Press Release
Statement- Raj Patel, Author, "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System"
March 31, 2010San Francisco, California
We’ve heard that McDonald’s isn’t just a clown but a pioneer in the marketing of food to children. But he’s also an architect. Without him, the food system we have today would look very different. Here and around the world, the way food is grown, subsidized, processed and eaten has been fashioned by the needs of this gargantuan corporation.
More sales for the clown mean bigger returns for Cargill and Tyson’s factory farms, Archer Daniels Midland’s high fructose corn syrup processing plants, and Monsanto’s pesticide production facilities. [1]
And it’s our tax dollars that go into everything from the cheap commodities that they depend on, to the small business loans and tax credits that allow fast food franchises to breed around our schools, and in particular in areas where poor people, and people of colour, live. For these subsidies, and for the lax regulations around health and advertising to children, the fast food industry has spent millions in lobbying fees, and aggressively courted political favour. Ronald McDonald may have a big smile, but his shoes are steel-tipped.
Ultimately, McDonald’s cheap food is cheat food. Ronald is more of a hamburgler, taking money through our children, and leaving us with the bill. We pay for it all in the end. The cost of diabetes in the US alone is $700 for every man, woman and child. [2] I’m deeply concerned because I’m a new father. For people of colour, diet related disease is incredibly important – one in two children of colour born in 2000 will develop diabetes.[3]
Yet there are alternatives. The sustainable agriculture that thrives at the Heart of the City market just outside doesn’t get the billions in subsidies that industrial agriculture does, but it’s how I want to feed my kids. Yet from the moment my son is exposed to TV, he’ll be subject to the manipulations of Ronald and his friends. Globally, for every dollar spent promoting food that’s good for you, $500 is spent promoting junk. For a parent wanting his kid to eat well, those are tough odds. And that’s why most parents who have kids under 18 favour retiring Ronald. For the people who want to see genuinely funny clowns, there’s Cirque du Soleil. But please, cut us parents some slack, and give us and the next generation of Americans the freedom to choose to eat healthily, and to build a more sustainable food system.
Retiring Ronald is a first step toward revitalizing the food system and guaranteeing parents and children have a genuine choice when it comes to feeding ourselves and our families.
[1] http://syy.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=321669