Fast Food Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The conce p t of fast food developed in early 20th-century southern California in the context of economic and demographic growth, increasing dependency on cars, employment outside the home, and appreciation of novelties and convenience. Also important was the American society’s admiration of technological “progress” and entrepreneurship, which began to support a centralized, homogenized chain of food processing. The model spread rapidly in the latter half of the century with the strengthening U.S. leadership in world politics, economics, and popular culture. The largest fast food corporations, such as McDonald’s and Burger King, now have thousands of hamburger restaurants worldwide.

The typical location of a corporate fast food restaurant reflects its origins and logic. The search for “synergy” has led to collaboration between fast food companies, gas stations, major retail stores, shopping centers, movie theaters, and sports stadiums so that corporate burgers, fries, and pizzas now dominate the culinary options in many spaces. Irrespective of location, the knowledge of consistency saves time, provides comfort, and creates brand loyalty. Chain restaurants are identical to each another and closely resemble competitors. The restaurant space is orderly, predictable, tidy, and convenient, and is designed to maximize customer flow. An assembly-line task structure saves in training and production costs.

Divided Opinions

For some, the global spread of fast food corporations, the supporting model of agribusiness, and their homogenizing influence on landscapes and behavior threaten cultural and ecological diversity. For others, eating corporate fast food is a social and fashion statement. Others shun corporate hamburgers but favor small, domestic, and independent fast-food businesses, such as kebab stands. Within countries, class, lifestyle, and attitudes play a role in relationships with fast food. Whereas one family considers a visit to a pizza parlor an affordable, fun evening out, another sees it as a tacky health hazard.

The more industrialized and complex the food processing chain, the more difficult it is to know what the food contains. Publicity has increased awareness of food-related health risks and fueled suspicion toward intensely processed fast foods.

Among the contested ethnical issues regarding corporate fast food are labor issues, franchiser rights, and marketing for children. Also controversial are the use of chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, fungicides, and pesticides in the mass-production of beef, poultry, and vegetables, and the treatment of production animals, ranchers, and land. Plenty of energy is required in packaging production and disposal, as well as mass production, transportation, and preparation practices. The resulting heaps of waste is usually not recycled or sorted according to biodegradability.

Disagreements between interest groups have led to lawsuits, consumer boycotts, acts of violence, and symbolic resistance in the form of a “slow food movement.” One counter-trend to the homogenizing impact of corporate fast food is the growing popularity of local, regional, and ethno-culturally diverse foods that are quick to prepare and can be consumed on the move. In some countries, concerns regarding the change of cultural traditions have created market niches for local entrepreneurs, who offer traditional food items in a fast-food format. Examples include a chain of pelmeni restaurants in Riga, Latvia, and shops serving elaborate stuffed baquettes in Paris, France.

In an extremely competitive business, major corporations have relaxed uniformities in order to adapt to different cultural and legal environments. Comparisons of U.S. and European fast-food menus show how different regulations and production costs influence the price of the same meal. Regional tastes and lifestyles modify flavors; for example, to please customers in Finland, McDonald’s offers a sandwich on dark, sour rye bread. Beer is also on the chain’s menu in several locations outside of North America. Attempts to attract healthand image-conscious customers have met varying success. Image and target-marketing make a difference, because the nutritional value of the new product may not differ significantly from the previous options.

The visible, direct impact of the fast food industry on eating habits and on the environment are a tip of an iceberg. The corporate fast food industry continues to change patterns and practices of land use, agriculture, manufacturing, and the processing, consumption, and perceptions of food. Many of these changes proceed gradually as parts of a more comprehensive, complex transformation so that the role of one industry in the big picture is difficult to trace.

Bibliography:

Warren J. Belasco, “Ethnic Fast Foods: The Corporate Melting Pot,” Food and Foodways 2 (1987), 1-30;
Victoria Bloomfield, “Tim Hortons: Growth of a Canadian Coffee and Doughnut Chain,” Journal of Cultural Geography 14 (1994), 1-16;
Rick Fantasia, “Fast Food in France,” Theory and Society 24 (1995), 201-243;
John Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, Fast Food. Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999);
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: What the All American Meal Is Doing to the World (Penguin, 2002).