Cheeseburger Freedom
Fast food burgers are dangerous to more than your cholesterol
America has many symbols that represent the American Dream, and the cheeseburger may be the greatest one of all. Ray Kroc, the entrepreneur who built the McDonalds fast food empire, deserves credit for creating that symbol.
Ray’s is a classic rags-to-riches story, the kind that has inspired people from all over the world to immigrate to America. Born October 5,1902, in Oak Park, Illinois to Czech immigrant parents, his father, Alois, was also a businessman who made a fortune in land speculation in the 1920s only to lose it in the 1929 stock market crash. Ray was to far surpass his father.
Before starting his career, Ray demonstrated his love for America by lying about his age, just fifteen, and driving ambulances for the Red Cross during World War I where he met Walt Disney doing the same. Ray scrapped his way through the Great Depression in his first decades working as a pianist, in real estate and as a salesperson selling paper cups for the Lily-Tulip Cup Company, rising to Midwestern sales manager. His job there connected him to Earl Prince, who invented a multi-mixer milkshake machine that could make five batches at a time. Kroc left Lily-Tulip in the 1940s to sell the machines to soda fountains around the country. That was how he fatefully met Dick and Mac McDonald in 1954, brothers in San Bernardino, California who ran a hamburger joint in need of a multi-mixer. Ray was impressed by the brothers’ business that emphasized speed by catering to its customers through a simple menu of burgers, fries and shakes. Seeing the potential for franchising the restaurant, he offered to work as their agent for a portion of the profits.
Soon after, in 1955, Ray founded the McDonald’s Corporation and opened its first new restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1959 he opened one hundred restaurants. In 1961, he bought the company outright from the McDonald brothers by securing a $2.7 million loan.
A year before his death in 1984, the McDonalds chain had 7,500 restaurants in the United States and in 31 other countries and territories. Sales exceeded $8 billion in 1983 and his personal fortune stood around $600 million.
Ray Kroc’s story embodies the ideals that America stands for, the idea that you can start with nothing and become a millionaire. Ray, a high school dropout, persevered for decades through difficult times to amass a fortune through his hard work and uncanny business instincts.
The world has changed profoundly since 1902. America went from being a second rate power before World War II to the most influential and powerful nation in the world. Kroc’s story and America’s story are remarkable, but they have both depended on something we can now plainly see is unsustainable, unabated consumption.
If you see money as freedom then the cheeseburger may have made Ray Kroc free. However, the cost of that cheeseburger may contribute to the loss of your freedom.
Today, China is the largest importer of beef in the world, at over 6 billion pounds in 2020. The United States is second at close to 3.5 billion pounds. Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong rank next with over 4 billion pounds combined. McDonalds which sold 15 million burgers in all of 1953 sells that many now in one day. It sold its one-millionth burger in 1958 and one-billionth in 1963. In 1993 at 99 billion served, the company stopped updating its signs to simply read, “Billions and Billions.” According to Ron Cannell chief buyer for the franchise, currently McDonalds buys nearly one billion pounds of beef annually.
So, how could this affect your freedom? Hang with me.
Most of the beef McDonalds buys is raised in Brazil, which is also true of other large fast food franchises. To raise cattle in Brazil requires grazing land, which means slashing and burning sections of the rain forest to the ground. Brazil’s forests are also cleared to raise soya which is used to feed the cattle and chickens. Why do I mention chickens? Because KFC, then McDonalds are the largest buyers of chicken in the United States.
Deforestation of the rain forests is a profound influence on global warming. In 2019, nearly 4000 acres of rain forest burned to the ground. If 4000 acres don’t sound like a lot, consider that is equivalent to the area of New York City multiplied by twelve. The cattle emit methane, the most potent greenhouse gas, with fewer and fewer trees to absorb it. Massive carbon dioxide is produced through the fires, both deliberate and unintentional, and normal industrial operations. The excess greenhouse gasses, without anywhere else to go, are absorbed in the ocean. The ocean becomes warmer which acidifies the water, killing coral reefs and the life dependent on them. Fishers lose their livelihoods because the fish die. The warmer water raises sea levels. Shorelines are flooded and islands are submerged. Potable water becomes problematic in coastal cities like Miami, threatening the value of people’s most important asset, their homes. The warmer ocean puts more moisture in the air. The additional moisture makes rainstorms and flooding more severe, while ironically creating droughts that lead to massive wildfires. Consider the historic 2021 California fires. California produces over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and is a $54 billion dollar industry. If money is freedom and entire industries are debilitated, threatening your livelihood either directly or indirectly, what will your cost of living and freedom look like in the future?
In most of my articles, I try to suggest simple actions we can take to change the world for the better. While greed and dirty politics threaten our future, there are myriad practical things we can do collectively as citizens to change the outcomes. Today’s practical suggestion is to stop eating fast food burgers (and chicken nuggets). Where you choose to spend your money is power. Sometimes protecting freedom isn’t about demanding the right to have anything we want, sometimes it’s about choosing what not to want. Fast food burgers are a Ray Kroc of you know what.
It should be an easy thing to do, but fast food is truly addictive for many. The entire world would be better off with less meat consumption for a host of health, ethical and environmental reasons. I agree reducing meat consumption is challenging. I quit fast food decades ago, but still have plenty of room for improvement. I am glad my thoughts have some resonance for you. Thanks!
Such an easy thing to do, but I am not a fast-food junkie. I think 🤔 maybe I need to limit my meat consumption to once a week. Now that'll be a challenge. As always, thanks for your thoughts.