Slow foods in our world

In the world today, most people know and love fast foods. Fast foods are prepared in a simple manner but the ingredients make them quite unhealthy. Excessive consumption can lead to obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular complications. However, the appeal of fast foods range from their taste, simplicity, and cost effectiveness which can then grow in to an addiction. It is much simpler to prepare or purchase a fast food as compared to slow food. Slow foods refer to the more healthy and natural foodstuffs. Despite numerous advertisements, civic education and research studies, slow foods are still not as preferred as fast foods. The paper compares fast foods to slow foods with the aim of educating consumers of the food that is best for them.

The emergence of fast foods came from the desire for people to consume something as soon as possible. Preparations takes a short time compared to the slow foods hence it became very effective for people who do not have much time. The need to get things done within the shortest time possible just so as to get back to economic activities significantly influenced the acceleration food. At most, people started taking meal times similar to a pit stop. Key indication of the shift is on how people slowly left dinning with friends to ordering online and eating alone. “ Nearly half of Britons now eat their evening meals in front of the TV, and the average British family spends more time together in the car than they do around the table.” From the above quotation it is clear that people became disinterested in spending time together as much as it was in the past but preferred alone time. “ When the families do eat together it is often at fast foods like McDonalds.”

Considering the developments in economies, agriculture was also affected because there was need to have more food on the table. Population increase and demands of the economic activities led to the introduction of genetically modified foods to solve the demand for food. At most, people would look to manipulate the productivity of their crops so as to increase the profitability. However, despite the benefits of genetic modifications, there are a lot of perils that come along. “ The acceleration at the table mirrored on the farm. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides, intensive feeding, antibiotic digestive enhancers, growth hormones, rigorous breeding, genetic modification – every scientific trick known to man has been deployed to cut costs, boost yields and make livestock and crops grow more quickly.” (Deb) Compared to the past where food took longer to mature, a good example is a pig which would take up to five years to mature, today, it takes six months and slaughtered prior to even losing some baby teeth. The industry is growing out of hand with almost no consideration on the repercussions especially to the health of the people.

Slow foods do not offer the same productivity but they do offer better health standards. it is possible to grow food to good productivity with better management and healthier standards in the farming industry (Honroe). Despite the deployment of fast food, it is important to remember the essentials of slow foods one of which was sustainability. Sustainable agriculture demanded good farming techniques and reliance on the nature for good conditions. However, practices such as irrigation have reduced the dependence on nature conditions to produce the slow foods and even increased the yields without the dangers of genetic modifications. The importance of slow food production is that it benefits the health of people and also the environment because it contributes to the environmental concerns. “ there is a theory that man, since he is convinced that he can dominate nature and that it is entirely at his service, finds solutions through technology, but that with every technological answer he invents, he in fact creates new and more serious problem.” (Petrini) The changing agriculture methods need addressing to ensure that the ecological conditions are no longer strained. Restoring the slow foods to their past significance will benefit both the people and the environment.

Slow foods and fast foods have different benefits and each has its problems. Regardless of the choice that one makes, there are far reaching consequences. For example, the dependence on fast foods has led to alterations of the organic DNA through genetic modification. Consuming such foods has an implication on the human genome. The fast foods however present a better economic solution to the people since there are less expensive, have great productivity and have good business. The other impact is that the culture changes in a family from simple sitting together for dinner to eating at fast foods and seeing each other at limited times. Not only does it limit the family time, it goes as further as significantly lowering the social capital. Slow foods, although they take a longer time to prepare, they promote good health for the people consuming them. In addition, they ensure that a person lives a better life due to less sickness. On the second hand, there is the social capital that people derive from the consumption of such foods. For instance, there is the sitting down at dinner time and engaging in conversation. That means that families get to spend more time together know one another and even grow in to better relations. Such benefits are better and even go unnoticed.