Are our societies doomed beyond belief with the knowledge that history tends to repeat itself, or is the dawning of a sustainable era upon us with a singular document seeking to inspire a wave of change. Personally, I am wary, but never the less determined, of how much hope and belief are established within The Earth Charter. The Earth Charter is a document that I consider as a utopia, a dream we could one hope to one day achieve. I do not consider myself a pessimist, more of a realist and Fast Food Nation is a book that I consider a harsh, but true, burning reality of American culture. So where does the crossover lie? Well, Fast Food Nation has encouraged me to think deeper about many of the EC principles and how the sloth of food is overcoming our nation.
I use sloth in the sense of spiritual emptiness and as EC principle 12 states we need to, “Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.” The beginnings of the fast food epidemic started with the desire to make a buck and live out the American dream, to become successful primarily monetarily. After reading the first couple of chapters of Fast Food Nation and comparing it to our current situation food use to bring people together, but now fast food segregates us instead. The spirituality in eating is gone. Fast
food encourages us to eat in our cars or on the go and therefore loses the spiritual meaning behind it. Food use to be made with love and care, not to maintain the McDonaldization standards of efficiency, predictability, calculability and control. Where has our love and desire for food or a good meal gone? It has been replaced by our need for speed and our lack of priorities. Fast food puts a strain on maintaining bodily health with their processed, genetically modified ingredients and on a natural and social environment. As we spoke about in class we as a society have created such a demand for this style of eating that we spend billions of dollars a year on it! Billions of dollars on ruining principles we ought to be striving for, degrading the concept of family dinner as I use to know it. (Photo credit)Another one of the EC principles Fast Food Nation not only encouraged, but also forced me to recognize was principle 13E, “Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.” This plays hand in hand with EC principle 14, “Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.” So I’m assuming targeting children in public schools and preying on counties in need of funding would fall in this category. After reading this article, Fast Food Branding Makes Children Prefer Happy Meals by Roxanne Khamsi, it shows how much children are influenced by advertising alone. The youth and future of our nation is being ta
rgeted by greedy, billion dollar industries not concerned about the impact their advertising, or food, will render on the children in the long run. As Khamsi shows us, children preferred the food with McDonald's packaging over the exact same food in non-name brand packaging. I’m glad large corporations have realized that they can tap into an age group that is ready to be brainwashed and also prey on working parents who feel guilty about not spending quite enough time with their children. As Schlosser states large corporations have younger target groups, “Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan “cradle-to-grave” advertising strategies.” (Schlosser 43) This type of advertising in our formal education I can imagine wasn’t in mind of the many men and women writing the Earth Charter. Fast Food Nation has proven just how much corporate giants can influence a way of life especially when they target public institutions such as schools in order to tap into eager, young minds. I can only imagine if instead of advertising about the latest toy in the kids meal, they put up posters about respecting our planet or key tips to living sustainably. It also wouldn’t hurt if children, younger than the college age, were taught what living sustainably actually means. (Photo Credit)Overall, the Earth Charter is a living, breathing document that I’m positive will grow as we do, but in order for it to grow we need to make those sacrifices and for a change put others before ourselves. Fast Food Nation drew to my attention the shocking reality that advertising and the fast food epidemic, for now, has no limits. We as a society can create those reality checks only if we come to realize how much is at stake. How far will these boundaries be pushed until they are broken forever?
There is actually this YouTube video I found that you can subscribe to and follow all of the new Earth Charter videos posted. This one I feel has child friendly animation while at the same time carrying the important messages the EC is trying to convey.
References:
The Earth Charter
Schlosser, Eric. 2004. Fast Food Nation. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York, NY.
