are at least a dozen other restaraunts (Fast Food and regular) on the same street, and They All serve chicken. The people who work at that KFC have as much to do with the treatment of their chickens as the Mom-and-Pop familily restaraunt down the road..so why did they (constantly) pick on KFC?

If we (as a society) want to not feel guilty about the foods that we eat, then we'll have to send a bigger message to ALL food producers, that we're not going to stand for atrocity towards animals...I guess it's not just animals, the vegtable and grains industry is no better, with all of the pesticides, herbacides, and as Lurch mentioned, non-crop rotations.

The only way I can of to help out, is if people either started raising their own food (which isn't a bad idea)-or supporting local farmers, by buying directly from the farms themselves.

So in answer to the survey-I don't blame the Fast food industry -per-sey--they are just supplying a demand that we have created.

**Damn you Avatar-I'm getting hooked!!
**although it's a good way to build up those WGD's

[Worm of Despite]

I haven't eaten fast food in well over a year, and any urge I may have had to try it again evaporated when I watched Supersize Me. I stopped eating it just because my metabolism has slowed down in my old age and I don't want to be fat.

Nasty stuff.

Yeah, and some of us have crappy metabolisms to begin with. It's truly a battle every day for me to remain fit; I have to jog at least 6 days a week or I honestly feel some weight coming back on. Just the slightest change and I feel it. Some people do nothing and are thinner than me. Bah.

I feel almost bad for Mcdonalds, as they were picked on in Supersize Me..it's not like they're any worse than the rest of the restaurants...

I did too, but I guess they picked McDonalds because of them being the most well-known fast food chain and all. Heck, next to Burger King, they're my favorite. Love their fries (even though I haven't tasted them in over a year).

[Nathan]

To be honest with you, I don't care what they do to the animals/people who feed/work for me as long as my food is nice/fast.

I can get nutrition any time, but if I want a delicious meal, quickly, I'll go to a fast food restaurant.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

To be honest with you, I don't care what they do to the animals/people who feed/work for me as long as my food is nice/fast.

I can get nutrition any time, but if I want a delicious meal, quickly, I'll go to a fast food restaurant.

LOL, You think that stuff is delicious? I've tasted horse treats that went down better than most fast food.

There's half the problem, really. Almost nobody remembers what real food is supposed to taste like... A lot of people really do think that a fast food burger is the best-tasting thing in the world.

[Plissken]

If I want a delicious meal, I'll make it myself. If i want a really delicious and convenient meal, I'll talk my best friend into making it ("Um, so, what would happen if you used a spicy rub on that tenderloin before we grilled it?" usually works.)

If I'm desperate to fill my belly, and don't mind feeling like crap for two days to do it, Jack in the Box will usually do.

[Cail]

You know, I take that back.... I've had Popeye's fried chicken within the last year. Tastes good, but there's Hell to pay the next day.

I do have to admit, I really don't put much thought into how my food's treated while it's still alive, nor do I think much about what part of the animal I'm eating. I love both veal and scrapple, which are probably the cruelest and most disgusting foods respectively, but I care not a whit.

[dennisrwood]

this may be graphic for some folks.

Veal: www.vivavegie.org/vvi/vva/vvi22/veal.html
www.atourhands.com/veal.html

overall:
www.atourhands.com/archive.html

Pate:
www.atourhands.com/pate.html

Good Eating!

[Metal-Demon]

So... do you believe this is a serious problem? If so, what can we as consumers do to change the food industry's attitude? Or is this a run-away freight train with no brakes? Is it too late to alter global methods of food production? Do most consumers care enough to try? Consider the poll responses.

Yes, this is indeed a massive, most serious problem ... but the motivating factor here is money.

We've seen it time and time again ... world-wide corporations will largely ignore the negative effects of their businesses/industries in favour of maintaining a healthy bottom-line.

It will never end. Ever.

They don't give a damn about the enviornment and they certainly don't give a damn about us. Why should we expect them to be humane to food animals when they'd gladly slaughter each other to increase their profits?

I hope I don't offend anyone with this next statement, but the best thing that could happen to this planet is if the entire Human (disg)Race became extinct ... the planet would heal and life would eventually start anew. Maybe then we'd set aside our greed and arrogance once and for all. But that's just a dream that will never see the light of day.

We're ruining a once-beautiful planet, and the "powers that be" know it - but they don't care, because they sit in their ivory towers like the vile tyrants they are ... slowly killing each and every one of us, while we pay them to do it.

[matrixman]

Yes, we can paint the fast food industry as the evil entity, but our wasteful food habits as consumers (I'm not any different) serve to encourage the "run-away freight train." If we want to change the food industry's attitude, we need to change our own first.

This was a recent report on the Discovery channel on the issue of food waste in our society, and I think what it has to say is relevant to this thread:

Tim Jones is an anthropologist who has spent the last 8 years completing the biggest study ever on food waste. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his research team worked with households, restaurants, grocery stores, even orchards, to measure the amount of food wasted all along the production line. The biggest offenders? The family home, to the tune of about 450 billion pounds a year. Jones says food has become expendable in our throwaway society.

"It's not in our consciousness, it's not something we think about, when actually it's a very important part of our economy, it affects everybody money-wise. A household of four loses about $600 a year in food. That's a lot of money."

In fact, he found that about 15% of food thrown away by households wasn't even opened, but they found offenders all through the production line. Farms and orchards lose about 15%, fast food about 10%, and convenience stores lose 25%. Add it all up and the total loss in the United States every year is more than $100 billion in wasted food.

"The loss rates are due in general to an overall issue that goes on in American society. and that is we've lost touch with food. It's been 3 or 4 generations now since we were a farming society. How many of you out there have ever grown food?"

The ones that do grow the food these days are big-time farm operations that have adopted a kind of gambling culture. They'll literally turn a crop under, one that's ready for harvest, if it's not worth their while to bring it to market.

"They're out there literally with a cell phone in their ear all the time talking to a broker in Chicago, talking about prices, trying to make a decision about whether they should harvest this or that, based purely on economic decisions."

One exception to this rule, he says, is the apple industry. Apple producers have come up with clever ways to use apples that are on the brink of rotting.

"They figure out which ones are beginning to go bad, then send them out to make apple sauce, apple juice. They do the apple sauce and apple juice industry not because they make money--they don't lose money--but they don't really make money on it. It's a way to get the food to the people."

There was good news in other sectors, like transportation and storage, which have vastly improved in the last few decades. "We've now been able to get cold storage capabilities so things are able to be stored better. They even have situations where they can remove the oxygen, which keeps oxidation and deterioration from occurring in food."

But science can only do so much, he says. Careless attitudes and lack of planning in the home pose the biggest problem. "I'm going to the grocery store and I buy all these fresh fruits and vegetables. I bring them home, I go through my week, I work 14-15 hours a day, and I get out the fast food at night at the convenience or frozen foods and fix it up. By the next weekend when I open the refrigerator thinking now I've got some time to fix a salad the lettuce is nothing but mush. That fact of not planning is one of the big issues going on within households."

We've all done it, thrown away food because we haven't gotten around to eating it, and that's not only wasteful, but bad for the environment, according to Jones. 14% of the garbage in this landfill (depicted in this report) is discarded food. Cities like Toronto are trying to solve that problem with a new green bin program: residents put their organic waste in a separate bin which is picked up, processed, and eventually made into compost. That's all well and good, says Jones, but it doesn't solve the problem of food waste in the first place.

That's where a program like Second Harvest comes in. "Second Harvest supplies most of the food banks and food for feeding programs that we have in the United States." The organization is very busy in Toronto too, redistributing more than 4 million pounds of food every year. It picks up food that is still good but close to the expiration date. Loblaws donates 50,000 pounds of food every month. Food wholesalers are another gold mine for Second Harvest. This is where producers in Ontario bring fruits and vegetables to sell to the supermarkets. If the food doesn't sell, it ends up in the dumping area--that is, unless Second Harvest gets it first. They deliver the food to agencies like Goodwill, where trained kitchen staff turn it into meals overnight, which are then sent to shelters around the city, and to afterschool programs for kids. This kind of food recovery, as it's called, is something Tim Jones would like to see more of. In fact he says every sector of society will benefit if we were all just a little more mindful of putting food to good use.

"The overall loss rates in the society are at least a hundred billion dollars a year. If you were to cut that in half...a $50 billion dollar input into the economy would have a massive positive effect." In the short term, he says, take some advice for the next time you open your refrigerator. "Going through the fridge, seeing what is there to eat, I don't think about what do I want, I think about what needs to get eaten right now."

(--from a report originally aired January 25, 2005 on Discovery.)

Almost forgot: in answer to Alynna's poll, I eat fast food a few times a year. I'll admit handily that a burger and fries, in all their greasy and salty glory--plus a tall order of Coke, of course--makes for a tasty treat once in while. But I avoid McDonald's. I much prefer A & W's burgers (and fries).

(Hmm, then again maybe this post belongs more in the "Reducing Personal Consumption" thread...)

[Nathan]

LOL, You think that stuff is delicious?

Indeed, I'd pick KFC over most other meals.

[dennisrwood]

Matrix: thanks for the article. nice to know we could feed most of the starving folks with what we waste. we suck.

as for KFC...www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/

[Nathan]

As I say, it tastes nice so I don't particularly care what they do to the chickens.

If they just keep on serving up delicious chicken coated with their secret recipe of 11 different herbs and spices I'll keep buying it.

[dennisrwood]

have at it then.

[Avatar]

Great article indeed MatrixMan. And as it says, we're all in some way to blame for it. Or at the very least, we contribute to it.

Nice to see that somebody, (Metal-Demon) agree's with me about the need for a big die off. It may be unlikely, (although, you never know) but it'd help. (Although, the pessimist in me says that it'd help only for a while if enough humans survived.)

Nathan, ever considered that the way in which your food is treated passes some affect onto you? (And I'm not even talking about the hormones, supplements etc. Just the sort of "karmic" influence?

--Avatar