Fast Food Hunger
In a nine month period McDonald's could feed the equivalent of the world's population, according to A.V. Krebs in The Corporate Reapers. Assuming increased access to the Happy Meal, which is indeed one of the corporation's stated marketing goals, McDonald's could be our best weapon against world hunger. Why then, as a parent concerned about food, hunger and food security, am I not happy? I brought up this provocative finding as a means of talking about food and access to food during a family meal with my daughter, son and husband during the week that the World Food Summit was taking place. My daughter Lucy responded with an 8-year-olds insight; "Why would people in Africa or Italy want a McDonald's hamburger when they can make their own good food like stews or spaghetti? Maybe they don't even like hamburgers." The logic seemed clear enough. I then mentioned that McDonald's was planning to have enough franchises developed in the near future so that no one would ever be more than four minutes away from a McDonald's, either by foot or by automobile. Every day three new McDonald's restaurants open. "That's a lot of hamburgers. How can they make so many?" Gardner, my ten year old son, replied. Herein lies my unhappiness with the Happy Meal. The indisputable inter-connectedness of our global food system has made our family meals a forum for corporate, economic and political debate, and has made a World Food Summit, where food security and world hunger are agenda items, a must. The most commonly agreed upon definition of food security whether arising in discussions among heads of state, UN delegates, FAO representatives or heads of households is the one that appears throughout this magazine. The McDonald's Corporation is only one of the several kings of fast food that has burgeoned into a $70 billion per year industry (1989/90 figure). McDonald's is a 19,4000 strong chain with franchises in 90 countries world wide (1996 figure). Their franchise motto focuses on quality, cleanliness, cost and access to all. Assuming equal access for all to the McDonald's experience, one could argue that fast food does indeed address some of the issues presented in the above definition of food security. Food security demands sustainability, and no matter how you slice it, the centralized structure and requirements of uniformity fast food places on food production flies in the face of sustainable agriculture. Uniformity at the fast food plate demands uniformity in the fields. To satisfying our hunger for cheap French fries and hamburgers, we need massive amounts of single crop varieties of potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes and beef cattle all of which have been hybridized for maximum yield at the lowest cost possible. This incessant mono-cropping wreaks havoc on genetic diversity. To meet high production requirements, the use of pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides become part of a food demand system which leaves nothing to natural systems. The constant chemical infusion on crop land has resulted in resistance among pests. Currently over 500 pests have developed resistance to pesticides. Farmers are often forced to increase pesticide applications or turn to harsher, stronger chemicals to protect crop yields. Our Happy Meal appetite also drives farmers worldwide away from growing crops for localized consumption. Growers begin to grow food for shipment to processors instead of providing food for local outlets. While export driven relationships may provide a market for lettuce grown, what are the costs to the community in terms of health and environment? As we drive towards the McDonald's "four-minute solution," we reinforce a network of supply and demand that is destroying local communities and traditional ways of rural life here and abroad. We also support agricultural methods that are ecologically unsound, deplete the soil, waste energy, and leave harmful chemical residues on our food and water. There is an intimate connection between food and the quality of our lives. Food security is the foundation of this connection. It is food security that allows for all types of access to food, access that may take more than four minutes. There is food that is provided quickly, cleanly and with a smile but that has hidden costs behind its 99 cent price tag. There is food that sustains productivity, encourages biodiversity, conserves our finite resources, and supports life. We are seeing tremendous growth in farmers' markets, CSA, community gardens, food cooperatives, demonstration projects focusing on local food systems and partnerships forming to protect watershed areas. This is growth of the real happy meal - the meal that sustains, nurtures, provides security. Our family meal, from preparation to consumption is, indeed, a happy one. Our happy meal starts with shopping where we know our food providers at the farmers' market, and moves on to the preparation, and ends with the pleasure of being together around a meal that has involved us. When we, as individuals and communities, thoughtfully support local, sustainable agricultural systems, we encourage localized self-sufficiency, biodiversity, land and open space stewardship, economic sustainability, and yes, food security. What would the discussion at a World Food Summit be if instead of McDonald's, there was a farmers' market, a community garden or a community supported farm within four minutes of every home?
Betsy Lydon is the Outreach Director for Mothers & Others for Livable Planet, a non-profit consumer organization which promotes consumer choices that are safe and sustainable for this and future generations.
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