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In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser tells the story of the fast food industry. He covers various aspects from history, to marketing, to artificial (and natural) flavour, to slaughterhouses, to why French fries taste so good. Although most us know fast food is not healthy, I suspect most of us do not know how fast food became so prevalent in American culture, and do not realize all the details of how the food gets to us.
The two sections I found the most interesting discussed artificial flavouring and marketing. During the research for the book, Schlosser toured a flavour factory in New Jersey. Here various artificial flavours are created; the products of chemical reactions. In addition, natural flavours are distilled from flora. In the end, the final makeup of natural and artificial flavours is very similar.
The most interesting part of the book was that statistics and practices of marketing to children. The author relates sever of the fast food industry’s past marketing campaigns, many of which my wife and I remember from childhood, such as McDonald’s Teenie Beanie Baby Giveaway and Pizza Hut’s Book It Program. It is disturbing how much is spent on advertising to children. TV ads and give-away programs are not the only marketing, increasingly companies are signing deals with schools to allow advertisements on campus in return for additional funds. Tastes developed in childhood persist into adulthood. America’s health problem is due in no small part to the availability of cheap food.
Schlosser suggests that we ban (or limit) advertising to children. A conclusion with which I support. With the exception of a few child actors, children do not generate money. They are largely dependant on parents’ money for purchasing power. Several marketing studies show advertising to children incites them to nag their parents for the advertised product; several different nagging styles have been identified by researchers. Children, furthermore, cannot tell the different between the TV programme they are watching and the advertising, and do not realize the purpose of advertising; i.e, to sell a product. Advertising any products to children thus usurps the household œconomy and encourages them to break the Fifth Commandment (Honour your father and mother…). Children sadly believe advertisers over their parents and doubt their parent have their best interests in mind. While parents should not encourage or allow excessive TV use, and should not leave their children watching TV unattended, advertising to children is no friend to a family. Our laws should reflect the importance of the family, and not seek to weaken community.
A few weeks ago in our alternative newspaper Tucson Weekly, Tom Danehy posted this article about the third commandment. (Or second commandment since he is a Roman Catholic.)
I found it amazing that a Tucson alternative newspaper actually has a good discussion of what it means to take God name in vain. (A better translation would be, ‘Do not use the name of God frivolously.’) The writer focuses on claiming to speak for God where God has not spoken.
If he just went a little further and recognized that we are all guilty of breaking that command which should show us our need of grace.
My wife found this link about the quality of baby food: Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food. Enjoy.
