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Samantha Magpusao

Indira Hood-Esparza

Humanities

11 April 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” (Muntel) and the relation of fast food is no coincidence. 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 do not 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). Kids

and adolescents have developed an unhealthy eating habit that causes damage to their health. “A

number of studies have linked fast food to health problems, including an increased risk of

obesity, poor nutrition, diabetes, heart disease and stroke” (Sheehan). 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
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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 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 ends 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) 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 food that is served and made quickly from fast

food restaurants. It is certainly probable that “Fast food has been an undeniable part of American

culture” (Aubrey). Eric Schlosser, who wrote the 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 for on the go. “During a relatively brief period of time, the fast food
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industry has helped to transform not only the American diet, but also our landscape, economy,

workforce, and popular culture” (Schlosser). Without many thought, fast food has contributed a

significant influence of the culture of Americans in more ways than one. It is known that fast

food has unhealthy effects on the body but, the culture fast food has created in searching for the

next new popular food item has formed a ignorance to the health aspect. “A survey of American

schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional

character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus” (Schlosser). Food is a basic need

human need to survive. The role of food plays a huge part in the community and the social lives

of Americans. When two people go out to meet a common place is at a restaurant or cafe. For

holidays most families cook up a feast and the introduction of fast food has introduced a whole

new meaning of food that changed American culture for the worst. Introducing low quality food,

that is cheap and appealing. The fact that young American children can identify Ronald

Mcdonald is an example of how it appeals to the younger generations.

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 companies. 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
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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 substantial 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 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
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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. Author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser 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

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). All these fast

food companies combined is a billion dollar industry that provides many Americans with jobs,

but they also take away from family business, family farming, and does not pay enough to the

workers. For as big as the industry of fast food is, the sole intent of their production is profit and

do not care of the harm they cause to the health of Americans, the culture of Americans or the

environment.
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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

Aubrey, Allison. “About A Third Of U.S. Kids And Teens Ate Fast Food Today.” NPR,

NPR, 17 Sept. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/17/440951329/about-a-third-

of-u-s-kids-and-teens-ate-fast-food-today.

Baker, Jalelah Abu. “The Good and Bad Sides of Consumerism.” The Straits Times, 10

July 2016, www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-good-and-bad-sides-of-consumerism.

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Beltis, AJ. “10 Facts and Statistics About The Fast Food Industry.” Toast, Inc., Toast,

Inc., 20 May 2017, pos.toasttab.com/blog/10-fast-food-industry-statistics.

“Consumerism and Climate Change: How the Choices You Make Can Help Mitigate the

Effects of Climate Change | Academic Impact.” United Nations, United Nations, 7 Mar.

2016, academicimpact.un.org/content/consumerism-and-climate-change-how-choices-

you-make-can-help-mitigate-effects-climate-chan-0.

“Fast Food.” Fast Food | Food Empowerment Project, www.foodispower.org/fast-food/.

Jowitt, Juliette. “World Is Facing a Natural Resources Crisis Worse than Financial

Crunch.” The Guardian , 28 Oct. 2008,

www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats.

Lehner, Peter. “Fast Food Trash Nation? Time to Cut Down on Packaging Waste.”

NRDC, 15 Dec. 2016, www.nrdc.org/experts/peter-lehner/fast-food-trash-nation-time-

cut-down-packaging-waste.

Mayell, Hillary. “ As Consumerism Spreads, Earth Suffers, Study Says.” National

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the-enemy.
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Pirello, Christina. “How Fast Food Has Changed Our Nation.” One Green Planet, 7 Jan.

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Shah, Anup. “Effects of Consumerism.” - Global Issues, 10 Aug. 2005,

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american-meal/.

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Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation.

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