While traveling with thirty some girls it is generally regarded to be most convenient to eat on the road, because of all the typical american justifications, time crunch, cheap (ish), little personal labor involved (thus conserves energy for the games), lots of options for various preferences, etc... Normally i regard this style of fast food dining, although not practiced at home, to be acceptable on the road. But Michael Pollan has destroyed this for me, toting along The Omnivore's Dilemma was the worst possible decision for my eating habits over the trip. They say ignorance is bliss, well i am now in full agreement with that statement. Although i could ramble on and on i about my decisions of what to eat for every one of our 9 meals there i will spare you the time and select a particular moment, Wendys.
While on the road we travel in 7 passenger vans and it is ultimately each van that functions as a unit, making a decision on where to go for food, but the individuals within the van are the rational actors. I believe that our van was inline with the neoclassical economic model, making rational decisions. Reasoning was sound in that we chose our restaurant based on the following, level of hunger, price range, time (both to get there and to wait) and type of cuisine offered. However, due to Pollan, i, as a newly-informed rational actor, was now not only reasoning economically by price but also in consideration of social responsibility and utility. Wendys, the grease can be smelled from the moment we step out of the car. yum. But shit, i no longer smell the former deliciousness of cheeseburgers and nuggets, nope now i smell factory farms and lakes of toxic manure. I feel a social responsibility to oppose this factory of obesity, to refuse to give them my hard earned money, to stand up for the rights of hormone-fed cows everywhere, but then my stomach grumbles and i enter.
When consulting the menu i bombarded with processed food, everything wrapped in plastic, and practically made of oil. The employees behind the counter (with their delightful georgia twang) have virtually no part in the labor of the meals they serve, they push buttons and swipe credit cards, while the food is being engineered thousands of miles away. Yet they do labor in one important economic function, taxes, they are the grass-root enforcers of this governmental policy, in georgia there was a tax on my wendys. Ultimately i made the rational choice to forgo meat all together and instead invest in a Frostie and small french fries, with the justification being that at least i know that these are awful for my body, and neither option masquerades as healthy.
Not only where the economical factors at play within my meal selection but also ethical factors as well. I am not a vegetarian, nor am i a patron of whole foods, or an organic label advocate, but i do make an effort to have a colorful plate, hitting all the major food groups, and limiting fatty "junk" food. I was raised to eat this way, that food is necessary, but not to be used as a coping mechanism (for boredom or sadness). But it is more than this, while at home i make an effort to buy locally, farmers markets and the like, but at school this is difficult and on the road nearly impossible. Normally, i do not support the massive fast food chains, because i lean towards the kenesian principle that democracy and capitalism are incompatible, and thus ethically i side on democracy, then capitalism, in the form of big business agriculture which feeds Wendys nation wide, becomes the enemy. However, when faced with the decision of choosing democracy and forgoing my lunch, or sacrificing my values for $3.50 of trans fat, i selfishly chose the latter.
Finally the politics, i think that particularly within the fast food industry the politics surrounding food gets very messy very quickly. Primarily, because fast food is so prevalent in our culture today, in the media (billboards, news, commercials) and also literally around every corner and on almost every block. Furthermore, fast food is linked to the current obesity crisis, a hot topic today, this links it to the entire medical field, which is irrevocably connected to the insurance industry another form of big business. Let alone the fact that the food used in food chains is grown on massive agricultural farms. There are laws and bi-laws surrounding each of these elements, and together they have a massive effect on the fast food industry. Ranging from health inspections to nutrition label laws.
My wendys meal of frosty and fries would most likely not even qualify as a meal by Pollan's standards. But as you can see within this meager lunch food selection (on a sunday afternoon) my decision was affected by ethics, politics, and economics, all of these things complicating my choices. The Omnivores Dilemma.
When I read this blog I kind of chuckled to myself when you said "ignorance is bliss" because that is the exact feeling I had after I read the Omnivore's Dilema. Pollan's strong collaboration of information was empowering for the reader, but also forces you to analyze and question everything you eat. We no longer need to blindly open our mouths and chew, but we now need to make smarter decisions. I feel like fast food restaurants are the biggest test for food choices to be made at, it's a challenge I have avoided all together lately! Good luck at the next Wendy's!
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