The average American eats 800 hamburgers each year. That’s a lot of meat. But the more surprising fact is that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from, or even what’s in it. Americans spend about 134 billion dollars on fast food. If that much of our money goes to food, you would think that we are entitled to know what’s in it, how it’s made, and where exactly it came from. Everyone deserves the right to know the truth about fast food, from the ingredients, to the worker conditions, to the health effects of living off it. Fast food has shaped the U. S. and the way that Americans eat. Obesity and diabetes in adults and children have skyrocketed in the past 100 years. That’s serious. But if we are to find out why this is happening, what makes fast food so addicting, and how it has become so popular; we must trace the food back to its origin.

As consumers, Americans have grown to expect their goods and services to be inexpensive and easy to obtain. The food industry is no exception. In order to meet the heavy demand for cheap meat; the animals suffer in industrial factory farms. Many people eating at fast food restaurants are animal lovers, and almost everyone would hate to think that their food lived a tortured life. Conveniently, customers are kept in the dark about their food’s origin, what, where and how it was made. And that’s no accident. For wealthy fast food companies, keeping the truth of what happens behind the closed gates of factory farms is of extreme importance. It allows them to make billions of dollars each year without their consumers knowing about the horrific treatment of the animals, which, if they knew, they would undoubtedly criticize. The aim of the “farms” is to maximize profit and minimize cost; meaning fitting as many livestock in one area, and producing as much meat as possible.

Chickens are social, intelligent creatures. Just like humans they live in groups, (flocks) and know and recognise members from their flock. They have the natural urge to scratch and peck for food, take dust baths, tend to the eggs in their nest, and nurture their chicks. Chickens are friendly, and are even kept as pets. People who have had opportunities to become acquainted with chickens — for example, while growing up on farms or visiting farm-animal sanctuaries — often remark on how affectionate chickens can be and how they seem to have their own personalities. Healthy chickens can live over 10 years, but factory-farmed broiler chickens reach slaughter age at around 6-7 weeks. Chickens “raised” on factory farms look very different from their ancestors hundreds of years ago. That’s because they’re being selectively bred to have larger breasts, therefore producing more meat. They are also given growth hormones to decrease the amount of time it takes for a chicken to become full grown. These changes put enormous stress on the chicken’s skeleton and organs, causing them to only be able to walk a few steps, and their organs cannot keep up with their excessively large bodies. Often chickens will have heart failure and die prematurely, or not be able to make it to the water and die of dehydration. Each day they spend in darkness, stepping in their own filth, and climbing over the dead.

In 2018, many fast food restaurants are on their way to improving the conditions of their livestock. This is thanks to people speaking out, signing petitions, and educating others. There’s still a long way to go, but the standards of meat have made big strides.