Weird statement from Taco Bell

[KungFuPanda]

It doesn't further discussion to attribute arguments to me (straw men) that I've never made.

 

I am saying that toys (inducements) being part of manifestly unhealthful "kids meals" is an idea whose time is coming to an end. It exposes fast food places to too much legal risk for marketing unhealthful product to children with "inducements."

 

I never said I'd outlaw fast food in Billtopia.

 

Some adults smoke, some drink, some do both. But we, as a society, have acted to prevent alchohol and (to a greater extent) tobacco companies from marketing directly to children. There has not (yet) been similar action against fast food businesses. But it is going to happen. We are just woefully behind the times in terms of our national consciousness.

 

We really should not be closing our eyes to the fact that huge numbers of today's children and younger adults are obese and in ill health, and that the primary cause is a bad diet. You know this is true, as much as I know it is true.

 

We have a health crisis in this country. We need to act. Ridding the feild of "meals" marketed at children that include things like fries, cinnamon twists, and sodas that are packed with toys is a good start.

 

Bill

I 'thought' I was attributing an interesting and a unique point of view to you, not accusing you of starting arguments.

 

I remember wanting fast food as a kid before there were kids' meals everywhere. I had no money to buy it for myself, so I had to wait forever for my parents to decide when I could have it again . . . which was a handful of times a year.

[Laura in STL]

If "Edgy Millenial" equals "pot smoking college kid with the munchies" then yes, they appeal to the edgy millenials. ;)

This is the first thing that went through my mind, too!

[J-rap]

There is nothing less hip than Starbucks to hipsters.

 

-signed the girl who drinks her tea out of a Starbucks branded reusable cup and gets raised eyebrows for it from her hipster friends.

I guess, sadly, I am not a hipster. :)

[LucyStoner]

I guess, sadly, I am not a hipster. :)

 

Come and sit by me.  That's a good thing in my book.  There is no point in trying to keep up with the contrived hipster cabal.  

[nmoira]

Come and sit by me.  That's a good thing in my book.  There is no point in trying to keep up with the contrived hipster cabal.  

 

Aww, they're not all like that, and there's a laid-back kinda creativity I admire. There's a hipster house nearby¹, concentrated hipsterdom if you will, but they make rent. :) They've run strings of coloured lights through the whole house (it looks beyond cool), have regular themed neighborhood movie nights with a jerry-rigged screen and a porch that is the young adult equivalent of the pre-school classroom, replete with a reference library. One of the guys in the house is an artist, and often does intricate chalk drawings in the driveway and on the sidewalks. Last summer he put thick white chalk outlines around the shadows cast by streetlamps in a five or six block radius -- fire hydrants, that sort of thing. Quite a striking and delightful thing to come across after dark. The girls and I had a great time finding them all, though we weren't absolutely sure who did it (asking would spoil the fun), until one morning we found the artist's shadow, trying to escape, but "captured" by his own chalk outline, right down to the chalk bucket in his hand. The hat gave him away.

 

I deeply appreciate their sense of play and their community spirit.

 

Sorry for rambling...

 

¹ We're about six blocks south of major hipster watershed, but there are isolated ponds closer by.

[LucyStoner]

NMoira- You would like my husband's chalk drawings.  I can't think they are all bad, since I am married to one.  But I still get to tease him.  So long as I know I am teasing myself too.  

[Laura in CA]

People don't eat it to be cool, they eat it because it's dirt cheap.

 

 

My teenage son recently started going to Taco Bell. Why??? Well, he goes with his best friend, a boy (19) from Mexico. Aghast, my husband and I asked ourselves, why does HE go?? Obviously, having lived in Mexico until age 15, he knows what REAL Mexican food tastes like (and yes, he does occasionally eat at some of the many authentic Mexican restaurants in town as well). It finally dawned on us that, in addition to being a teenage boy (who are usually into quantity, not quality :D ), this Mexican young man is self-supporting and Taco Bell is, yes, CHEAP.

 

Ironically, because of this Mexican boy, I've eaten at Taco Bell several times now (I think that is SO funny ...), and I have to say their "Cantina Bell" line is not bad. (Of course, I still prefer the authentic places ...). But the fact that they advertise the Cantina Bell fare as being made from only a few, fresh ingredients tells you (and I've told my son!) that the *rest* of their line must NOT be made from a few, fresh ingredients ...

[FaithManor]

Then it needs to be changed. If corn and soy were not subsidized then there would not be farm after farm after farm after farm, as far as the eye could see- of corn and soy. Farmers might actually grow *food*. Then farmers markets, CSA's, maybe even small town grocers, might be more common- like they used to be.

 

My in-laws live in an area where healthy options are few and far between too- and they live in PA farm country!! Farms on every road! Acres and acres and thousands of acres of...... Wait for it...... Corn and soy!!! If those farms were not getting subsidy's for all that crap, they would be growing more stuff. Cows wouldn't be stuffed with corn and soy, and the meat would be healthier. And it would cost more, so people wouldn't eat as much, which is better for them- and so on and so forth.

 

Why just say, "that's the way it is" and give up?

 

AND, this is EXACTLY why I choose to shop at farmers markets and whole foods, and do a CSA. Because if none of us choose these options, they would disappear, and then we would ONLY have agribusiness and Monsanto in charge of our food supply. And that is a scary, scary, thought. The more of us who chose to make these choices, the more those options are more widely available.

 

I'm not saying that those who don't have access to fresh, whole foods should feel bad about it. I'm saying that THOSE OF US who DO have those options should choose them as much as possible, b/c it is better for everyone involved.

90% of the farms in our area went from food production to corn for ethanol because it's so heavily subsidized....if you devote the entirety of the fields of America to corn for ethanol, you won't make a dent in fuel emissions....but I digress. Of course what happened was all of the farmer markets and road side stands dried up. I'm fortunate because I have an Amish farmer near me who raises his food organically, and his animals ethically and his prices are dizzyingly low. I am FORTUNATE! BLESSED! I am well aware that this is rare. Most people do not have this near them.

 

We also have a huge number of farms that are paid by tax dollars TO NOT FARM! Now, if they did not have the subsidy, they'd either sell their land, or they would start producing a crop that's saleable. ARGH! You talk about not encouraging innovation or sound business principles!

 

Dairy farms are going out of business left and right though. Between last year's drought which caused the price of hay to skyrocket so wintering over was very expensive, and all of the corn being diverted to ethanol, feed costs just keep going up, but the price of milk for the producer by the lb. is very tightly controlled by the government which means they aren't getting enough money for their product to stay in business. Of course, the net effect is that pastures that once had beautiful cows eating grass are now producing CORN for the local ethanol plant....and around, and round, and round this merry go round we spin.

 

And as long as this continues, and caring for real people is at the absolute bottom of the government's list of priorities, it will get a whole lot worse before it gets better. Sigh......

[mommymilkies]

You've hit the nail on the head. Subsidized corn and soy has had a disruptive effect on the whole food supply chain, from farmers to consumers.

 

32 oz drinks sweetened with cheap HFCS, fries fried in corn oil, and beef raised on corn (a life threatening diet for cattle) has lead to a proliferation of cheap (subsidized) food.

 

But we are all paying a price for this. From food support, to the (much greater) threats to human health. We will all pay for the drastic increases in diabetes and the diseases associated with obesity and cancer that the fast food diet creates. The worst thing is it is not limited to the occasional splurge at a fast food place, but has entered the everyday diet in many (most?) American homes.

 

All we have to do is open our eyes to see the problem. It is all around us. The farm subsidies are big part of the problem.

 

Bill

I agree.  I live in corn and soy country.  That's it.  Luckily a few farmers got smart and have been planting sorghum and wheat in a few spots because of severe droughts mixed with times of severe flooding.  Corn can't live through that.  But the corn and soy fields are gross.  So many chemicals...we can't breathe here during pollenation and planting/harvesting times.  It's horrible for our health, economy, and food supply.  A lot of the corn here is just plowed under because of droughts or oversupply, anyway. We have family friends who are corn farmers and they admit very little actually gets harvested or used. They live off of subsidies.