The Illusion of Choice:
How power in the grocery store translates to global control of health outcomes
Argument: Through the development of globalized agriculture and the creation of the modern supermarket, the food industry as a whole has transformed into a system that creates an illusion of personal autonomy and choices and weaponizes its power to threaten the health of many consumers.
"The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000." (Food, Inc.)
The first store that somewhat resembles the modern supermarket was the Piggly Wiggly, opened in 1916 by Clarence Saunders. The creation of a one stop shop where consumers had the ability to walk around the store making their own selections was groundbreaking at the time, but today is second nature. From this simple beginning, the number of products offered, efficiency of the system, and price of the goods transformed immensely over time eventually leading to the heavily commercialized system we experience today.
The most notable difference in these stores from the outside is the size, but within there have been many advancements that have completely transformed the experience of grocery shopping across the globe.
As with many things over the past century, the supermarket very quickly changed in order to meet the high paced demands of society. People want to be able to do tasks as quickly and as cheaply as possible. These goals lead to several changes such as reduction in supermarket employees, use of barcodes to track products and customer behaviors, and consequently changes in the layout of stores (Patel, 2007).
This is Marty, the robot commonly seen roaming around Stop & Shop Stores. This is a feature of several grocery stores in my hometown, and an example of how many large companies are decreasing store workers by replacing them with robots. Marty monitors the stores for spills and notifies workers. While his job is currently not covering many tasks, it is interesting to see some stores transitioning to this type of technology and gives a glimpse into future changes in the industry.
Along with additions like Marty, stores have seen changes to almost every aspect of the grocery shopping experience since the first Piggly Wiggly including barcodes to track products and shoppers, store layouts designed to entice customers to spend more, and even things that would appear to be as trivial as the music that plays across the entire store (Patel, 2007).
While all of these things in the beginning seem to be in the best interest of consumers, allowing for them to have the most seamless shopping experience as possible, in hindsight and through analyzing the global food system as a whole, it is clear to me that these developments have created a system that is susceptible to harming individuals. This harm comes both from the illusion of choice that is created, along with the general weaponization of the system as corporations prioritize their profits at the expense of the health of the worlds population. The great power that comes with controlling the world food sources is what allows for these consequences.
I will analyze the impacts of the modern food system and how it is causing these harms through looking at the culture and industry of supermarkets, the prevalence of fast food, and the meat packing industry.
"Supermarketification"
The Illusion of Choice at Supermarkets
This video illustrates well how competition in supermarkets and the super powerful multinational corporations provide the illusion of choice to shoppers in supermarkets. They have such strong control over the system and the money to outcompete smaller farmers, giving them complete control of what is on the shelves, and therefore what is on our plates (GeoBeats Science, 2013). This is exactly how these corporations are also harming us. There are many measures that they take in order to keep costs low and efficiency high, which often times compromises the food itself. The globalized supermarket system allows for the majority of our products to be highly processed and full of chemicals in order to increase the shelf life, and improve the taste, among other things that help sell a product, but in turn have negative health impacts (Moss, 2013).
This competition for low prices and interest from customers being prioritized over the quality and health impacts of the food is an example of how the supermarket industry participates in "low-road capitalism" (Desmond, 2019). This is also paralleled in many other industries within the global food system including the fast food industry, and the meat packing industry. While there are simple healthy options that can also often be affordable and help consumers avoid the negative health impacts of highly processed foods, these are not marketed or pushed to the public because they do not help the massive corporations with large stakes in supermarkets.
Fast Food
The first development I want to analyze is the fast food industry, I see this industry as somewhat of an offshoot of the supermarket. Fast food restaurants can be seen as where you can observe the "supermarketification" of restaurants. Fast food restaurants such as Taco Bell and McDonald's provide customers with a convenient, affordable, and delicious product, similar to what the modern supermarket provides.
The land of this map is barely visible underneath the colored points which represent different fast food restaurants.
Due to these factors the fast food industry has exploded, the map below shows just how many fast food options are available across the United States.
With this many restaurants that are both quick and affordable, it appears that there is so much choice, however underlying this choice is the common factor of highly processed, unhealthy options that have proven to lead to many health issues. While consumers have the choice of which restaurant they want, they often do not have healthy options to choose from without sacrificing either convenience or price.
"The closer a Mexican family lives to its northern neighbors, and to their sugar- and fat-rich processed food habits, the more overweight the family's children are likely to be" (Patel, 2007)
The negative impacts that a diet consisting of mainly fast food has on people demonstrates how this industry both provides the public with the illusion of making a choice for themselves, when truly providing similar outcomes, along with weaponizing the needs of the people for convenience and affordability by providing products that are harmful to health.
Meat Industry
The meat industry provides a great example of how such a large portion of our food comes from and is controlled by a small number of global players. Very few large companies control a vast majority of the meat industry, and therefore have had major influence on how farmers farm and what foods are available to us.
This shows the few companies and what large share they have in the meat packing industry.
In order to keep up with the needs to these large multinational corporations, and provide them with the most profitable products, animals bodies themselves have been altered. Chickens are injected with hormones so that they grow larger breasts, because this is the most desirable part of the chicken to eat. Animals are modified to mature faster, lowering time and cost measures for producers. And animals are left is horrible conditions to suffer until they are ready for slaughter (Kenner, 2010). All of these changes have detrimental effects on the animals, the environment, and on the consumers who eat the meat.
While there is still debate on whether growth hormones have impacts on human health through consuming meat, the number of hormones used in our food is shocking. Things such as "estradiol-17β, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone, and melengestrol acetate (MGA)," among others, are used to alter animals (Jeong, 2010). While the impacts are not certain, some places such as the EU have take preventative measures by banning meat containing growth hormones until risk is completely assessed (Johnson, 2010).
I have personally thought a lot about the ethics and possible health affects that the questionable practices of the meat industry provide. My family has had stints of eating purely organic, grass fed meat and phases of changing our eating habits to try and be as healthy as possible. It is important to us that we know what we are eating and we prioritize long term health. From this we have evolved, eventually going vegan. We felt as though the only way to escape the negative impacts of the meat industry was to give up meat completely. And while it appears that we have made many choices throughout the years, changing our eating habits in hopes of improved health and environmental impact, it is still clear to me that we do not have as much autonomy as it seems. While we have given up eating meat, we are still subjected to modified products that are sometimes impossible to avoid due to their constant marketing and presence in all facets of the food system.
Negative feedback chain created in food industry. (Created by me)
Overall, power is the name of the game in the global food industry. Until power is given to individuals, through better education on the health impact of the foods we eat, and sensible regulation that better balances corporate success with the public good, the negative feedback chain will continue.
