My parents came to the US from Italy and Mexico respectively. I grew up eating as they did – meals are eaten slowly and with others. Fast food, with its shiny, brightly colored facades and super savory or sweet meals was foreign and enchanting. Fast food is widely available, cheap, and filling. For some people, there are few affordable or accessible alternatives. In its early days, fast food was marketed to women, promising freedom from the work and responsibility of feeding the family. But the industry is based largely on worker exploitation – mostly women of color, many of whom are single moms. Fast food, heavily processed and based on animal agriculture, is linked to diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. Producing fast food contributes to devastating ground water, river, and ocean pollution, it destroys wild life habitats, and it contributes to the current mass extinction event. And ironically, it wastes imperiled resources and ultimately increases world hunger.
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