Although I dreaded going to it, I found Eric Schlosser's presentation very interesting. Several things have stuck with me from the lecture. A couple are just the straight facts. I personally am one of the Americans that drink enough Coca Cola products to make up for those who don't drink any. Schlosser's comment about McDonald's taking almost all the money you pay for a big gulp really struck home with me. This is probably because I am very unobservant in some parts of my life but have noticed, and wondered about, the giant sized straws that they use at MacDonald's. It is not as if they are any longer but rather wider. That combined with the 50 teaspoons of sugar estimated to be in a single Big Gulp, have made me realize that the friendly fast food place I loved as a young child was manipulating me as well as every other customer. There is something to be said when one feels shorthanded by a food company. It's depressing to think that there is no moral grounds in business, even a business that is so integrated in our lives like McDonald's.
A few other things I took from this lecture, which I surely will not forget, are the comments he made about the animal and worker abuse, and what is in a quarter pounder. Since I first realized I liked cheese on my burgers, I have loved the quarter pounder from McDonald's. After finding out that there are parts of thousands of steers from possibly five different countries in each one, I hereby state that I refuse to eat one again. He was very good at putting it in terms that one can understand... "Imagine you are married and only sleeping with one person - not much risk for getting sick right? Now, imagine you are sleeping with thousands of people..." That's disgusting. He followed this up about children and people who are immune suppressed have the most possibility of getting sick from McDonald's, I now understand why my mother, who is going through clinical tests for her metastatic breast cancer, refuses to eat there... although why she never shared with me her reasons I'm a little confused.
The animal and worker abuse Schlosser described was disgusting. I understand that people are not as animal focused in their lives as I am but still, the company needs to take responsibility for what it is causing to happen. If they are not going to do that, they need to take responsibility for the care of all of the workers of the suppliers they use. It honestly is a tragedy that this is occurring.
I agree 100% with you that animal abuse (not to mention worker abuse) is unsettling and McDonald's is a big part of the problem. Corporate giants behind the golden arches should no doubt be more responsible and heath conscious. I didn't attend the lecture, but it seems to be that McDonald's gets all sorts of criticisms, everything from Schlosser's lamentations to films like Super Size Me yet we seem to forget about other fast food restaurants. Wendy's, Taco Bell, Long John Silvers. How do these other fast food corporations factor into the discourse? Are their practices as insidious? Does McDonald's need to resort to shady business tactics to succeed and if so, is it the ideological/socio-political framework that we as consumers propagate that allows them, perhaps forces them, to conduct such dealings? What does this say about us?
ReplyDelete"It's depressing to think that there is no moral grounds in business, even a business that is so integrated in our lives like McDonald's."
ReplyDeleteNow, that's not true. There are no (or very few) moral grounds in /big/ business. That I would agree with. Otherwise you're grouping every local store that would give discounts to its loyal customers or at least discuss, rather than completely shut you out, if you had an issue with them. =)
I think we can all agree that worker abuse and animal abuse are terrible, terrible crimes. There is a quote, I'm not sure where it came from, but it goes something like this, "A society can best be judged by the way it treats its animals." It may take time, but I think that eventually McDonalds will have to answer for its crimes (or more specifically, the meat packing and farming industry). Things will change, but it will be slow.