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Samantha Magpusao

Indira Hood-Esparza

Humanities

19 March 2018

Consumerism Affecting our Environment

Ever since 1921, when the first fast food restaurant opened, the fast food industry has

been thriving ever since. In the United States fast food has an annual revenue of $110 billion

dollars along with 50 million Americans consuming fast food everyday (Statistic Brain). The

idea of having to eat with no utensils, having it easy to go, drive throughs for customers

convenience has made it easily accessible for anyone to purchase whenever and wherever they

want. 33.8 percent of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19 percent of children and

adolescents are also affected and the fast food connection is no coincidence (Muntel). American

society needs to start looking at sustainability in terms of consumption because consumerism

affects the environment, impacts American culture, and allows companies to create

advertisements that manipulate consumers.

With fast food being a popular demand many Americans don’t realize the negative

consequences it has on the environment. Fast food is so appealing because of how convenient,

cheap and available it is. “There are close to 50,000 fast food chain across the United States.”

“Kids between ages of 6 and 14 eat fast food 157,000,000 times every month” (Brown). Not only

is fast food bad for your health but, it's bad for the earth's health too. “Millions of acres of forest

are clear-cut every year to manufacture fast food packaging, which comprises a very large

percentage of litter found on U.S. roadways” (Food Empowerment Project). Fast food packaging

counts for an estimated 40% of all litter (Geer). This is one of the many ways that fast food
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negatively impacts our environment. The overuse of packaging for straws, bags, wrappings,

means an overuse of plastic which ends up on the streets, or in the oceans which may cause harm

to our animals. The plastic that do end up in the trash eventually meets the landfill which takes

around 10-1,000 years to decompose (Leblanc). “According to a landmark report by the United

Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector (and factory farming in

particular) is ‘one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious

environmental problems’ (Food Empowerment Project). “Throughout the entire life cycle of

food, which includes agricultural production, storage, transportation, processing, preparation and

waste disposal, emissions are released at every stage.” (The Guardian) Throughout the whole

process of making the food, consuming it, and disposing of it, every step is polluting our earth.

With the heavier reliance on fast food to feed many Americans the demand has played a serious

role in negatively impacting our environment and the fast food industry doesn't seem to be going

anywhere.

Every day about 1 in 3 kids are eating fast food. It is safe to say that “Fast food has been

an undeniable part of American culture” (Aubrey). Eric Schlosser, author of book Fast Food

Nation believes “that manufacturing fast food is changing the American culture for the worse, by

creating a society that wants everything now and wants it fast” (Gaviria). When the first fast food

restaurant opened, it introduced a new way of eating. Easy to go, quick to grab, cheap to buy and

when the first drive through option was available it was a whole other way of eating. A more

efficient and convenient way of eating if you are on the go. “During a relatively brief period of

time, the fast food industry has helped to transform not only the American diet, but also our

landscape, economy, workforce, and popular culture” (Schlosser). Without many thought, fast

has had a major impact on American culture. “A survey of American schoolchildren found that
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96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of

recognition was Santa Claus” (Schlosser). Our food plays a big role in our community and the

introduction of fast food has changed American culture.

For as long as American consumerism is around advertisements will be too.

Advertisements are a companies marketing tool to promote their business and nowadays they are

seen everywhere. Newspapers, T.V, online, articles, social media, commercials, they are hard to

miss. As much as we think we ignore them, our spending habits and the obesity epidemic in

America says otherwise. On average American children are exposed to three to five fast-food ads

per day (Aubrey). At such a young age, children are exposed to unhealthy foods that are

advertised from these fast food chains. Studies show that “young children have little

understanding of the persuasive intent of advertising. Prior to age 7 or 8 years, children tend to

view advertising as fun, entertaining, and unbiased information.” “The heavy marketing of high

fat, high sugar foods to this age group can be viewed as exploitative because young children do

not understand that commercials are designed to sell products and they do not yet possess the

cognitive ability to comprehend or evaluate the advertising (Story & French). Fast food intently

targets young kids beginning at a young age to promote their highly processed foods because

they see children as a huge influence of demand for their families. Television is one of the largest

sources advertisement exposure. “U.S children between the ages two and four watch t.v 2 hours a

day: increases to over 3.5 hours near the end of grade school, then drops to 2.75 hours when they

reach adolescence” (Story & French). This means greater exposure to ads. “It is estimated that

U.S children may view between 20,000 – 40,000 commercials each year and by the time they

graduate from high school may have been exposed to 360,000 television ads” (Story & French).

This is relevant because “Studies show that children who are exposed to advertisements will
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chose advertised foods at significantly higher rates than children who were not” and “purchase

requests for specific brands or categories of food products also reflect product advertising

frequencies” (Story & French). Young kids are seen as a huge market force to the fast food

industry due to the fact that fast food chain advertisements correlate to their demand for food.

The U.S children are strategically targeted through multiple different advertisement influences

one of them being television, but this generation especially lives in a media filled environment

where they will also encounter advertisements.

American consumerism could be argued that it helps our economy. “The fast- food

industry is the largest employer of minimum-wage workers in the country” (Pirello).

“McDonald’s opens new restaurants at a rate of 2,000 per year and employs more people than

any other organization, public or private” (Pirello) Although this is true, Mariana Gaviria, author

of Fast Food’s Impact On Your Health, The Economy, And Ethical Values writes that “The fast

food industry also denigrates the economy. McDonalds, for instance, has a reached a point where

they are no longer part of the service industry; they are now part of the manufacturing industry.

There is a systematic line of production, both in the factory and in the restaurant, that is still run

by human beings; yet, the need to speed up the production process even more and get the

cheapest labor available to make the most profit may soon be replacing those human beings with

machines” (Gaviria). Although the fast food industry opens up jobs for Americans it is also

creating a culture of demand for cheaper and faster things, this in turn the options of machines

taking over jobs are a big possibility. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nations also argues

“The basic thinking behind fast food has become the operating system of today’s retail economy,

wiping out small businesses, obliterating regional differences, and spreading identical stores

throughout the country like a self-replicating code.” Bigger is not always better, the more fast
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food restaurants open there is also a part of taking attention off of small business. Not only to

think about the deforestation that aspect that fast food plays a role in. Even with the fast food

industry being the largest private employer in America, it pays some of the lowest wages

(Schlosser). Fast food also has a huge dominance on agriculture production. Mcdonald's is the

largest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes (Pirello). “Farmers and cattle ranchers are losing

their independence, essentially becoming hired hands for the agribusiness giants or being forced

off the land. Family farms are now being replaced by gigantic corporate farms” (Schlosser). “The

United States now has more prison inmates than full-time farmers” (Schlosser). The fast food

industry is a billion dollar making company that provides many Americans with jobs, but they

also take away from family business, family farming, and does not pay enough to the workers.

With fast food being dominating industry in American culture, and a huge influence in

America's health behavior “Food is no longer natural or local; on the contrary, it is manmade and

global” (Gaviria). The demand and heavy reliance of fast food is playing a huge role in the way

Americans spend their money. Big corporations are purposely targeting the youth with the intent

to make profit. “McDonald’s spends more money on advertising and marketing than any other

brand” (Schlosser). Americans need to look towards a more sustainable option of eating and

consuming for the sake of their health and for their spending habits.

Works Cited

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14 Apr. 2016, contently.com/strategist/2016/04/14/dangerous-power-emotional-
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Jowit, Juliette. “World Is Facing a Natural Resources Crisis Worse than Financial Crunch.”The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 Oct. 2008,
www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats.
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Tytyk, Kimberly. “The Psychology of Advertising,Manipulation in Advertising .” StopAd Blog:

Practical Content and Insights, Not Just about Ads, 3 Jan. 2018, stopad.io/blog/manipulating-
maslow-how-advertising-is-hijacking-our-heads-and-making-us-unhappy

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