Fast food

As a young 20s guy, freshly out (almost) of college, I have many vegan and vegetarian friends. Because of this, I don't have to do a lot of hunting to find interesting articles about what's going on in the world related to those issues; I simply have to scroll through my Facebook news feed.

This morning, a friend of mine posted something that immediately caught my eye. In Bolivia, McDonalds tried to establish itself. It was immediately met with rejection by many of the locals, and distrust from many others. According to the article, "Bolivians simply don't trust food prepared in such little time." Additionally, the people were able to resist the golden arches due to knowing financially it did not make any sense. McDonalds tried to gain momentum there, but after a decade of yearly losses, they left. Read the full article here.

As an American--and it pains me to admit it--I'm very time-oriented. I work best with a schedule, and when I'm most stressed, I often spend time planning out my next few hours down to the very minute ("Okay, from 7:04-7:28, I'll write my reflection for seminar... from 7:28-7:52 I'll study music history... from 7:52-7:54, I can take a bathroom break.").

Though I doubt most people become as extreme as I do with time, there's no doubt American culture revolves around it. Think about it: let's say you were meeting a friend for coffee at 7 pm. You arrive there, likely at 7:00 or 7:01. You're waiting patiently, knowing your friend will be there any second. 7:05 comes around, and you start to wonder if maybe she is just running a bit late, and you double-check your phone to see if maybe she contacted you. Nope. 7:10 rolls around. "I really hope she's okay," you start thinking, "Was she in an accident? No. Couldn't be. But maybe..." So, you resolve to call her at 7:15. She arrives at 7:12 looking quite flustered and apologizes profusely for being extremely late. You enjoy your coffee together, ad at the end of your time together, she apologies again for being late. All for twelve minutes.

...Twelve minutes in the context of a whole 24 hour day is not very long.

To prepare a wonderful meal often takes a good deal of time. That's where fast food steps in. You can get a hot, filling meal in mere seconds. Add in the fact that they're everywhere, and you've got an equation that leads to instant profit for those restaurants.

Rather than fully close this post off with what I think, I'd like to instead ask a few questions: What happened to our culture that led us to become to dependent on each second of our time? Why are we not willing to spend our time in the kitchen? Why do so many Americans not know how to prepare anything besides peanut butter toast and pasta, unless it involves a microwave?

-QV