For three days early this fall, the Pennsylvania Convention Center was home to corporate entities such as PepsiCo, Hershey’s, Taco Bell, Crisco and McDonald’s. They weren’t there to count calories but to rub bellies with members of the American Dietetic Association, who had gathered in Philadelphia for the annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. PepsiCo cares about you. The company’s… return to article
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Reader Comments (5)Page 1 of 1 pagesLarge corporations for years have consolidated the food industry through factory faming of livestock. Fast food outlets are merely concentrated, high demand commercial customers for beef, poultry and pork produced on these farms using cheap (usually foreign) hired wage labor, non-free range animals and tons of anti-biotics which get into the food chain. Fast food chains were thus outlets for factory farming and the concentration of production and farm income.The results have harmed both consumers and farm families. Factory farms are the main reason for the post-WWII decline of family farms. The connection between factory farms and the fast food industry is quite close and generated an income shift from locally produced organic food to factory farm produced food. In 2005 alone, fast food resturants in the US generated over $134 billion in revenue according to the National Resturant Association. The economic and health effects are devastating. Not only has this whole complex generated pollution and disease through manure overloads and health risks to animals but it has brought increased poverty to many with large profits for a few.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Dec 16, 2007 at 6:16 PM Thank you Mr Wheeler for taking the time to write about this. I am a Registered Dietiitan and was at the conference (all the way from Malawi (Africa) where I have lived and worked for almost 11 years). The trip to the USA always shocks me, and this year, along with this conference, the shock was no different.
But, this is the context in which we live and work in the USA (and unfortunately spreading around the globe). We need to address the issues head on - do we address it by refusing to allow exposure from all the ‘food’ people in the article you identify? Wouldn’t that be setting up an unrealistic look at our food system and what we need to be aware of?
I have no desire to support the work of many of the people at the exposition (and I do so with what I buy and don’t buy), but I do have a strong desire to influence the way they work and what they produce. The key is that we not be bought out by them, but that we maintain our nutrition and health standards and influence them and the public to change for a healthier world.
It could be one solution to have a standard for the exposition that only allow healthful food grown and processed and marketed in ways that are healthful to our bodies and our environment - I sure would be thrilled if the world would move in that direction, not just at the Food and Nutrition Exposition, but in the world as a whole.
I have been a HEN member and AODA member (the international affiliate) for 10 years as part of my support for a healthful world. I welcome solutions from yourself and your readers to this issue.
Stacia Nordin, RD
nordin@eomw.net
www.NeverEndingFood.org
Posted by nordin4444 on Dec 16, 2007 at 7:56 PM I was just testing the html on this website. I do support the HEN with all due fervor.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Dec 18, 2007 at 7:31 PM So this explains the Hickory Farms gift box we received from my mother-in-law, a former dietician. Processed cheese, nitrate laden meats,and white flour confections all in non-recycleable packaging. What a waste!
Posted by green mommy on Dec 23, 2007 at 7:04 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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