In response to the reading from Schlosser about fast food, I think that his writing was very relatable to most americans.  We all grew up surrounded by fast food no matter if we participated in eating this food or if we tried to avoid it.

I grew up loving McDonalds.  I would go to most restaurants and order “McNuggets” even if we were at a nice sit-down place.  It was like every kid in the neighborhood would go to preschool together and all go to McDonalds following a few hours of school.  It was a social event, we would play on the playground and eat happy meals.  Thats exactly what they were to us, “Happy. Meals.”.  The familiarity to a child is crucial.  I knew as a 4 year old child, that walking into a McDonalds I would get a 4 count chicken nugget and fries and Hi-C orange drink.  It was safe, familiar, and common.  Thats all a child really wants at this age

I think that the familiarity plays a huge part in the fast food industry like Schlosser said.  People like consistency.  That is why chains do so well, because people know what to expect.  Now as I have grown up, I have discovered the bad effects of fast-food restaurants.  They are usually not nutritionally valuable and also fail to acknowledge the local worker and producers.  Although the food we receive from these fast food restaurants is consistent, really how familiar is it? We don’t personally know the meat producers or packagers, we don’t know where the potatoes came from, or where your pickles on your burger were bought from? It could be one of the most foreign meals, yet we still consider a burger and fries from McDonalds a familiar meal.

I think that if we were to change the way we socialize our children from a young age we could change the focus from being on fast food to be on eating and buying nutritional foods.  I think it all really does start from childhood development and from there we can change what we consider “familiar”.  Familiar and consistent food can be buying fresh produce from the familiar face of a farmer down the street or eating a cheeseburger knowing the meat came from a local farm that has quality conditions.  Educating children on where food comes from and even showing them gardens, farms, and even farmers markets could help this become the most familiar thing.  I think this could be a much better consistency than just grabbing some nuggets from the convenient McDonalds down the street.  This could help not only nutritional values, but also economy, and overall sense of knowledge and community.