The Impacts of Fast Food free essay sample

The Impacts of Fast Food Fast food can be a cheap, quick meal, but most people do not realize what they are actually getting into. While some may say that the fast food industry has helped the world because it allows people with low incomes or not a lot of time on their hands to be able to get a fast meal, there are plenty of side effects to go along with it. The fast food industry has been developing quickly and has successfully roped in the human race. These restaurants are widely accepted because of their inexpensive food that is extremely addicting. Most people fail to see the other part of the story. In today’s society, fast food seems to be at the top of everyone’s meal list, but at the bottom of his or her concerns. Fast food impacts the economic, agricultural, and health fields. Some people believe that the fast food industry has no bad affects. Even though there are some positive points of it, people should start to also take notice of the negative points. The fast food industry provides jobs for lots of people throughout the world. There are more than 3. 5 million Americans who have been employed with a job in the fast food business (Peterson). This job appeals to lots of people because the employees do not have to be skilled to flip a burger or work a cash register. However, having a job at a fast food restaurant is not always a good thing. With low salaries, the economy cannot improve (Peterson). When there are so many people who have low salaries, nobody is going to be able to afford anything. Susan Peterson, a Ph. D in text theory from the University of Texas, says, â€Å"People work to make money, but what if they are not making enough to get by without help from the government? Susan has a very valid point. If people are not making enough money in their fast food job, how are they going to buy material needs for them or their family? It is great that they have a job and are working to earn some money, but that is not going to solve everything. Robby Kukler, a partner at Atlanta-based 5th-group-restaurants, says, â€Å"We live in a very cost-sensitive industry† (Bowman). Human dependency has played a large role in fast food. When there are so many people who consume fast food regularly, by logic, the industry is going to grow. A survey taken in the beginning of 2013 states that there are about 184, 200 fast food restaurants in America (Burks). Fast food restaurants are meant to be convenient, but when there are so many, too many people eat it too often. In the past forty years, the whole fast food industry has grown from a $6 billion revenue to a $170 billion revenue (Fast Food). Even though that seems like a large amount of time for a small growth, it is not. That is more than $4 billion per year. In 1968, there were only one thousand McDonalds in the United States. Now, there are more than thirty thousand (Cohen). With the rapid growth rate of fast food restaurants, it is just going to get easier and easier for humans to depend on fast food. While fast food affects the economy very heavily, it also impacts thousands of farms all around the country and even the world. Most people do not even know what they are eating when they are consuming fast food. In many places, there are vast amounts of corn and soybeans that become animal feed or ingredients in processed foods (Boyd). As a matter of fact, about 20 percent of the world’s petroleum production goes into the production and transportation of our food (Boyd). Because of this, the food we eat does not come from around the state anymore, but from all around the country or even the world. What people now call â€Å"fresh foods† can come from anywhere. It can be shipped as close as right around the corner, but as far as 1,500 miles away (Garrison). Why would a person want to eat something in which he or she does not know the ingredients or process involved in making it? A typical hamburger contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle from all around the world (Schlosser). The meat in hamburgers and even chicken nuggets used to come from a few or ever just one cattle (Schlosser). Therefore, if only one cattle is infected with a disease or sickness, there is a good chance that the person who consumes this meat will encounter some of the disease (Schlosser). People should really start to watch what is in the food that they are eating. Most people do not know that in a typical fast food strawberry milkshake, there is a substance used to clean oil rigs (Cohen). This is just one example of people not knowing what is in their food or drink before they consume it. Farms used to be very diverse, growing corn, oats, wheat, hay, fruits, and vegetables (Boyd). To feed a population as large as this one, farming is needed. In America, McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of beef, pork, and also potatoes (Cohen). McDonald’s is also the second largest purchaser of chicken in the United States (Cohen). Without agriculture, the human race would go nowhere in their everyday lives. It is only because of agricultural surpluses that we, as humans, were able to develop science, literature, and all of the other things we like so much (Cohen). We also do not have to fight for survival because farming and agriculture makes it so easy to put dinner on the table and feed people so easily (Cohen). Without agriculture we would not have such an advanced world today.