The Seduction of Happy Meals

Worst of all is the rampant childhood obesity that comes from feeding our children an unhealthy diet of high-fat, high-sugar, fast food garbage. Many people questioned the validity of a class-action lawsuit filed against McDonald's in 2002 by New York teenagers Jazlyn Bradley, then nineteen, and Ashley Pelman, then fourteen, who claimed that the food giant's food made them obese and suffer from heart

disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Couldn't these children have just refused to eat so much fast food? But looking more closely at the lawsuit, we find remarkable similarities to the tobacco industry lawsuits. These teenagers claim that it was the unhealthy content of the food, not the amount of food eaten, that put them at risk for serious health problems. Although the teenagers' case was originally dismissed in February 2003, it was reinstated in January of 2005 and has yet to be determined.

Their case may have a greater chance of success because of the message of an extraordinary documentary film, Super Size Me, which charts the health of filmmaker Morgan Spur- lock, who, for one month, lived on nothing but McDonald's food. He followed three simple rules: 1) He could only eat what was available over the counter; 2) He could only super- size when he was offered; 3) He had to eat every item on the menu at least once. Although he started off with a clean bill of health after medical checkups with three different doctors, by the end of the movie he had gained twenty-five pounds, was suffering from chronic headaches and nausea, his moods were swinging back and forth between lethargic depression and manic overdrive, and his liver and heart became so impaired that his doctor was begging him to give up the experiment even before the end.

Monica Ferreria, a Roots & Shoots coordinator who works with young people in Salt Lake City, recently spoke with me about one area that is often overlooked: the improper nutrition of the struggling poor in the United States. Yes, they do have food, she explained, but they are being poisoned by the quality of food. She told me about stores where everything is a dollar. These stores are very popular with young mothers who have small children and not very many resources. The food is cheap, but it has horrible nutritional value. And Monica said, "Everyone loves Twinkies and potato chips—the marketing of these products to children is unethical. It is an interesting dilemma, when the poor are not starving from lack of food, per se, but from too much of the wrong food."

Exactly so. Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear that the giant corporations behind the fast foods and junk foods, which are inundating the market around the globe, are motivated by making profit rather than providing nourishment. So it is up to us—the consumers—to bring their unethical business practices to an end.

With so many people suffering from diet-related illnesses, consumers are beginning to realize that the fast food industry should be held accountable for its global agenda to produce cheap, low-quality, high-calorie food for profit regardless of the harm it causes. Our children are especially at risk because of the quality of school meals, and the shocking capitulation to corporations such as McDonald's who are now providing the meals, and have demanded, as recompense for "good" deals, the right to install vending machines for their products. Indeed, there are schools that encourage their students to work for the good of the school by collecting soda caps. Schools with good scores are rewarded with substantial cash prizes. In addition, the fast food chains specifically target their advertising toward children who are seduced by Happy Meals and packages with free toys, games, collecting cards inside, and who eventually come to prefer the excessive sweetness.

BEWARE OF CORN SYRUP

Corn is the most prevalent crop grown in the United States—some 78 million acres of farmland have been planted in recent years. And no USDA subsidy program sends taxpayer money to more recipients. Between 1995 and 2003, just under 1.5 million individual farmers, partnerships, corporations, estates, and other entities received at least one corn subsidy payment. Michael Pollan, the author of The Botany of Desire, believes that the U.S. subsidizing of corn crops is one of its most harmful agricultural practices. It has caused enormous damage to the environment as industrial corn farmers heavily rely on agrochemicals. And it is directly linked to the rising levels of obesity throughout the U.S.

In fact, the national problems with obesity can be traced back to the 1970s when the government began subsidizing farmers who grew corn. Cheap industrial corn meant cheaper, high-calorie food. Some of that corn got turned into animal feed, fattening factory farm cattle and lowering the cost of beef, contributing to the excessive amounts we consume today. Unless you buy organic free-range animal products, almost all your eggs, dairy, and meat was raised on subsidized corn. It's also worth noting that corn-fed animal products are much higher in saturated fats—and our increased intake of saturated fats is directly linked to rising obesity.

"Fattening" and "fats" are key words here, as we talk about all this cheap, excess corn. One of the most common corn products is high-fructose corn syrup, which now accounts for 20 percent of the daily calorie intake of many children. Government-subsidized corn syrup is the main reason soft drink and fast food companies make such a huge profit. In the early 1970s the average soda container was a slender eight-ounce bottle; nowadays it's more likely to be a twenty-ounce tub. From bottles of ketchup to children's breakfast cereal, at least one quarter of all processed foods in the grocery stores contain high-fructose corn syrup.

As the government issues stern warnings about rising obesity it continues to support an agricultural policy that makes some of the emptiest and most fattening calories the cheapest and most readily available.

The Cost of Organic Food

It's true, organic foods often come with a higher sticker price. Because of this, some argue that the organic movement is an elitist one—only offering healthy foods to the wealthiest. In fact, the mean income of a frequent organic food buyer in the U.S. is $43,280—solidly middle-class^— and 31 percent of frequent organic buyers make under$15,000 a year. And as more people buy organic, the more ,the prices will go down: Suppliers will have to place orders, which means more farmers will be encouraged to farm organically because they have a steady market for their goods. So this increases the easy availability of organic food, which often leads to a reduced price for consumers.

Some people willingly pay the price for organic foods, seeing this as a charity donation—a way to support the health of the planet or the farmers who are trying to do right by the land and their communities. In some spiritual communities it is even seen as "tithing"—which means taking a portion of one's income and giving it back to the world in a way that supports the greater good. Yet other people see it as a kind of health insurance payment, recognizing that by ridding their bodies, and the bodies of their children, of agricultural chemicals they may have fewer medical bills.

CAN WE REALLY AFFORD "CHEAP" FOOD?

There is another issue: We need to think carefully about the hidden costs of nonorganic foods. For years, we've been forced to buy into the chemical contamination of our planet and bodies under the guise of creating abundant, "cheap" food. But how cheap is it really? The real cost of industrial farming never shows up on the price sticker at the grocery store. The price never shows the money taxpayers pay for government subsidizing of agribusinesses. The grocery store price also doesn't reflect how much we pay for our damaged health and weakened immune systems. It's almost impossible to measure how much we spend trying to clean up and cope with the environmental damage caused by chemical intensive farming, but in the U.S., it's estimated to be $9 billion a year. We just cannot afford this "cheap" food much longer. About three million tons of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are used on this planet every year! Every continent is burdened with the ongoing cost of cleaning up this chemical contamination, especially in streams, rivers, and lakes.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Unfortunately, it will take a long time for the earth to break down and heal itself from much of the poisoning caused by farming with chemicals. For now, we can't easily rid ourselves of what we have already done, but we can stop adding more. And there is one sure way to do this: Eat organic. If you buy "certified organic" food, you are guaranteed that it was grown without chemical pesticides, GMOs, chemical fertilizers, sewage sludge, or preserved with ionizing radiation.

Purists may think we shouldn't bother with organic certification if it's being co-opted by corporate interests. But we must also keep in mind that the booming organic certification movement is doing an enormous amount to protect consumers as well as the environment from the harms caused by industrial agriculture. Organic certification offers us important safeguards—forcing agribusiness to abandon some of its more destructive practices. A whole line of McOrganics or Organic Coke may seem like horrible aberrations, corrupting the sacred intentions of the organic pioneers. But any restraints we can put on the corporate world are important. And in some instances, corporations might actually give greater economic strength and consumer recognition to small, ethical businesses without corrupting their core values. For instance, when M&M-Mars bought Seeds of Change it helped finance a wonderful company that has remained dedicated to sustainable farming and protecting the purity and heritage of our seed supply.

As we said, the rising availability of organic foods gives us solid evidence of the power of consumers. It tells us that we are forcing the corporations, some of which are the biggest names in agribusiness, to change their farming methods in order to capitalize on the fastest-growing trend in the industry. And in the next chapter I'll tell you more about what you can do to directly support the small-scale, deep organic farmers we value so greatly.

Avoid Pesticides and Other Chemicals

Unless you primarily purchase organic foods, one item in three in your kitchen cabinet or refrigerator will likely contain pesticide residues. Government testing has found residues from as many as seven different pesticides on a single head of nonorganic lettuce. So if one of your main reasons for buying organic is to reduce your exposure to farm chemicals, you may want to substitute organic for the produce that typically has the highest levels of chemical residues.

U.S. shoppers should also avoid imported, nonorgani_c fruits and vegetables, since they consistently contain more residues than domestic samples. Also, many chemical corn.. panies take the pesticides that are banned in the United States and unload them in countries where there are fewer government restrictions.

Another bonus of certified organic foods is that they have to be processed without many of the food additives that have been linked to diseases such as cancer, heart disease, migraine, hyperactivity, and osteoporosis. For instance, the enhanced red color of some nonorganic strawberries comes from the fungicide captan, a probable human carcinogen that irritates skin and eyes, and is highly toxic to fish. Phosphoric acid in fizzy drinks has been linked to osteoporosis. Aspartame, an artificial sweetener in nonorganic foods, is linked to mood swings and migraines, and MSG (monosodium glutamate) is linked to asthma and headaches.

Feed Children and Babies Organics

As we said, children are especially vulnerable to the effects of pesticide residues. And we now have scientific evidence for what common sense already told us: Children and babies who are fed mostly organic foods have lower levels of pesticide residues in their bodies than children who are fed nonorganic foods. So it is well worth the investment in feeding children organic foods.

If you have no choice but to serve nonorganic foods, parents can reduce exposure by serving children vegetables with thicker skin, shells, or peels, since soft-skinned fruit and vegetables seem more likely to contain residues. According to research from Consumer Reports, pesticide residues in a single serving of peaches "consistently exceeded" the EPA's safe daily limit for a forty-four-pound child. Since pesticide residues can be transferred (often in a more concentrated form) through the placenta and breast milk, it is especially important that women who are pregnant or breast-feeding follow these guidelines.