Super Size Me part 2
When McDonald's opened in Moscow in 1990, I was happy. Not that I was in Moscow. Unlike the three sisters, I've never been to Moscow.
I have been to St. Petersburg which I promise to elaborate on at a later point, it involves toilets, tree-hugging and the police.
Anyway, I was happy because it was democracy in motion, democracy via capitalism - sure, but still a symbol of fighting oppression. Also, all the images of food culture in Moscow until then were of people standing on line for hours for food. Now - at last!- they could line up inside McDonald's like the rest of us.
At the time, no average Russian could afford Mickey D's, but that's beside the point. The world was changing and walls were being knocked down all over the place. Fabulous Freedom!
Food has changed more in the past 50 years, than in all of history up until that point. That is the way food is grown (going from largely single family farmers and their workers to industrial sized super farms), genetically modified, preserved, hormone induced, mutant and so forth. McDonald's is by no means the biggest culprit in this scenario. But they are leading the way.
I do think there is some validity to the law suits that inspired the movie. Yes, we are ultimately entirely responsible for what we eat, what we are stuffing into us. But the corporations, that we kindly give our money to in lieu of their feeding us, must be held accountable for problems that may arise from the use of their products. If they spend x-amount of money on getting kids hooked on their product, they are indeed liable for it being a safe and sound product.
When I was in Lithuania a couple of years ago, I noticed that everybody smoked, everywhere. I saw kids as young as 8 or 9 smoking. Cigarettes were cheaper than water. In fact they were being handed out for free. I'm not a huge anti-smoking person, I don't really want it in bars and restaurants, but I don't get vehement about it. That got to me, but how long ago is it since the same kind of cigarette promoting was going on in Western Europe and the US?
Provided fast food goes the same way, how fat will the Muscovites be in the year 2020?
It isn't like tobacco, because tobacco you can definately chose to live without. It is worse, because we have to eat.
I have been to St. Petersburg which I promise to elaborate on at a later point, it involves toilets, tree-hugging and the police.
Anyway, I was happy because it was democracy in motion, democracy via capitalism - sure, but still a symbol of fighting oppression. Also, all the images of food culture in Moscow until then were of people standing on line for hours for food. Now - at last!- they could line up inside McDonald's like the rest of us.
At the time, no average Russian could afford Mickey D's, but that's beside the point. The world was changing and walls were being knocked down all over the place. Fabulous Freedom!
Food has changed more in the past 50 years, than in all of history up until that point. That is the way food is grown (going from largely single family farmers and their workers to industrial sized super farms), genetically modified, preserved, hormone induced, mutant and so forth. McDonald's is by no means the biggest culprit in this scenario. But they are leading the way.
I do think there is some validity to the law suits that inspired the movie. Yes, we are ultimately entirely responsible for what we eat, what we are stuffing into us. But the corporations, that we kindly give our money to in lieu of their feeding us, must be held accountable for problems that may arise from the use of their products. If they spend x-amount of money on getting kids hooked on their product, they are indeed liable for it being a safe and sound product.
When I was in Lithuania a couple of years ago, I noticed that everybody smoked, everywhere. I saw kids as young as 8 or 9 smoking. Cigarettes were cheaper than water. In fact they were being handed out for free. I'm not a huge anti-smoking person, I don't really want it in bars and restaurants, but I don't get vehement about it. That got to me, but how long ago is it since the same kind of cigarette promoting was going on in Western Europe and the US?
Provided fast food goes the same way, how fat will the Muscovites be in the year 2020?
It isn't like tobacco, because tobacco you can definately chose to live without. It is worse, because we have to eat.
posted by disinterpreter at 12:23 PM
1 Comments:
it's marta bee. hey, i'm learning more about you from this blog than i ever knew! keep writing!
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