Fast Food Mentality (Get One)

Every movement requires a cause.  The local food movement’s cause is to remedy the unfavorable effects of industrialized agriculture, addressing subjects including environmental, human health, and economic concerns, among others.

Participants in this outlying realm understand that what we eat affects who we are and where we live.  Despite extensive efforts from food enthusiasts, the consumer majority has failed to take an interest in local economies; the idea remains a niche.  To change a fringe into a mainstream ideology we must first identify what we’re being measured against, then adapt.

If local farming and wholesome nutrition encompass the niche market, then fast food may accurately be tagged as the antagonist to the mission, being a product of industrialized production and indiscriminate consumption.  Farmers and consumers have to objectively examine the differences between local food culture and fast food culture in an effort to shift the needle of consumer participation.

Compare how each domain is marketed:

Local food is overwhelmingly sold and purchased as an apology to the planet.  Many of the crowds I’ve observed carry with them a concern for abuses leveled against the Earth.  A degree of apprehension plagues local food devotees, as though the weight of humanity’s future is on their shoulders and a wrong purchase could send the whole of society to gruesome annihilation.  Read any literature propounding the need to ‘know your farmer’ if you don’t believe me.

Fast food boasts a completely different mindset.  Nobody in a drive-thru is persuaded to think about the true cost of a cheap sandwich.  People picking up biggie bags, free from mental turmoil, are excited, and they keep coming back for more.  Ready-to-eat sandwiches are so convenient they incline people from all economic thresholds to partake on a daily basis.  Fast food created confident, ravenous customers.

 One domain is relying on customer decisions to achieve the goal for it, while the other created an environment in which the customer achieved the goal without being asked.  The fast food juggernaut didn’t come into existence because CEOs implored people to provide record profits. 

Applying this insight to local food, it becomes obvious that participation will improve by focusing attention not on the end goal, but on the path to it.

It’s time to adopt a fast food mentality.  We need to make people feel as comfortable when they’re buying noncommercial food as they feel while stopping by the drive-thru.  For most people seeking to change their buying patterns, it’s too intimidating when their first inquiry yields a deluge of potentially horrific outcomes.  Instead, they need to experience a taste of something new coupled with service and language that’s familiar.

This idea relies heavily on the willingness of farmers to learn aberrant skills.  Gone are the days of hoping our peers will wake up one day with a strong compulsion to radically adjust their habits, thus flooding latent farm stands with funding.  If buyers are accustomed to a world of brand-name appeal and on-demand convenience, then local food will become a shining example of both.

Plenty of material exists outside of the agricultural domain for study.  I spend far more time examining the workings of tech, clothing, and other popular companies than I do reading about the latest farm gadgetry.  Ideas are recorded and adapted to fit into our farm model so people find a good experience when they purchase from us.  Some customers want as much information as possible, participating in the farm vision on a deep and personal level, while others are simply seeking a good steak.  The key is to ensure that the steak seeker is a committed customer who is furthering our goals, even if they don’t realize it.  They’re helping without being asked to help.

Such a plan applies to local food as a whole. Rather than leading the discussion with a plea for help to remedy massive problems (which, certainly, should remain the underlying objective), our culture needs to adapt itself in order to eliminate the mental baggage associated with the cause. Taking a page from the chameleon notebook, local food’s longevity depends on blending in with the outside world, while maintaining an identical interior core. Doing so can make an environmentalist, or a health nut, or a small business fanatic out of the least concerned citizens. They just won’t know it.