BlogEntry8

Many ads and TV commercial are polluting people’s brains every day but the most  frightening are these aimed at children. All fast food restaurants use their money to lure children who do not realize how dangerous  for their health is fast food. American government should create strict regulations about fast food advertisements aimed at children.

 U.S. Government has to form the law that will control food advertisements directed at children because constant exposure to fast food ads might create unhealthy habits among young people. The World War II brought many socio-cultural changes that created today’s advertising industry. Especially, fast food companies changed their consumer orientation from teens and families to children. As Eric Schlosser says in his book Fast Food Nation, the pioneer of fast food chains Roy Kroc “perfected the art of selling things to children”(Schlosser 33) by aiming his ads at young generation. Children are very gullible and they are easily manipulated which food advertisers use when they create their ads. As I sad in my BlogEntry5, children comprehend catchy melodies and colorful characters from fast food ads as entertainment not as a commercial offer. They do not understand that by these funny pictures food industry encourage them to buy and consume their unhealthy products.  Adolescences who watch McDonald’s TV commercials that convincing them that fast food sandwiches with lettuce and cheese are perfect for their lunch cannot resist the temptation of this picture.  If they see this images every day, finally they will think that McDonald’s food is the best choice for them. Children do not have ability to understand what this food really contain. I remember when I was in Poland, and I watched first Madagascar  movie.  Most kids in my family were crazy about every souvenir connected with that movie. In that time McDonald’s offered special Happy Meals not only with a toys from that movie but also Chicken McNuggets in the shapes of animal characters from Madagascar . Moreover, most TV channels showed McDonald’s  ads that were inviting children for this special meals every 20 minutes. In this case children manipulated by TV commercials nagged their parents to get advertised products. In fact any child did not realize how this food might impact their health  and development. They could not distinguish which food enrich their diet and which one would cause obesity. For example, McNuggets “contain twice as much fat per ounce as a hamburger” and include “beef extracts”(Schlosser 140).

Fast food companies can legally direct their ads at young children who do not even understand the meaning of ads. Food industry use children’s innocence and lack of critical thinking to create present and future loyal consumers of their products. Children do not realize that all food ads ant TV commercials going to spread unhealthy habits among them. I believe that U.S. Government should make some regulations that will prohibit directing food ads at children. American society has already serious problem with children obesity caused by fast food restaurants. I think government is obliged to protest children from destructive impact of fast food culture, so it has to fight with ads that promote unhealthy food and create bad eating habits among young people.

BlogEntry7

Short The Meatrix movies show main problems related to breeding and processing food. In the funny but very realistic way authors of the movies illustrate how big food corporations contaminate our food and environment by using antibiotics, pesticides, genetic engineering, additives, and poor quality feed. The Meatrix also shows how food industry takes advantage of small family farms, and how it ignore dangerous working conditions in food processing plants. The only think that matters for big corporations are profits. But what shocked me most are hormones in our food. Majority of animal products in our stores contain hormones that impacts our bodies and minds. To protect ourselves and health of  future generations we all should stop buying food including hormones. American food industry farces cattle and poultry with hormones that are already banned in European Union. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows companies to use hormones in livestock farming. These natural and artificial hormones cause  faster growth of livestock and  increased production of milk in dairy cows. This means more products to sell and more profits for producers.  Cattle industry mainly use synthetic estrogens and testosterone to stimulate faster growth, and dairy industry apply injections of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to its caws to boost production of milk. We can find all this information about livestock farming but do we really know what we eat and how it impacts our health and health of whole society? It is wondering why the FDA does not require more research about hormones used in food industry and their effects on humans lives. For sure there is a reason why these substances are prohibited in many other countries. All additional  hormones in our food cannot remain without influence on  hormonal economy in our bodies. Nowadays we can see increase of cancer disease, early puberty, or obesity and diabetes which are caused by hormones. That is why it is important that everybody takes action against farcing our food with hormones. We have power to chose products we consume and which does not contain hormones.