Criticism of fast food

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Criticism of fast food

Answer 1

McDonaldization

McDonaldization is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He explains that it becomes manifested when a society adopts the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative contemporary paradigm (Ritzer, 2004:553). The process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in which "the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world."

McDonaldization thesis in cultural version is a comparatively recent idea of the worldwide of cultures. In contemporary society, the concept of McDonaldization is gaining attention in different aspects such as culture, as most countries have adapted to this concept because of globalization.

Ritzer highlighted four primary components of McDonaldization:

With these four principles of the fast food industry, a strategy which is rational within a narrow scope can lead to outcomes that are harmful or irrational. As these processes spread to other parts of society, modern society’s new social and cultural characteristics are created. For example, as McDonald’s enters a country and consumer patterns are unified, cultural hybridization occurs.

Ritzer also outlines Irrationality of Rationality as a fifth aspect of McDonaldization. "Most specifically, irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable systems. By that I mean that they deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them." (Ritzer 1994:154)

Ritzer introduces this during Chapter Two (The Past, Present, and Future of McDonaldization: From the Iron Cage to the Fast-Food Factory and Beyond) of his book "The McDonaldization of Society" in the sub-section Irrationality and the "Iron Cage." He states that "Despite the advantages it offers, bureaucracy suffers from the irrationality of rationality. Like a fast-food restaurant, a bureaucracy can be a dehumanizing place in which to work and by which to be served." In short; "settings in which people cannot always behave as human beings".

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Answer 2

McLibel case

McDonald's Corporation v Steel & Morris [1997] EWHC QB 366, known as "the McLibel case", was an English lawsuit for libel filed by McDonald's Corporation against environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris (often referred to as "The McLibel Two") over a factsheet critical of the company. Each of two hearings in English courts found some of the leaflet's contested claims to be libellous and others to be true. The partial nature of the victory, the David-and-Goliath nature of the case, and the drawn-out litigation embarrassed McDonald's. One of the authors of the "McLibel leaflet" was an undercover police officer who had infiltrated London Greenpeace.

The original case lasted nearly ten years which, according to the BBC, made it the longest-running case in English history. McDonald's announced that it did not plan to collect the £40,000 that it was awarded by the courts. Following the decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in Steel & Morris v United Kingdom that the pair had been denied a fair trial, in breach of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to a fair trial) and that their conduct should have been protected by Article 10 of the Convention, which protects the right to freedom of expression. The court awarded a judgement of £57,000 against the UK government. McDonald's itself was not involved in, or a party to, this action, as applications to the ECHR are independent cases filed against the relevant state. This judgement, given on 15 February 2005, represented the end of the pair's 20-year battle with McDonald's. Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach made a documentary film, McLibel, about the case.

London Greenpeace was a small environmental campaigning group that existed between 1972 and 2001. They were not affiliated with the larger Greenpeace International organisation, which they declined to join as they saw it being too "centralised and mainstream for their tastes".

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Answer 3

Maxime, McDuff %26 McDo

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Answer 4

McJob

McJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige dead-end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement. The term McJob comes from the name of the fast-food restaurant McDonald's, but is used to describe any low-status job – regardless of the employer – where little training is required, staff turnover is high, and workers' activities are tightly regulated by managers.

"McJob" was in use at least as early as 1986, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which defines it as "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector." Lack of job security is common.

The term was coined by sociologist Amitai Etzioni, and appeared in the Washington Post on August 24, 1986 in the article "McJobs are Bad for Kids". The term was popularized by Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, described therein as "a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one."

The term appears in the 1994 novel Interface (by Neal Stephenson and George Jewsbury) to describe in the abstract positions that are briefly held and underpaid. In the 1999 British film Human Traffic, one character's work in a generic burger outlet is referred to as a McJob.

In the face of objections from McDonald's, the term "McJob" was added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 2003,. In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald's CEO, James Cantalupo denounced the definition as a "slap in the face" to all restaurant employees, and stated that "a more appropriate definition of a 'McJob' might be 'teaches responsibility'". Merriam-Webster responded that "[they stood] by the accuracy and appropriateness of [their] definition."

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Answer 5

McLibel (film)

McLibel (film)

McLibel (also known as McLibel: Two People Who Wouldn't Say Sorry) is a British documentary film directed by Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach for Spanner Films about the McLibel case. The film was first completed in 1997 as a 52-minute television version after the conclusion of the original McLibel trial. It was then extended with new footage to 85-minute feature length in 2005, after the McLibel defendants took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The 1997 version was shown at film festivals worldwide, and sold to TV in about ten countries. The 2005 extended version was released theatrically in the UK, U.S., Australia, and other countries and sold to TV around the world, notably to BBC 2 (as part of their prestigious "Storyville Classics" season, where it achieved one million viewers at 10pm on a Sunday night) and CBC in Canada.

McLibel features courtroom reconstructions of the trial directed by notable UK film director Ken Loach, who gave his time for free. It also features interviews with Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation), Morgan Spurlock (writer/director of Super Size Me), Keir Starmer (who provided free legal support to the McLibel defendants for many years, first as a barrister, then as a QC; later in 2008 he became the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales), and Howard Lyman of Oprah/Mad Cow infamy.

McLibel was broadcast on BBC 2 in 2005, to an estimated 1 million viewers. It was then also broadcast on TV in 15 countries – including Australia, Canada and the USA – and released on DVD worldwide. McLibel was released in cinemas and DVD stores in the U.S in summer 2005 and this was followed in the UK in 2006.

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Answer 6

My Secret Life on the McJob

My Secret Life on the McJob

My Secret Life on the McJob: Lessons from Behind the Counter Guaranteed to Supersize Any Management Style is a book by Jerry Newman about low-wage work in fast-food outlets. Newman is a distinguished professor at University at Buffalo (N.Y.) School of Management who has taught business courses for nearly 30 years, and went undercover as a bottom-rung worker for the biggest names in fast food, including McDonald's and Burger King.

The book has had favorable reviews. The Wall Street Journal wrote:

Jerry Newman offers entertaining anecdotes and wonderful descriptions of the personalities working at every station of responsibility….Unusual for a business book offering management advice, My Secret Life on the McJob is written from the perspective of a crew member on the receiving end of the boss’s expectations rather than from that of a manager who faces the challenges of building a team, running a business and earning a return on investment….It offers many lessons that would be helpful to managers in almost every segment of business—or even government.

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Answer 7

Mystery meat

Mystery meat is a disparaging term for meat products, typically ground or otherwise processed, such as burger patties, chicken nuggets, Spam, Salisbury steaks, sausages, or hot dogs, that have an unidentifiable source. Most often the term is used in reference to food served in institutional cafeterias, such as prison food or an American public school lunch.

The term is also sometimes applied to meat products where the species from which the meat has come from is known, but the cuts of meat used are unknown. This is often the case where the cuts of meat used include offal and mechanically separated meat, where explicitly stating the type of meat used might diminish the perceived palatability of the product to some consumers.

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Answer 8

Overfed %26 Undernourished

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Answer 9

Panic Nation

Panic Nation: Unpicking the Myths We're Told About Food and Health, also published as Panic Nation: Exposing the Myths We're Told About Food and Health, is a nonfiction book by Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks. It was published by John Blake in 2006.

This book focuses on debunking many popular misconceptions about food and health that are common in the world today, in line with the introduction to the book that quotes Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire who wrote in the thirteenth century: 'One ought not to believe anything, save that which can be proven by nature and the force of reason.'

The book comprises a series of essays written by specialists and experts in related fields. These experts address the state of knowledge in the specific fields and how this conflicts with common knowledge. The contributors are Stanley Feldman, Vincent Marks, Michael Fizpatrick, Maurice Hanssen, John Henry, Mick Hume, Lakshman Karalliedde, Malcolm Kendrick, Peter Lachmann, James le Fanu, Sandy Macnair, Sam Shuster and Dick Taverne QC.

Michael Gard, in a paper in the book Biopolitics and the 'obesity epidemic': governing bodies, commented that the "consistent line of the 30 chapters is that pressure groups and bad scientists have managed to grossly exaggerate the health risks of things like salt, sugar, cholesterol, fast food and passive smoking". Writing in the New Statesman, William Sidelsky said, "The basic problem, according to the authors, is that our society is in thrall to the 'precautionary principle'. Ours is a worse-case-scenario mentality whereby any small or medium-sized risk is converted into a portent of near-certain catastrophe." He added, "It is hard not to concede that they have a point. The tone of the book may be trenchant, but the arguments are sensible and even-handed."

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Answer 10

Super Size Me

Super Size Me

Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he ate only McDonald's food. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effect on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.

Spurlock ate at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain's menu at least once. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.9 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. An intake of around 2,500 kcal within a healthy balanced diet is more generally recommended for a man to maintain his weight. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 11.1 kilograms (24 lb), a 13% body mass increase, increased his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his then-girlfriend, a chef who specializes in gourmet vegan dishes.

The reason for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared "epidemic", and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was alleged, became obese as a result of eating McDonald's food (Pelman v. McDonald's Corp., 237 F. Supp. 2d 512). Spurlock argued that although the lawsuit against McDonald's failed (and subsequently many state legislatures have legislated against product liability actions against producers and distributors of "fast food") as well as the McLibel case, much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises whose product is both physiologically addictive and physically harmful.

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