Fast Food

Some trace the modern history of fast food in America to July 7, 1912 with the opening of a fast food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots. Automats remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The company also popularized the notion of “take-out” food, with their slogan “Less work for Mother”. Although that sounds promising for Mothers, fast food poses some concerns. Fast food began as small family-run businesses and quickly grew into large multinational corporate businesses, which have radically transformed agriculture, meat processing, and labor markets. While the innovations of the fast food industry gave Americans more and cheaper dining options, it has come at the price of destroying the environment, economy, and small-town communities. It shields consumers from the real costs of their fast and convenient meal, both in terms of health and the broader impact of large-scale food production and processing on workers, animals, and land. Some of the large fast food chains are beginning to incorporate healthier alternatives in their menu, however some people see these moves as a commercial measure, rather than an appropriate reaction to ethical concerns about the world ecology and people's health.