For the Sake of Our Future

The biggest threats to our country's future are 1) the easy access to and low prices of fast food, and 2) the lack of sufficient education for all. As many before me have mentioned, fast food is simply an easy and cheap way to quell hunger pains, though terrible for the body. The lack of education is also a huge setback for many, and definitely contributes to the amount of poverty, hunger, and obesity in our country.

The proliferation of fast food has grown into probably the scariest problem in our country. As work days become longer and longer, and single-parent homes become more common, it has become easier for parents to quickly stop by a McDonalds or a Burger King on the way home from work to pick up dinner. Time is valuable, and cooking a healthy meal after coming home from a 10- or 12-hour work day takes time. It's easier just to stop for a burger and fries. There's no hassle, no clean-up, and no fight with the kids about eating vegetables. It's convenient.

But convenience has a price. Those fast-food meals usually have more calories in one meal than is recommended for an entire day. Those sodas, which come in sizes like large, extra-large, and giant (or the more glamourous tall, grande, and venti favored by Starbucks) have loads and chemicals and sugar. And increasingly, parents are feeding this crap to their children, pumping them full of low-nutrition, genetically-modified food and chemicals, all for the sake of convenience.

However, I'd like to dispel the notion that all this is the fault of the parents. No, this cycle of work and poor-nutrition is one that is uniquely American, one that is supported by corporate America. According to Lawrence Jeff Johnson, the chief labor market economist for the International Labor Organization (ILO), "Workers in the United States are putting in more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world" (CNN.com). The more hours parents put in at work, the fewer they have at home to spend with their families, preparing and eating a healthy dinner. In the few off-hours that the drones of corporate America get, they fuel their bodies (and those of their families) with fast-food--"foods" criminally low in nutrition and high in chemicals, processed flavors, and hydrogenated oils. 

And here, the lack of education proves to be a problem. The majority of un- or under-educated people work more hours in low paying jobs to trying to make ends meet. While America frequently touts her position as leader of the civilized world, she has fallen to the bottom of international academic rankings. According to The Broad Foundation for Education, "American students rank 25th in math and 21st in science when compared to students in 30 industrialized countries" (broadeducation.org). We are among the bottom 5 surveyed industrialized countries in the world for math! Close to 70 percent of American 8th graders cannot read at a proficient level. Most of them will not catch up. 1.1 million American high school seniors drop out of school each year. At the end of World War II, America had the number one graduation rate among industrialized nations. Today we are 21st (broadeducation.org). What happened?!

Poorly educated children grow into poorly educated adults. These citizens cannot obtain good jobs, cannot contribute significantly to the labor force, and according to American employers, "lack the basic skills to do even the simplest jobs" (broadeducation.org). Poor education domestically leads to jobs being outsourced abroad, and American workers being demoted to menial jobs for insignificant pay. This leads to adults spending less time at home with their families--less time cooking, and less time promoting healthy foods and healthy lifestyles for their children. Parents without education cannot hope to educate their children outside of school--whether academically, or otherwise. The cycle is vicious, and it continues.

So this begs the question: what do we do? The roots of America are crumbling under our feet and instead of trying to stop it, we're running away. What can be done?

The most important change that we need to make is to move away from large fast food corporations to small, locally grown produce as our primary source of food. We also need to begin to focus again on education for children. The government needs to put more funding into education—let’s hire more teachers, build and fund more schools, and focus more on personalized learning. Not all children are the same. Perhaps if the United States prioritized education rather than promoting the interests of large corporations, we could begin to fight both poverty and obesity, while promoting healthy food choices. Let’s support local produce. Let’s take a greater interest in educating our children. It’s as easy as buying from a local farmer’s market rather than from a big-box store. It’s as easy as helping our children and brothers and sisters with their homework. It’s as easy as taking a stand and asking questions. It’s our future in the balance, so let’s make a difference.