Alice Waters questions 'fast food values'

Alice Waters, a leading figure in the worldwide slow-food movement to eat more local, organic, sustainable food, advocated that Americans replace what she called “fast food culture” with a “slow food culture” at a public lecture at UW-Madison March 27.

About 47 percent of Americans eat fast food at least once a week, a Gallup poll reported in July 2013. In Dane County, 50 percent of restaurants were considered “fast food,” in 2013, according to a report by the County Health Rankings and Roadmap.

Waters said fast-food culture creates problems by fostering “fast-food values,” which she argued relate to the major problems facing the world and the United States.

“Fast food not only affects our diets,” Waters said. “It permeates everything from the way we look at the world to how we operate in it. How we see ourselves to how we express ourselves.”

Major problems she listed included human-health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, addictions and depression as well as environmental and social problems including land use, fair wages for workers, violence, poverty, child hunger and climate change.

Waters first discussed uniformity in food as a fast-food value that that affects people’s patience.

“When we live like this, I fear that not only [are] our expectations warped, but also become easily distractible and lose our sense that things take time.”

She also condemned fast-food values that discount the true cost of food, support the idea that “more is better” and promote what she sees as a notion that “work is drudgery.” 

She added that labels such as “local” and “organic” follow standards that can mislead consumers. As an example, Waters said beef labeled “grass fed” can come from cows that are fed grass for only two weeks.

According to Waters, slow-food culture and its accompanying values is the antidote to fast-food culture.

She cited “ripeness, awareness, community, integrity, honesty and respect” among a list of slow food values.

The worldwide slow-food movement has a Madison chapter as well as a UW-Madison student chapter.

Critics of the movement question its ability to feed a growing global population without the use of GMO crops. Waters proposed tighter population control as a solution.

The idea that slow food is expensive also comes up as a critique. The UW-Madison slow food chapter serves a three-course “family dinner” Monday for $5 per person. More upscale Madison restaurants can cost diners substantially more.

The transition away from fast-food culture begins with awareness, Waters told the audience. She described how unsustainable practices interrupt a sustainable food cycle and break down the system.

“You can’t compromise with fast-food culture,” she said.