Should the government regulate food more free essay sample

Since the time the fast food industry was established, people have been enjoying the convenience of having food served to them in a fast and timely manner. However, today people are learning about the harmful effects fast food can have on a person’s body. We the people need to do something about this fast food epidemic. These businesses need to be regulated more by the government to keep the American nation a healthy nation. As a result, this issue is a very controversial one and has attracted a lot a debate. This essay will consider some of the arguments for obesity in this nations and the impact fast food has on it and will outline some of the problems with this position. It will then put forward a number of reasons why America should put more regulations on the fast food industry. Fast food industries have had a huge influence on Americans and people of all ages all around the world. We will write a custom essay sample on Should the government regulate food more? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In Fast Food Nation the author says, â€Å"A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus. The impact of McDonald’s on the way we live today is hard to overstate. The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian Cross† (Schlosser 4). These statements are very easy to believe. There is a McDonald’s in just about every country in the world, so it does not really surprise me that the Golden Arches are more widely recognized than the Christian Cross. Since the fast food industry has began, it has created many different jobs for people. But these jobs may not be the best jobs for a lifetime career. â€Å"Between 1968 and 1990, the years when the fast food chains expanded at their fastest rate, the real value of the U.  S. minimum wage fell by almost 40 percent†. Jobs in the fast food industry can be quite difficult. Places like McDonald’s and Burger King do not have very good work conditions which include being very dirty and not well up kept. When you work at a fast food restaurant, you are very tempted to eat the food at those restaurants. Eating everyday at these restaurants in not very healthy and will begin to show likely within the first couple months. The majority of people working at these restaurants are teenagers and young adults and this is the age group that we are seeing become the most obese in this nation. There was one thing in Fast Food Nation that really caught my attention and that was when the author said, â€Å"At a meeting with Japanese executives that was secretly recorded, the president of Archer Daniels Midland preached the virtues of collaboration. ‘We have a saying at this company,’ he said. ‘Our competitors are our friends, and our customers are our enemies’† (Schlosser 143) This statement gets the reader thinking â€Å"Can I trust the food that I am eating that come from these large agricultural processors? I heard somewhere that there are around 50,000 food processing plants in the nation, but only around 1,300 inspectors from the health administration. It is said that most plants will only be inspected about once every 80 years! That allows a lot of time for a plant to obtain a food-borne illness infestation such as E. coli and spread it to millions of Americans throughout the nation. Food processing plants are not the only place that food can obtain a food-borne illness. At the restaurant, food may come into contact with contaminated items (Hank). The support article that I found explains the FDA’s regulations on fast food very well. This articles states, â€Å"Every year, food-borne illnesses strike thousands of Americans. As a preventative measure, the FDA requires that fast food workers complete a food handling course. The course educates the workers on how to spot the major causes of foodborne illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli† (Hanks). I feel that it is very important for every person that is going to be working with food at a restaurant to be required to take these courses and follow the guidelines and rules portrayed in these courses everyday. One step that the FDA has made to help control the obesity in this country is that they required all restaurants to display the nutritional information on its products (Hanks). I believe that this is a very important factor to people trying to maintain a healthy diet but want to get food fairly fast. These regulations and requirements are a start toward making food healthier and helping people realize what exactly they are eating. The FDA should regulate somethings in the fast food industry but not all things. If fast food restaurants could make their food healthier but with the same delicious taste that everyone loves this country wouldn’t be so obese. â€Å"San Francisco has banned toys with Happy Meals or with any restaurant meal that fails to meet basic nutrition standards† (Ringham). I believe this may have gone a little too far as to not giving a kid a toy with their Happy Meal, it’s not their fault the restaurant doesn’t have healthy standards set. This gets the reader thinking â€Å"How far should the government go in regulating fast food for kids? † (Ringham). Fast food industries need to be more regulated by the Federal Government and the FDA. But on the other hand, it is not just the restaurants that are causing an obesity epidemic in this country. The people need to step in and take responsibility for their own actions. They need to pay more attention to the nutritional information and watch how much fast food they are consuming and how often they are consuming it. If we would just buy food at a grocery store to cook at home instead of going out to eat at a fast food restaurant 5 times a week, we would be a lot more healthy and a lot less obese.