Imagining the Climate Impact of Fast Food

by Kim, February 4, 2009 at 4:55pm

Funny that just the other day I posted that menus could go farther than just posting calorie counts by including the carbon impact of each entree. Grist posted about the disconnect between fast food and its global ramifications today in much more graphic terms:

There have been several articles that have come my way recently dealing with the need to engage the imagination in order to galvanize people into taking action about climate change. In this case, how do you drive home the fast food industry's reliance on petroleum....a carbon impact estimate on the menu? A pile of oil drums in the parking lot? A webcam feed on the food shortages that are going on elsewhere in the world? A coloring book for the kids showing the relationship between our corn-heavy agriculture, powerful lobbies, and the use of fertilizers and pesticides?

It seems like such a daunting task to relate a pancake breakfast to global welfare, when it's a struggle to conceptualize that a big breakfast may affect your personal health. If people don't think about what might be in the sausage, how is the complex web that is modern industrial agriculture supposed to pass before one's eyes while ordering?