blog#6 Behind the Counter

Prof. Smith.

ENG101           

Diana Coll

03/29/14

Blog#6

BEHIND THE COUNTER

In chapter three of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser explain with detail how the fast food industry has been influencing our culture especially the younger generation and how they have manipulated the system by advertising for there own benefit.

 Today the largest private employers in the state is the restaurant industry, Schlosser chose Colorado as an example and emphasized how the restaurant industry has grown much faster than the population there, over the last three decades the number of restaurants have increased five-fold and the number of chain restaurants have increased ten-fold. Now, Colorado has twenty-one McDonald’s.

When a new McDonald’s opens, other fast food restaurants soon open nearby on the assumption that in must be a good location. On other hand the fast food industry spent billions on marketing and promotion, to brainwash their costumers, they put ads on radio and TV, just to reinforce brand loyalty. McDonald's has created computer software called Quintillion that combines   satellite imagery with detailed maps, demography information and sales information for existing stores, so they can spy on their costumers with the same equipment once used to fight the cold war. Moreover, fast food kitchen often seem like a scene from some movie where all the actors are children pretending to be adults because no other industry in the United States has a workforce so dominated by adolescents. About two thirds of the nation fast food workers are under the age of twenty.

Fast Food Industry has found teenagers as the perfect candidates for there, not only because there less experience than adults, but also because their youthful inexperience make them easier to control and manipulate but since the number of baby-boomer teenagers declined, the fast food chains began to hire other marginalized workers: recent immigrants, the elderly and the handicapped. Now English is the second language of at least one sixth of the nations restaurants and about one third of the group speaks no English at all the just trained to learn the names of the item on the menu, they speak ‘McDonald's English’ and the fast food industry pays the minimum wage to a higher proportion of its workers than any other American Industry. We may not realized how fast food has impact our culture turning commercial kitchens into small factories and changed familiar foods into commodities that are manufactured.

Blog #5

Prof. Smith.

Class. ENG101.           

Diana Coll.

03/20/14

Blog #5

     “Your trust friend” in my opinion is so far one of the most interesting chapters of this book. The fact that advertizing has taken over the mentality and nutrition of children in order to increase their own benefit, it is completely shocking.

     Today television is used in America as a free babysitter. Many parents take advantage of cartoons, in order to have so time off from their  kids. Unfortunately, what we haven’t realized, is that by allowing our television to hypnotize our children for a couple of minutes per day, we are also allowing hundreds of junk food companies to take over their naive  mentality and our own food at home.

       As a clear example, a study of the American Psychological Association, found that the obesity epidemic in America, is a serious public health problem. This issue has been increasing rapidly among children between the ages of 8 thru 18 because “95% of the ads promoted on Television, only promote junk food.” Also, because they are allowed to spend more time in front of their computer rather than playing outside, (an average of 44.5 hours per week). Also, because it has been proven that kids as young as 2 years old, can recognize a logo, way before they can recognize their own name.

      Lets talk about the installation of playgrounds on fast food restaurants like Mc Donald’s or Burger King among many others, mainly created to get the attention of children in the pursue to consume there product that containing only processed foods with a very poor nutritional value, often called a “happy meal”. Lets not forget that the main reason this “happy meal’’ is buy, is for the toy that comes with it. Often being, a TV cartoon character or a main character of the latest Disney movie.

     After connecting  everything , it is extremely easy to use teenagers as brand promoters. Specially, because they have been brainwashed since the 80’s.  Our current teens are being often used as low wage employees for fast food restaurants, most of the time for their poor experience and fast paced production, which comes handy for the restaurant at the time of paying their employees “About 70% of fast food workers make between $7.25 to $10.00 per hour, less than 10% earn between $10.00 and $12.00 per hour, and fewer than one in twelve make more than $12.00 per hour”. Lack of experience often means a minimum wage job, which allows the restaurant to save a tremendous amount in their payroll, but at the same time taking advantage of the energy and speed of their employees. Who wants to go to a fast food restaurant and wait 30 minutes for the food to be ready?

       The power of Multinationals such as McDonald's are almost impossible to measure, it is important to realize that at the end, we are just consumers and responsible for what we buy. It is our responsibility as adult to create awareness in our children to become more active, healthy and proactive when it comes to our body and environment. Only that way, we will guarantee that our future will have healthier adults, able to make decisions for themselves and their families.

blog #4 Your Trusted Friends

Prof. Smith

Class. ENG101           

Diana Coll

03/15/14

Blog # 4

Your Trusted Friends

In this second chapter of ‘Fast Food Nation’ by Eric Schlosser we started to understand more about the fast food industry and how they actually work, Schlosser mentioned famous brands in the market and how thru advertisement and marketing, they create a new culture and a new life style for the families in America.

Schlosser emphasizes in the relationship between Disney and McDonald, even though they were competitors they were using the same mechanism and the same philosophy to get more and more costumers before they stared to work together.

Kid Kustumers’ chapter is about how the millionaire industry of fast food and Disney created their empire and there brand loyalty by making a necessity in society especially in families through advertising. In 1980, occurred the explosion in children advertising were a lot of American companies directed their marketing to children. Disney, McDonald, Toy markers and manufacturers of cereals were some of the companies they took advantage of millions of families how parents work a lot of hours and did not spend much time with their kids felt guilty and start to spend more money on them as a reward.

Ray Kroc and Walt Disney focus solely on kids, they were conscious the youth market was the future and started to build a brand to be a lifetime. They studied and analyze children’s behaviors and found that kids can recognize brand logo before they can recognize their names and one more time took advantage of that for their own benefit.

Since 1980 the young market has been attack, now more than before by TV, Internet and other media. They sold the perfect American dream and we fell into the trap, making us think companies are our friends when the reality is that they are making us so much harm. For example, increasing diabetes, obesity, high-pressure in children and adults trough their products. Now they are promoting healthcare programs and giving us scholarships to try to fix everything bad they have caused.   

Blog #3 The Founding Fathers

Prof. Smith.

Class. ENG101.           

Diana Coll.

03/11/14

Blog  #3

The Founding Fathers

Carl N. Karcher was born in 1917 in Ohio, he was an American businessman and one of the fast food industry’s pioneers, and his live seems to be the perfect example of the American dream. Carl grew up in a German-American family; he had six brothers and a sister. Carl dropped out of school after the eighth grade and worked twelve to fourteen hours a day on a farm, but in 1937 Carl moved to Anaheim, California where his uncle ran a small business, he worked for his uncle for three years and latter dropped that job to work in a bakery.

Carl and his wife Margaret M. Heinz stared the fist fast food business on 1942 in Los Angeles California but in 1945 they opened the first restaurant, Carl’s drive-in barbecue in Anaheim, by that time the population in California grew and had given birth to an entirely new lifestyle and a new way of eating. With the automotive revolution the drive –in restaurants become more famous and attractive especial for teenagers, the drive-in restaurants fit perfectly with the youth culture of Los Angeles, the combinations of beautiful girls, cars and late night food was widely accepted. That is how fast food began to be part of everyday life in Americans until today.

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Blog #2 The Meaning of Food in My Life

Prof. Smith.

Class. ENG101.           

Diana Coll.

03/11/14

The Meaning of Food in My Life

Food: any nutritious substance that people or animal eat or drink, in order to maintain life and growth.

Food is extremely important and significant in my life because it is the only way to survive, but to me food has a much deeper significance. My name is Diana and I’m form Colombia, my country is in South America, the city where I was born is Cali, a beautiful place with nice weather and famous for have delicious food. Cali is a big city in the middle of the mountains. Out of the city there are a lot of farms and fruit trees.

When I say that food have a deeper significance to me I refer to food as an important part in my culture, especially in my family. It is not the only way to stay alive. It is the also a way to keep the connection with the ones we love. That’s why preparing food is almost a ceremony for us. In my culture, we have to eat at least three times a day, my grandmother said that breakfast is very important because it is the responsible for the energy that we need during the day, launch have to be nurturing, and dinner need to be light so we can seep good. In my culture, the tradition is to eat together, all family members and at the same hours every day, and spend almost all daylong preparing the food, but hear in NYC is completely different to me it is very difficult to eat at the same time everyday because I came to school and then go to work.

Sometimes I have only few minutes to eat between class and I have to eat whatever there is in the cafeteria because I don’t have time to cook. I have gotten sick to eat in restaurants and cafeterias because they over cook the food and it is poor in nutrients. No every restaurant is bad, but students like me cannot afford to pay a lot of money for everyday lunch. My time to eat is so short that I never have a specific place to eat. It can be in the cafeteria at school, in the classroom or even in the train.

In this city it is hard to have an organized diet specially because there are so many fast food restaurants all over the city and these are so cheap that we end being slaves to it. However, I think that we should take the time to prepare our food, eat more vegetables and fruits, lest sugar, drink more water and less soda and stay away of fast food and have good nutrition because this can prevent diseases.

            

Blog # 1 Is America's Food Supply Safe?

Prof. Smith.

Class. ENG101.           

Diana Coll.

03/11/14

Is America’s Food Supply Safe?

In this passage, Dr. David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food protection and drugs administration asked to all Americans if they really think the food supply is safe, recently it has been found E.coli in spinach, Salmonella in peanut butter and a lot of bacteria in other food. However, Dr. Acheson emphasizes how the F.D.A (The Food and Drug Administration) works very hard and very closely with federal, state, and local agencies to safe food for all costumers across the country.

The F.D.A with more than 20 offices in the country and 625 inspectors who inspect the food supply cant guarantee as one hundred percent safety food. It’s hard for them to keep control in the food because most of the food in America comes from all over the world. Beside that we have to remember that it is our responsibility to keep some safety steps. Like wash the food and our hand before eating, keeping the food refrigerated specially meat at the correct temperature specially if it’s seafood and the most important is to cook the food at the right temperature an the right time because this can help to prevent us to get sick.

In conclusion, remember the Government has the responsibility to maintain and keep the food in a good condition before it reaches our table, but we can’t forget our responsibility during the cook process.