A recent, concerning trend that was prevalent in our discussion of lawns last week and bottled water and french fries this week is that people choose to engage in these risky and generally undesirable activities even when completely aware of the risks they possess to the environment or the individual. We discussed how, in studies, people, even when completely aware that bottled water and tap water were identical in health and safety, continued to buy bottled water. Perhaps a reason for this that the text did not mention is that bottled water is incredibly convenient for a lot of people. I am not aware of anyone that consumes bottled water for health reasons, but I consume bottled water when it’s convenient, such as at sporting events or festivals where I might not have my reusable bottle with me. However, the text still implies that there might be some sort of deeply rooted cultural reason for consuming bottled water.
Similarly, in our discussion on french fries, we talked about how people’s concern about the amount and types of fats consumed. Yet, even with fast food restaurants labeled as hazards, people still ate at these high-fat places. Again this likely has to do, in part, because of the relative connivence of fast food restaurants compared to going to a supermarket or a higher end restaurant. However, in class we also discussed Hedonism and if it is necessarily even bad to indulge in one’s impulses. If people choose short-term gratification over long-term lessened health concerns, is that a bad thing and would limiting french fry consumption just be imposing different, Ascetic values on everyone? Either way, our culture has made it easy to consume large amounts of french fries.
Both of these chapters imply that there is something going on in our culture that encourages bottled water and french fry consumption despite available education that proves their negative impacts. This is explored in these chapters through an examination of political economy. Our capitalistic structure has created a culture of consumers of bottled water and french fries and the struggle is then to engineer a new, more eco-aware culture. This has been happening on a small scale as bottled water is being banned by colleges and some cities and McDonalds is loosing sales while health-conscience fast food restaurants, such as Chipotle, have grown enormously. On a large scale, however, there is still work to be done.