Arguing For Long-Term Change

Since 2001, more than 1.4 million copies of the highly-acclaimed critique ‘Fast Food Nation' have been sold worldwide. So when McDonald's learnt that a fi lm adaptation of the book - a discussion that zooms in on issues of obesity, animal-rights violations, meat-packing practices and immigration issues - was being produced, it met with the movie's publicity team to "dispel myths" about their products, asking the public to "make up [their]own minds" about fast food.

According to the restaurant chain, the campaign's timing was coincidental. However, similar campaigns that followed the fi lm across the globe make this unlikely. The restaurant chain has been consistently criticized for marketing its food to children. So in the past two years the company has eliminated its ‘super size' portions and started marketing campaigns to promote physical activity. Since most consumers eat processed foods these days, what should the food industry be doing differently? "I'm not against food processing," argues Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. "I eat all kinds of processed foods. But the food industry needs to take a much longer-term view of the market. One of the real problems is that food processors and big restaurant chains have been so geared to shortterm quarterly profi ts that they haven't looked at the bigger social trends that will determine which companies succeed and which companies don't."

Market Insight

Schlosser says that his comments are a form of market research. "If McDonald's had read ‘Fast Food Nation' in 2001 and invited me in for a dialogue on these issues," he explains, "they would have been able to make many of the changes they're making now, fi ve years later,with less harm to their business."

In fact, the past four years were marked by a worldwide shift towards health and wellness - in part because of Schlosser's book - for a new generation of food marketeers in retail and foodservice.

"Look at Whole Foods," comments Schlosser, "which is the fastest growing supermarket chain in the US. They have really had a sense of the culture and where it is heading. Most of the food they sell, outside of the produce, meat, and seafood sections, is processed - but it's processed with a different set of standards and a different setof values. And those [suppliers] are doing very well."

Schlosser highlights the fact that the big American food companies are moving into that market quite aggressively. "As a matter of fact, there's a big debate in the US about how organic companies that were built out of counter-culture values in the ‘60s and ‘70s have nowbeen bought out by big agribusiness fi rms."

That debate is raging in Australia as well. So is this all good or bad? "I genuinely believe the market works most effi ciently when there's real competition," Schlosser asserts. "And what that means is I would prefer any market, whether it's processed foods or meat packing or restaurant, to have real competition with lots of different competitors."

Assessment

Still Schlosser has mixed feelings. "It is a bad thing that small companies are being swallowed up by big multinational food processors, but it's good that these companies with market power are deciding to sell healthier food. "Anything healthy that McDonald's puts on their menu... it's a good thing."

McDonald's have responded to critics such as Schlosser with healthier menu items and improved marketing techniques, however, Schlosser still believes they are a reasonable target for review. "I went into a McDonald's in Sydney and there were salads and deli choices that seemed healthy, prominently advertised above the counter. They deserve credit for any effort they make to sell healthy food. But in the States and Great Britain they have made the same claims about wanting to sell healthy food, when the reality is they make the overwhelming majority of their money selling very unhealthy food.

Our thanks to Food Magazine, our sister publication, for this article.