As a response to Joanna's complaint about the McD-ization of food and culture, this is nonsequitor disguised as an appeal to authority. If you're going to exhort us to heed the old fat guy, Doug, couldn't you find something more on point? What does Marx's exhortation about precapitalist social relations that paved the way for both capitalism and then liberation from exploitation (tricky topic that last one) have to do with the the destruction of food by agricorps and the concomitant cultural effects. More precisely, how does any of that social destruction "increase the potential for liberation"? Where are the links? Where do we look for the threads to tie this into something that makes sense?
Experiment: check out the bread offered at your local supermarket for the percentage of loaves whose first ingrediant is *whole* wheat or grain, instead of "enriched" wheat flour. Enriched means they have removed the wheat germ and replaced it with vitamins readily available in most diets.
As luck would have it, the latest issue of The Nutruition Action Newsletter, put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (run by the estimable Mike Jacobson), has an article on ten major trends in diet and health. This discussion could sure use a few more facts to chew on.
* Everybody is getting fatter. Everyone, men, women, children, adults, and even most other countries than the US, as the agricorp promotion of high calorie foods goes on. Two big macs for $2--that's a lot of calories, and a boatland of fat, for not much money.
* When eating out people eat more cause they're served more: serving sizes in restaurants, including McDs have ballooned. With rising labor and overhead costs, food accounts for only a small fraction of meal price and people like the extra value. Here is the history of McD's fries: In the 50s and 60s, they offered only one size, weighing about 2 ounces and containing about 200 calories. In the early 70s that size became "small" and a 320 calory large size was introduced (and at some point the saturated fat in the fries exceeded that in the McD greaseburgers!). In the 80s, the large became a medium and the new large was 400 calories. By the mid 90s the large had grown to 450 calories there was a new supersize at 540 calories. By 2000, the large had become medium, the supersize was now large and the new 7 ounce supersize contained 610 calories. What's next they ask: "blubber size"?
* In its insatiable thirst for markets in which to realize all that surplus value being created, advertising spending has balloned, and in predictable ways. The proportion of advertising money spent on candy, snacks, and soft drinks far exceeds these foods' share of the US diet. Twenty corps specializing mainly in highly processed foods like soft drinks, cookies and convenience foods spend 75% of the ad dollars. The US food industry trails only autos in total ad spending. Feeling like a sucker yet?
* Heart attacks and strokes have dramatically plummeted. Probably mostly due to major decline in smoking, and some drop in chlosteral due in part to changes in eating habits--away from red meat and toward lower fat foods (for which these guys deserve major credit) and lifestyle changes like more exercise.
* Food safety: new contaminants keep being found--E. coli was unknown before '82. Why? In part because of the replacement of the family farm and corner grocery with large mechanized production facilities where there is more potential for the spread of contamination. When you grind up huge lots of beef and ship it all of the country you can infect a whole lot more people.
There's lots more where this stuff came from.
RO