The Revolution Against Food Corporations and the Return to American Virtue

There is a major problem brewing in this country. America was founded upon independence; however we have grown dependent upon huge corporations to supply us with everything we need, even the food we eat! We rely too much upon these corporations who have managed to monopolize every aspect of living and every resource for gathering. These corporations have nearly no moral fiber in and of themselves. Their drive is for profit to the highest shareholders and they will do whatever it would take to get the maximum profit for the lowest quality and lowest occurrence of inconvenience to them. It is time for the consumers to revolt against their suppliers in order to humble our suppliers greatly, reminding them that they need us in order to survive.

Probably the biggest problem we face in America is the unavoidable fact that our fast food corporations have managed to dominate a very large portion of our nation's food supply. Whatever happened to that good old American virtue of independence? We have become so dependent upon these fast food giants to fuel our society. Wherever you go and wherever you look you cannot escape seeing a fast food establishment, even in rural America! It seems to me that America has enough problems with education, now we have to worry about becoming morbidly fat as well.

What seems to make matters worst is that in this country all we do is outsource the jobs that are designed to produce raw materials to other locations that are willing to work for the lowest price and put out the lowest quality. We also see that our country seems to love to consume more than what it can produce, this is unhealthy as well. Uncle Sam gets fatter and fatter when it consumes but gets leaner and stronger when it produces.

However, what can we do to turn away from corporations and actually have independence? America is based on Democracy, we should support our local farmers and farm stands, our local suppliers of food should be able to supply us with what we need and we the consumers should be able to be at much ease knowing that the food we eat is not processed or genetically enhanced but rather much more natural. However, what about the people who live in cities or sprawling suburbs? As far as I know from my experiences I have a local farm stand near my house and people go there during the summer and fall. If you live in the cities should be the only time when food should be imported.

Another problem we have is consumer reliance on corporations, this sounds similar to the previous problem and in some regards it is. I find this ironic; in our fast paced society our biggest goal is to get rich quick and retire early, so as to enjoy life. Yet, the fast food corporations who fuel such a society are providing us food that could have the potential to kill us before we can "enjoy life." When I get old I would like to enjoy my life not be going in for some "pick a number Bypass Surgery" because, I ate food that was clogging my arteries while I was younger. Corporations know that we need them but it seems that they forgot that they needed us as well. What the corporations have done is focused their shift away from the costumer and upon their own bank accounts, so quality suffers while quantity increases.

However, the only way to bring the quality back to today's standards is by giving a major wake up call to these fast food giants. We for too long have been the underpowered and manipulated customers. Our society is falling apart in part because of that. We need to empower the customers yet again. How do we do that? The Grassroots Movements are very important beginnings to spark a revolution to change society. Grassroots organizations should pop up all around the country with the goal of organizing fast food customers to find the healthiest fast food chains and as the consumers bring corporations down to their knees until the less healthy fast food chains can provide healthier foods that exceed even the current fast food chains that are healthier. The idea is to go back and forth, to generate change and build upon their healthy food menus. If corporations are not willing to provide a healthy menu than we the people will make them.

The final problem worth mentioning is the immoral behavior of corporations. Because their concerns are more so about making profit than having a social responsibility than they have no problem with targeting children in their marketing campaigns. The idea of marketing and propaganda is a strong rhetorical pull factor, to pull little children into enjoying their fast food experience in order to come back again while they are growing up and when they to have families, so the process might repeat itself again. Corporations do not see people as other living people, but rather as walking bags filled with money. In fact corporations are looked upon as if they were one person, which means than that if anyone threatened their right to do what they want to do than they can win in court because they have the resources to win.

However, there is an answer to this problem. Like the Tobacco industry we can always have anti-marketing campaign aimed to discourage little kids and parents from going to the unhealthier fast food corporations. These marketing campaigns would be aimed at these fast food corporations until they change the menu to a healthier selection. Like the solution from the previous problem above these anti-marketing campaigns would alternate between those who have the unhealthier menu. Also, in a similar way we dealt with the cigarettes companies we could limit the commercials that these fast food giants are allowed to put on TV.

Just because, these massive behemoths of fast food are powerful and just because we rely upon them does not mean we already lost. Rather we should be able to find strength in our disadvantages. It is our job as Americans to demand better quality and to make that quality affordable for all. It is our job as Americans to remind our corporate entities that they need us in order to survive. Finally it is our job as Americans to protect the health of this country's future from exploitation of big corporate entities. Customers today seem to think that they are cut off but rather we have the power to cut off these powerful entities if they do not give us what we, as intelligent customers, would want.