Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Fast Food Nation?


It’s just been announced that some of the UK’s most well-known fast food chains are set to create over 2000 new jobs across the UK by the end of the year, 240+ of them in Bristol and Bath alone. A spokesperson for a popular high street pizza takeaway chain said that profits have increased massively and expansion is on the near horizon as consumers “abandon the restaurant sector and choose to dine at home”, with similar ‘trends’ reported by supermarkets who are seriously pumping up the (sales) volume in the ready meal aisles, where sales are reportedly up by 110% on last year.

But at the same time as these statistics were released, Channel 4 reported massive viewing figures for their recent Great British Food Fight series, highlights of which included Jamie Oliver campaigning on behalf of British pork farmers and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall putting a big shout out for the wellbeing of our feathered friends. So are we to deduce that when Great British Bums hit their Great British Sofas ready for a lecture from their favourite celebrity chefs, they apparently did so while scoffing a banquet of expensive fast food, mostly made from ingredients with a less than salubrious heritage? If this isn’t one of the saddest indictments on the state of the nation right now, I don’t know what is. But if predictions from the trend forecasters who have managed to hang on to their jobs are correct, the scenario is an indication of the shape of things to come.

“Consumers want great quality food at reasonable prices, and that is exactly what we provide,” said Martin Shuker, KFC’s UK Chief Executive at a recent press conference. Hugh must be tearing his hair out in dismay. I know I am.

2 comments:

theundergroundrestaurant said...

Astrologically Mcdonalds was created when Pluto was in Cancer in the 50s. Its now in the opposite sign Capricorn.
Pluto =transformation, expansion, Cancer= home, mother, food.
Basically food stopped being something home cooked by mum and became something to eat out of cardboard, mass produced, while on the run.
I'm going to do a blog post soon on Astrology and food.

Melissa said...

How fascinating, ML! Yes, please do a post on this when you have the time. An astrologer once told me that cities have star/sun signs too, and that Liverpool is influenced by Gemini. I don't really understand much about this kind of thing, but am intrigued!