Writ 1133: Eric Leake
Extended Essay 1: How We Eat Now
April 24, 2012
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Zach Quinn
Americans Infiltrate the World…With Food!
As humans we
cannot function without food.
Along with the necessity of eating, cooking and consuming it, food has
now become a form of entertainment.
Some are in devastating accidents or get sick to the point that they
require food in the form of nutrients through a plastic tube or IV. The rest of us, however, intake food
that is grown, raised, prepared, and served. This process creates differentiation, flavor and
texture. These aspects create the
experience that eating is. With
the opportunity for profit, individuals, groups and companies have created
entertainment around eating.
The modern restaurant found its birth in Europe but American culture was
remarkably influential on the restaurant industry. American ideals and cultural values created fast food, which
is now one of the most common ways to eat both inside of the United States and
around the world.
In addressing the
impact that America has had on the restaurant industry, we must start at the
beginning. Before the invention of
agriculture, humans obtained their source of food by hunting and gathering.
. Food was caught and prepared in
communities. Since then, there
have been obvious changes in the way we collect, prepare and consume food. In the study of food consumption,
arguably the most influential change was the transformation from hunting and
gathering to agriculturally producing food. It allowed for populations to stay in one place and brought
the creation of stable communities.
By farming, humans no longer had to move constantly to find new sources
of food. The second largest change
was the creation of the restaurant.
This invention got people out of their homes and brought communities together
in a way that had never before been heard of.
The beginning of
the modern restaurant was modest and simple. Born in France in the 18th century, the first
restaurant served a massive stew for medicinal purposes. (Spang 1) Over time, it began to serve
a broader range of customers that sought to socialize with members of their
community outside of their homes.
These communal gathering places known as restaurants began to spring up
wherever there was a demand. The
restaurant began to broaden its menu from the simple stew quite quickly. Customers had demands and entrepreneurs
began to fulfill them in hopes of making a profit. Today there are wide range of restaurants that cater to
different customers and tastes.
Some are elegant and expensive; others have paper napkins, plastic forks
and cater to lower socioeconomic classes.
The most recent
change in the restaurant is the emphasis on being promptly served and finishing
a meal fast. Due to the fast pace
of society, fast food restaurants place a large emphasis on speed and
efficiency. George Ritzer writes in his article on the McDonaldization of
Society, “A wide-ranging process of rationalization is occurring across
American society and is having an increasingly powerful impact in many other
parts of the world. It encompasses such disparate phenomena as fast-food
restaurants, TV dinners, packaged tours, industrial robots, plea bargaining,
and open-heart surgery on an assembly-line basis” (Ritzer 13). Though Ritzer talks about the
McDonaldization of many segments of society, he focuses on saying that fast
food is the root of the movement.
Enter almost any big city in the world and you will find an American
fast restaurant. Eric Schlosser
writes in his book Fast Food Nation: The
Dark Side of the All-American Meal, “Over the last three decades, fast food
has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. An industry that began with a handful
of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has spread to
every corner of the nation, selling a broad range of foods wherever paying
customers may be found” (Schlosser 3).
Fast food chains can be found everywhere and there isn’t an end in
sight. The industry has grown even
more with the recession, providing inexpensive food to its customers. Hoover’s Inc., a business research
company prepared a report recently stating that there are more than 200,000
fast food restaurant locations in America. The industry produces total annual revenues of 190 billion
dollars. In comparison, the entire
industry that includes all types of restaurants produces annual revenues of
around 400 billion dollars. (Hoover’s)
The fast food section of the industry produces around half of the total
annual revenue.
Fast food likely
would not have been created in a cultural atmosphere outside of the United
States. America has a massive
influence on the world’s political atmosphere, but most importantly American
companies control the economic markets.
McDonald's and Coca-Cola have emerged on every single continent and
almost every country besides Vietnam, North Korea, the Vatican City and others
that aren’t involved in the international markets. American companies have revolutionized both the foods people
eat and how they eat them. Jamie
Horwitz talks about how American’s revolutionized the food industry through the
TV dinner in his journal “Eating on the Edge.” Horwitz quotes British
sociologist John Urry as saying, “The increased significance of grazing, not
eating at fixed meal times in the same place in the company of one’s family or
workmates,” as one of many signs of a “de-synchronization of time-space paths”
(Horwitz 42) The point Horwitz makes is that American culture demanded more
efficiency than the long family meal time could provide. To take that even further, it is
necessary to talk about how America has revolutionized food in the restaurant
industry. Though the restaurant
was created in France, American culture has arguably had the largest impact on
the restaurant industry today.
Today the world is obsessed with what American companies have to offer.
Along with other American cultural symbols, movie stars and products like
Coca-Cola, fast food restaurants were exported to the world. Though other cultures initially opposed
fast food restaurants, they have accepted them today. Brian Richards wrote an article “Here’s Where McDonald’s
Makes Money” based off of McDonald’s 2010 annual report. McDonald’s reported making 66% of its
total revenue in international sales.
Domestic sales were only 8.1 billion dollars of the 24.1 billion dollars
of revenue. (Richards) Without the American desire for a fast paced lifestyle,
those restaurants would never have been created.
Aside from being
fast, fast food has a few other key aspects. Ritzer writes that fast food restaurants have created a
machine that works with five main goals.
He says, “Emphasis is placed on efficiency, predictability,
calculability, replacement of human by nonhuman technology, and control over
uncertainty” (Ritzer 18).
McDonald’s is the best of the best when it comes to the machine that
fast food is. In 1955, Ray Kroc
founded the McDonald’s Corporation; in the three years following he sold his
100 million hamburgers. (McDonald’s) Kroc accomplished this amazing feat by
revolutionizing the way a restaurant was run. Though he didn’t create the first hamburger stand or even
the first McDonald’s, he introduced the idea of efficiency, predictability,
calculability and control into the equation. (Ritzer 18) American’s were living
fast paced lifestyles and Kroc played right off of that. He knew that customers would come in
droves if they knew what to expect and that they would get it fast. McDonald’s may not have the best
burgers but customers can expect the same product almost all of the time. Knowing what you are going to get and
that you are going to get it fast gives American’s the thing they want most,
control.
Today McDonald’s
isn’t the only company that provides this predictable and efficient food. Companies like Burger King, Pizza Hut,
Taco Bell, Dairy Queen and Arby’s have copied the same techniques. Though they provide different foods,
the same principles remain.
Customers don’t have to wait to be served, tip waiters or break the
bank. People in a hurry can get
partial sized meals as snacks, choose off of simple menus with pictures and in
many cases order from and eat in their cars. Fast food is excessively convenient in these ways. It changed the way that people viewed eating
outside of the home. For the first
time, it was cheaper and faster to go out to eat than cook and eat in your
house. Horwitz writes, “Rethinking
menus and restaurants to serve what John Urry describes as the
‘de-synchronization of time-space paths’ takes eating in ‘the space of flow’ far
beyond trail mix” (Horwitz 46). By
this he implies that American fast food companies created places to acquire
foods of substance without disrupting their daily activities with allocated
meal times.
Despite the fact
that the modern restaurant was created in Europe, American culture had arguably
the largest impact on what it is today.
It is no surprise that a country like France
opposed the new manner of consumption at first. In fact, it’s remarkable that a country, which focuses on
slow cooking and socializing during a meal, has accepted the method of pushing
down a cheeseburger in five minutes.
Without the cultural environment that demanded efficiency and the
American desire for control, fast food would not have been born. Some may argue that a world without
fast food would be a better world to live in. They could be right but it has its benefits when walking
underneath the golden arches can mean escaping a horrendous night hugging the
toilet in a foreign country.
Works
Cited
“Fast
Food and Quick Service Restaurants.” Hoover’s: A D&B Company.
Hoover’s Inc., 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.hoovers.com/industry/fast-food-quick-service-restaurants/1444-1.html>.
“History.”
About McDonalds. McDonalds Corporation, 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com>.
Horwitz, Jamie
"Eating at the Edge." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture.
Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer 2009) (pp. 42-47)
“Our
History.” McDonalds. McDonalds Corporation, 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history.html>.
Richards,
Brian. “Here’s Where McDonalds Makes Money.” The Motley Fool. The Motley
Fool, 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2011/02/28/heres-where-mcdonalds-makes-money.aspx>.
Ritzer,
George. “The McDonaldization of Society.” Getting Started in Sociology
3rd Edition (2008): 13-18. Print.
Schlosser,
Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New
York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. Print.
Spang,
Rebecca L. The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic
Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Third Printing, 2000. Print.
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