h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't eat fast food at all.
Because...

It is VERY bad for you, and has been linked with heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc, etc.

They pay their staff terrible wages - often under awful working conditions.

Certain places use far too much packaging causing litter problems.

Certain other places encourage destruction of rainforests, to replace with even more farmland - making their meat even cheaper.

The animals that are killed for certain fast food restaurants have to live in cramped conditions, often living in their own faeces before being slaughtered.

Certain fast food restaurants spend millions of pounds a year on advertising specifically aimed at children who end up dragging their parents into these places.

The more fast-food retailers appear. The less smaller food retailers can be found, meaning poorer quality food and less choice over where to buy it from.

“It is VERY bad for you, and has been linked with heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc, etc.”
Practically everything that ever passed down a humans throat has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc. Moderation is the name of the game. As my dear old Mother used to say - “A little bit of what you fancy does you good”, with the emphasis on the little bit.

“They pay their staff terrible wages - often under awful working conditions.”
Perhaps they do, but so do a lot of other industries, but that’s no excuse for destroying the business that pays them a wage. Any wage is better than nothing.

“Certain places use far too much packaging causing litter problems.”
That applies to almost any consumer product you buy these days.

“Certain other places encourage destruction of rainforests, to replace with even more farmland - making their meat even cheaper.”
If the farmland wasn’t used to produce food for fast food restaurants, it would be used to produce food for something else. The laws of supply and demand and the demand for food, any food, isn’t going to diminish.

“The animals that are killed for certain fast food restaurants have to live in cramped conditions, often living in their own faeces before being slaughtered.”
That applies to almost all food production these days, with one or two notable exceptions.

“Certain fast food restaurants spend millions of pounds a year on advertising specifically aimed at children who end up dragging their parents into these places.”
So do toy manufacturers, mobiles phone manufacturers, computer manufacturers, almost all manufactures. Its just the way things are.

“The more fast-food retailers appear. The less smaller food retailers can be found, meaning poorer quality food and less choice over where to buy it from.”
Nothing to do with fast food outlets. Supermarkets are to blame for that if any blame is to be apportioned.

Having said that, I haven’t been if a fast food restaurant for years. I prefer to cook my own. Tastes a whole lot better, regardless of any other considerations.

Regards

Stuart

"Having said that, I haven’t been if a fast food restaurant for years. I prefer to cook my own. Tastes a whole lot better, regardless of any other considerations"

Well, exactly. All your points are valid, but you cannot justify these places by claiming that 'there are other examples of this in society'. The point is these places use every available method of saving money and cutting costs in order to maximise their profit. This focuses on exploiting their produce, the famers who farm their produce, their staff and their consumers, and leaves us with poor quality food, and a lot of dissatisfied people, both customers and staff.

Although I'm sure that the owners of these chains would not be included in any one of those dissatisfied people, as they are the ones laughing all the way to the bank every time you order a 'Wammy Burger with Fries and a Shake'.

“They pay their staff terrible wages - often under awful working conditions.”
'Perhaps they do, but so do a lot of other industries, but that’s no excuse for destroying the business that pays them a wage. Any wage is better than nothing'

One more thing about this. There are certain fast food chains that have sacked employees for organising unions. This does NOT happen very often in other industries. These places are often the worst of a very bad crowd, which is why they come in for for so much criticism. There are also reports of sexual discrimination, and discrimination against workers who are pregnant.

And besides, the business would not be destroyed because there is still the demand for take-away food in society today. This does not mean that the food has to be of a dangerously poor quality (check out the bloke in the USA who is taking fast food chains to court because of his obesity). It also does not mean that the employees have to be treated like s**t and payed a ridiculously low wage.

All the best

GWL