McDonald's grabs a piece of the apple pie

There's a fascinating article in today's Guardian about McDonald's and its growing effect on the US apple industry. What's true of this is also true of other agricultural produce as well, and of companies like Wal-Mart.

It seems we are happy (and evermore demanding) to pay next to nothing for our food, with the end result being that what we get is so tasteless and lacking in nutritional value we have to pile flavouring on it, and eat lots more of it, negating any savings we may have made. And all the while we grow fatter and our general health declines (and farmers get poorer, and use cheap labour in unsanitary conditions to make ends meet).
In the UK the strain is taken by the National Health Service, in the US it shows up in health insurance premiums. (There was talk in the UK recently of tax incentives for people who join a gym, and the big topic of discussion at the moment is school dinners which seem to be linked to poor academic performance and behavioural problems, not to mention a growing problem of childhood obesity, asthma and food allergies - spending a few pennies more per child has been shown to improve their performance and their health, and it doesn't take a mathematician to work out the returns on that particular investment. Add in the increased tax revenue from better paid agricultural workers and the lower unemployment benefits being paid out and you wonder why common sense appears just a little bit less common than it used to.)

Buying more expensive, but healthier, tastier food could save your life, but that message doesn't seem to get through to people who happily fill an entire trolley with processed shit full of artificial (artificial!) flavouring and added salt. Perhaps explaining that it could also save you money is the only way to do it.

Click on the link to read the rest of the article - it's well worth it.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | McDonald's grabs a piece of the apple pie: "Turn your back on the rack of leaflets, printed on acid-free recycled paper and entitled Taste, Choice and Balanced Eating, in the McDonald's restaurant in Yakima, Washington state, and you can take your pick from the menu of items that cost a dollar or less. Right at the bottom, underneath the double cheeseburger, the sundae, three cookies and two pies, come the 99-cent Apple Dippers - around 10 cold, crisp and slightly watery peeled apple slices, packaged in plastic with a small carton of sickly-sweet caramel dip that contains twice as many calories from fat as the slices themselves, as well as disodium phosphate, potassium sorbate and caramel colour.

To the consumer, the difference between a packet of Apple Dippers and, say, the M&M McFlurry is little more than a few calories. As the picture of Ronald McDonald jogging on the packet suggests, it might also mark a subtle shift in the eating habits of an increasingly obese nation. But to the apple-growers of Yakima and elsewhere in Washington state - the most extensive apple-producing region in the US - it could mean a whole lot more. McDonald's, which launched the Apple Dippers last year, now buys more apples than any other restaurant chain in the United States. And if the product, not to mention a forthcoming McDonald's apple salad, takes off, it has the potential to transform an entire agricultural industry. The chain's influence could alter for ever the method and scale of production, the varieties of apple produced, and the rights of the thousands of workers who pick them, and not necessarily for the better."