Do We Really Have the Power?

I have a confession to make: This past weekend I ate a small meal at Popeye's... you know, the fried chicken place. I will also say this: It was really good. But don't think that as I ripped apart the crunchy "chicken" goodness that I didn't feel a little bit guilty. After all, I'm teaching my students all about the horrors of the industrialized food industry. We watched how brutally these chickens are treated. We know that it is places like Popeye's and our desire to eat this food that will keep this industry alive.

I began to wonder how much power the consumer really does have over food choices. I consider myself an educated food consumer, yet from time to time I make choices that I know support an industry that I have serious problems with. It made me wonder if consumers alone really do have the power to "vote with their forks" or if something more needs to be done to curb the influence of the industrialized food industry.

Later in the weekend I happened to catch a bit of the movie "Twilight" on Showtime and I noticed that the vampire Edward has to muster all of his strength not to drink the blood of humans. He said that drinking the blood of "animals" was like being a vegetarian... that only the blood of humans was truly satisfying. It made me think that there really is some kind of chemical release or reaction going on in our brains that compel us to eat fast food. Because the negative effects of our choices are not staring us in the face (as Bella does for Edward), we are okay unwrapping the McDonald's hamburger or opening the box of Popeye's chicken to let the mouth-watering steam entice our taste buds, even if it is just "in a moment of weakness"...