American Consumerism and the Crisis of Processed Foods

“The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared foods or fast-food, confronts a platter covered with inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any part of any creature that has ever lived” (Berry). This quote from a book of collective essays by Wendell Berry is exactly what pushed me into finally deciding my topic. Wendell Berry’s quote from his essay, “The Pleasures of Eating” truly encapsulates what I wish to refer to throughout my thorough research and overall argument. There is nothing wrong with a little self-indulgence regarding the different foods we eat, we all do it once in a while. The problem itself stems from when we get too wrapped up in what

we want versus what is really essential. We have a choice to decide what we consume and how our eating habits will affect us.

We sometimes just get caught up in wanting food that is really not healthy for us. We all just want it now. It has to be fast, easy, and cheap. Nutrition facts, who cares, right? I believe corporations, coupled with their processed products, are controlling the food industry because they promote unhealthy food choices and force an excessive amount of these choices on consumers.

Over the years food has changed from more natural occurring products to quick and easily accessible ones. I for one blame the companies who accept and encourage this. From the previous essay, it also provides a series of questions for which we should be analyzing our food: “How fresh is it? How far was it transported? How pure or clean is it?” (Berry). Simply, we need to be more aware about our food. Food used to be only grown. There was no way

of chemically processing food during the 1500’s. This way of life embodied the entire aspect of agriculture. Today, even though most consumers don’t own a farm, are still a part of agriculture by supporting and consuming food. Food should enhance human life. We used to be a mass population of people who made their own food and now our food is processed and made for us. We don’t stop and think any more about what we are buying before we consume it. I blame the corporations who supply what we buy. Instead of consistently supporting corporations whose plans are to focus on seeking profits, we should seriously be learning more about the quality of the food we buy, and their ingredients. This would significantly increase health awareness. Quality involves how food is handled, processed, presented, and what wholesome ingredients were used. The quality and ingredients of the food we eat are the most essential factors. Quality is easy to see, but we are still quick to disregard quality for ease. We should know where our food is coming from too. Who knows how certain products are really handled and where they actually come from! They could be made in the most disgusting laboratory, but we still would eat them even without the knowledge of their origin.
There is evidence of an overabundance of these unhealthy processed products everywhere you go. Visit any major city and I can almost guarantee that there will be multiple restaurant establishments in a mere 5 mile radius that implement processed products that they “claim” are not. If that doesn’t convince you, go to a supermarket. You will surely see evidence all around you. The Prices of fruits and vegetables are higher than bags of chips and other processed goods as well, which to me gives us as consumer’s incentive to just go for the cheaper options. I recently pulled two figures contrasting a handful of berries and a bag of Cheetos from Walmart. The handful of berries cost around $2.96 and the bag of Cheetos relative to the amount of berries was only 75 cents. The markdown of the Cheetos can justly be seen as a lure for those who all around can’t afford healthier foods. It’s all about the steady profits for the big corporations.
The quality of a lot of food now is horrendous. Most food I see looks so fake, and I have to wonder how such a product came to be. I mean, how could someone make something like this, let alone allow someone to purchase and consume it? It’s so obvious how corporations hook you with their products. They make them taste so good and then hype them up like crazy with advertisements everywhere you turn, while also lowering their prices so they’re easily accessible. I used to be a person who accepted them in my life. But then I realized that was just not worth it. I get to eat or drink some food or beverage that somehow tastes good, as most unhealthy foods do, but at the cost of my health? This is the type of reaction consumers need. We need examples, no matter how dramatic, that just shake ourselves out of our consistent apathy for healthy living and to help break away from the acceptance of processed products.
I have stated repeatedly that the companies who create and encourage all of these unhealthy products were to blame, but another factor is the consumers who have the choice to consume them. We choose to eat these products and somehow this needs to change. I found very interesting and factual information from a journal source written by Lawrence O. Gostin. A particular statement that I was interested in by Gostin was how he explained:
Corporations wanting to sell unhealthy foods conflate the public’s interests with their own economic interests. Businesses claim that consumers have a right to eat (or smoke) what they want. While posturing as champions of consumer rights, companies really are invoking their own liberties (Gostin 174).
This is basically what all corporations and fast food establishments are about.

They influence consumers by siding with consumers who say, we’re American and we can eat whatever we want. Consumers have the right to eat whatever they want, but what we want is more like whatever is cheap and available. This is where these corporations really get their profit from. Their products are cheap and are available everywhere, which allows for people to just accept them into their lives. It has become America’s norm. Where corporations invade consumers’ lives without them even realizing it. They are everywhere, and try to influence everyone to live their life eating their

food.
From a seemingly resourceful website, I found a pretty relative quote:
Most of those items in grocery stores are what we've come to know as processed food. Cookies, crackers, even yogurt, crammed with various chemicals that'll let it sit on the shelf for a good long time, all the while containing enough sugar and salt to make it taste good. Processed foods are, plus or minus, 70 percent of the American diet.
The Author also stated that there is an estimated “5,000 different additives” that are allowed to go into the processed food we find at local stores. On another website I found that many processed products who say they are utilizing whole grains, natural preservatives, and wholesome ingredients are actually just trying to get you to buy the product because it sounds “healthier”. There are only some cases where whole grains are actually in processed foods. Most of the time whole grains have just been pulverized into very fine flour, which is not beneficial.
Overall processed foods are just poisonous products. They’re high in sugar and high fructose corn syrup, they contain all sorts of artificial ingredients, and they’re high in refined carbohydrates. All of these personal and outside arguments hold true. The unhealthy eating and significant influence of these corporations with their processed products needs to end. Now it’s all becoming a trend and a significant obstacle that we need to rid ourselves of. It’s becoming a sort of epidemic, where towns and cities have been engulfed in the mix of processed products. You can choose to accept all of it, but be aware and be cautious of what you’re really eating. In the future, I hope that these corporations realize that their actions and influences have to change for the good of everybody. Maybe one day we’ll just stand up and fight back to control our food again, but first we need extreme examples and healthy influences to guide us.