This year, for the first time since 1970, more McDonald’s establishments will be closed than will be opened. According to the New Yorker, the reason is Chipotle.
Okay, well, it’s not completely Chipotle’s doing. The fault — or credit, depending on which side you take — belongs to the thousands of “fast casual” restaurants popping up all over the country. These are the places like Chipotle, Noodles & Company and Freshii.
Over time, these restaurants have started and will continue to become what we think of when we think of fast food. They are just as fast and serve just as much food as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King.
The rise of fast casual dining is because of the growing sentiment that going to a McDonald’s drive-thru and grabbing a McChicken is more of a shame than it is a novelty. These fast casual restaurants are also a response to the unrelenting obesity epidemic in America.
While it is possible to consume just as much fat at Chipotle as one would at McDonald’s depending on what is ordered, I’d argue that fast casual is in the best interest of the American people.
In many ways, the transition is excellent. Lots of the fast casual franchises serve food with an emphasis on balanced nutrition and ethical growth and production of the ingredients they use.
With more of these healthier fast food alternatives, less and less of the population will be motivated to stop at a drive-thru and fill their bodies with trash meat.
The low price of food at traditional fast food joints just serves as a draw for lower-income people — who are already exposed to more health risks — to endanger themselves further. A $7 burrito does not seem particularly worth it when you could potentially get a $7 three-course meal at McDonald’s.
However, the supposed three-course meal price does not account for the cost of hospital visits, surgeries and medications that could be associated with the food.
If healthy fast food continues to usurp the sugary, fat-filled fast food that we all know and indulge in, the prices could potentially be forced down.
According to the New Yorker’s Michael Specter, taxpayers end up subsidizing the crops that traditional fast food restaurants use to produce their food. The grains and beans that feed their cows are subsidized. Corn used to produce processed foods is subsidized.
The government is not as motivated to provide subsidies to farmers that pledge to grow a variety of healthy and natural fruits and vegetables, Specter writes.
Without the funding, I fear these farmers are less likely to continue to grow fresh crops and end up just like the majority of other farmers who produce genetically modified organisms. More GMOs means more fodder for cheap and easy fast food items.
A vicious cycle, no?
If the move to fast casual and healthy fast food chains continues, the cycle could be halted. If the government follows suit in granting its farming subsidies, the price of a grass-fed steak burrito could decrease.
The new move to fast casual eating is not just trendy. It could be an answer to obesity.
meickhof@indiana.edu
@maggie_eickhoff
