The way we approach food — what we eat and how we eat it — is a reflection of our culture and of ourselves as participants in that culture. As Americans, and more directly as members of the UT community, the time has come to critique our current method, because it is failing in both moral and physical terms.
The go-to destination to eat on campus, the food court at the Texas Union, should positively reflect our values and traditions. The facts are clear: It doesn’t. Walk into the Union like the thousands of UT students who do each day, and you’ll find what has become the norm in America, fast food chains adjacent to fast food chains.
This fast food society is an ephemeral flare in human history. We’ve never had such immediate access to the last step of the food process before. We’ve never purchased food so cheaply and carelessly. And given the ecologically exploitive manner in which the process unfolds, we’ll never have it this way again. The college student, strapped for cash and seeking out the best deal, is trapped into going along for the ride.
The United States subsidizes agricultural products in the name of price stabilization. Although that declared purpose has remained the same since the Great Depression, the actual policies have shifted dramatically over time.
Now, the subsidies are used to help the U.S. flood international markets and to line the pockets of a few agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill and Monsanto who domestically dominate, in a monopolistic fashion, the food industry.
The shocking figures demonstrate a failure of our governing system. Small cabals of producers lobby (bribe) lawmakers to subsidize particular crops that will benefit their agendas. Four crops — corn, wheat, cotton and soybeans — account for 90 percent of all federal subsidies to agriculture.
Corn, which is used for feed in concentrated animal feeding operations and for producing an array of processed products like high-fructose corn syrup, has become the backbone of our fast food society. Between 1995 and 2006, corn growers were rewarded $56.2 billion in federal subsidies.
This preferential treatment explains the dollar menu and how a burger can cost less than a salad. But the price on the menu board is counterfeit. Taxpayers are paying for the subsidies outright and, perhaps most importantly, the negative externalities of the food system are not being taken into account.
According to a study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, medical spending for obesity has increased 87 percent in the past decade, reaching $147 billion in 2008. Just because 127 million American adults are eating enough to be overweight does not mean that they are receiving proper nutrition. Type II diabetes amongst youths is reaching epidemic proportions, and our healthcare system is structurally incapable of addressing the source of the problem because it is centered upon treatment and not prevention.
The environmental costs of our fast food process are disregarded entirely. Corn harvests require ever-increasing amounts of pesticides and fertilizers that eventually seep into waterways, degrading aquifers and creating large dead zones in oceans like the 8,543 square-mile giant off the Gulf. Corn is also a thirsty crop, demanding a large amount of water in a world where water tables are falling. The long-term, or even short to mid-term viability of these prolific harvests is in serious question.
Furthermore, the moral repercussions of a fast food culture, with its malicious treatment of manual laborers and animals alike, has broader impacts upon our society as a whole.
In the documentary “Food Inc.,” one of the leading protagonists of the film, an organic farmer who raises chickens, pigs and cattle in a humane manner, says, “A culture that views a pig as a pile of protoplasmic inanimate structure to be manipulated by whatever creative design the human can foist on that critter will probably view individuals within its community and other cultures in the community of nations with the same type of disdain, disrespect, and controlling-type mentality.”
If the University wishes to maintain the truth behind its slogan — if what starts here is going to keep changing the world — its students are going to have to be prepared, both mentally and physically. The food court stands as an impediment to both of these goals.
The physical side effects of eating fast food are well-known. The mental effects are less noticeable yet should not be overlooked. Is stuffing an already full trashcan with a plastic Taco Bell bag that contains three extra sauce packages and some leftover Styrofoam packaging productive to a progressive learning environment? The answer is clearly no.
We can, and must, do better.
Sloan is a government senior.
4 comments
3rd & 4th sentence: "The go-to destination to eat on campus, the food court at the Texas Union, should positively reflect our values and traditions. The facts are clear: It doesn’t."
5th sentence: "...what has become the norm in America, fast food chains adjacent to fast food chains."Pick a side, either we currently eat fast food, or we don't.This is not a critical look at food, it is a persuasive piece.Everything requires water. That lettuce in your salad requires water. That kid you want to have someday requires water. Maybe we need a review board to determine the number of kids allowed in this world. Corn has been around for thousands of years. I'm pretty sure it's got long-term viability.What's the moral repercussions of fast food? Show me a crop picker who wouldn't trade their $10/day picking lettuce or oranges or grapes for an air-conditioned indoor $7.25. Cesar Chavez boycotted grapes sold at HEB, not burgers at McD."... its students are going to have to be prepared, both mentally and physically." - This is a case for requiring PE classes. How many athletes eat never eat the devilish fast food? Just what you eat does not make you physically fit." Is stuffing an already full trashcan with a plastic Taco Bell bag that contains three extra sauce packages and some leftover Styrofoam packaging productive to a progressive learning environment? The answer is clearly no." - The answer is clearly yes. Has UT, or any other college, gone downhill since they started food courts? No. Can you now spend the whole day at UT instead of having to leave campus for a lunch? Yes. Do you have more time in your day now that you don't have to spend 3 hours a day preparing meals? Yes. Have women been able to escape the kitchen and are on the road to equal rights? Yes.