Mcdonaldization In America

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.

“I’m lovin’ it” (mcdonalds.com) is the motto for McDonalds. I can remember watching the commercials on my television and wanting to eat McDonalds. Going to McDonalds was my favorite place to eat as a kid. I loved the salty fries and the prize you would get in a happy meal and I would beg my parents to take me so I could get them. When I was little they had the slide and ball pit, which I absolutely loved to play in. As I got older I started to learn about different cultures and I was always curious how the American businesses impacted other countries. I always knew that McDonalds made a ginormous impact in America. Every kid wants a meal from McDonalds but I would wonder if children in other countries would crave McDonalds meals like Americans

Food production has become a problem in America because as humans we do not enjoy the pleasure of questioning of what is in our food while we eat and we allow the industrial food market to advertise to our children to set them on an early path to obesity. In”Pleasures of Eating” by Wendell Berry, he discusses that the goal of food industrialism is for people to buy more pre-cooked food, however Berry argues against that, trying to persuade the readers to enjoy their food responsibly. Michael Pollan in “When a Crop Becomes King” addresses how corn is impoverishing our health and environment since we only rely on it too much because of the many uses it has. David Barboza asserts that the food market advertise towards children to set them on an early path to obesity in his article “If you Pitch It,They Will Eat It.” I agree that industrial farming threatens the lives of everyone because in America the health of children is declining sixteen percent with the food we continue to consumer blindlessly.

George Ritzer, in his book The McDonaldization of Society, has given a good understanding of the kind of world we live in. He describes the concept of McDonaldization, which is the process in which the principles that form the basis of McDonalds are greatly influencing the rest of society. McDonalds runs its business on the following key elements: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control by non-human technologies. A fifth element, which Ritzer perceives as a disadvantage of McDonaldization, is the irrationality of rationality. This is the idea that a society which is based entirely on rationality is not a normal human society because humans are not

Who knew that a hamburger chain could create such an impact in our society? In 1993, George Ritzer coined the phrase “McDonaldization of Society,” an analysis expanded from Max Weber’s work. This term can be summed up as creation of low wage jobs that produce cheaply trained replaceable employees, processed, no new innovation, and placing emphasis on quantity over quality. It impacts not only economically but many areas of our lives as employees and consumers. Through Ritzer’s four primary principles, efficiency, predictability, calculability and control proved to be beneficial and at the same time leading to negative consequences for our society.

McDonald’s, one of the most well-known fast food chains with over 32,000 stores worldwide is also one of the worst places to eat. McDonald’s restaurants and their food items have a negative impact on American society because the food is unhealthy, the food poses many health risks to individuals, and McDonald’s targets children as their main audience. Food items at McDonald’s contain excessive amounts of calories, fat, sugar, sand sodium. For example, there are over 540 calories in just a Big Mac sandwich alone. It would take around 45 minutes running on a treadmill to burn the same amount of calories in a Big Mac sandwich. Also, there are 28 grams of fat in a Big Mac, which accounts for 43% of your daily value of fat for the day. Not to mention

Chapter ten begins with the author talking about his visit to Plauen, Germany. He then gives a description of the population before, during, and after World War 2, informing its readers that Plauen was abandoned after Britain bombed the city. Plauen was occupied by the U. S.A. and the Soviet Union during and after the war, and was a common place where protests broke out. According to the book, after the war ended McDonald’s was the first corporation to open a new building in the city.

The reality is that food (nutrition) is the primary factor in disease prevention and treatment, but America as a whole has forgotten that. We view food as a pleasure center, not a life giving substance. We value taste and presentation over content. We laugh at true free range pastured eggs being healthier than factory produced soy and corn fed egg products. Our recipes are full of psuedo foods that have been taken apart and recombined to please the pallet instead of feed the body.

McDonald is a fast food franchise based in the United States and has various food outlets in other countries like India, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Canada and Australia. McDonald has been termed as the ‘World`s Local Restaurant’ because of its affordable take-out and sit down meals. The economic recession in the US in 2010 greatly affected businesses especially fast food restaurants whereby most small restaurants had to temporarily close their businesses. However, McDonalds remained afloat amidst tough economic times in the American market because of specific strategies which will be discussed.

One of the groups to blame for the epidemic in America is the food industries itself. The food industry is primarily interested in profit and would do anything to achieve it, not caring about our health. Shannon Brownlee a nationally known writer and essayist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine said, “Fast food marketing strategies, which make perfect sense from a business perspective, succeed only when they induce a substantial number of us to overeat” (Brownlee, Shannon. "It’s Portions Distortions That Make America Fat." Sacrament Bee, 5 Jan. 2003. Web). In Ms.Brownlee’s opinion fast food industries trick people to eat fast food by providing extraordinary deals, in order to make more profit. This worked because

Describe ways in which McDonaldization is evident in a number of familiar settings (not just in the workplace, but perhaps shopping malls and even the college or university campus). What elements of McDonaldization can you find?

The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become

George Ritzer describes McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world”. McDonaldization is the idea that our society is becoming more efficient and more fast paced. Rational systems can be defined as “unreasonable, dehumanizing systems that deny the humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within them or are served by them”.1 Today there are many types of businesses that are increasingly adapting the same values and principles of the fast-food industry to their needs. Rational systems are dehumanizing our society and seem to be even more irrational than convenient. “Almost every aspect of

McDonaldization involves a process of rationalization described by George Ritzer that is utilized by sociologists (Ritzer 292). Ritzer elaborates the aspect of McDonaldization of society is manifested in situations, for example, where a society adopts the features of a fast-food joints. Worth a note, fast-foods are growing very popular because they highly fits with most individual contemporary lifestyle.

Today’s society and culture is becoming more and more McDonaldized. This paper will illustrate what the process of McDonaldization is. In addition, this paper will show how today’s society has adapted to this process along with using the theories from Max Weber.