Dl6—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, October 27,1984 I Do you ever get the feeling that the fast food industry is trying to replace the dinner table? That its ultimate goal is to completely take over the feeding of America’s people? It hasn’t happened yet, but given enough time and the current trend, there’s little doubt that mom’s home cooking will be replaced by some fast food creation in a plastic box complete with napkins, salt and pepper, a packet of ketchup-everything but the Alka Seltzer. I can see the time when youngsters will grow up not knowing the joys of good home cooking, and instead of bragging about their mother’s cooking they will debate the merits of the various fast food outlets. Fast food restaurants are very perceptive when it comes to un derstanding the American mind. They study the trends of working mothers, school kids and busy families that lack the time and the motivation to gather around the dinner table two or three times a day. And so they offer in foil and plastic a variety of food items ranging from your basic ham burger to make-believe spare ribs. There’s hardly a food entree that some fast food organization hasn’t at least experimented with to see if it can be sold in a ready-to-go package. While hamburgers and cheeseburgers are still number one and number two, a whole range of food items are competing for the next few spots. Things like ham and cheese, Canadian bacon, beef steak, chicken, fish, sizzle chops, baked potatoes and on and Farm Talk Jerry Webb on. What was once a simple hamburger and french fry business has turned into a 24 hour a day operation providing all your daily needs from a cup of coffee to a full dinner. And it’s still ready in a hurry and packaged to go. I remember quite vividly my first visit to a McDonalds. That was back in the late fifties in Missouri and I was attending a wedding in the state capitol. Following a rehearsal, we went out for a quick bite and someone directed us to McDonalds. There it was, looking like a porcelain gas station, with big yellow arches holding it up. As I recall, ham burgers were about 15 cents and french fries were a dime and they were made from real potatoes prepared right on the premises. It wasn’t home cooking but it was quick and cheap, and it met a nutritional need. Now those fast food restaurants are everywhere, springing up like gas stations at busy intersections, touting their products on television and in the newspapers and offering all kinds of incentives including games, special glasses, cash prizes, and comic books. It’s interesting to note that the generic name that is applied to these places has been and probably always will be fast food restaurants. I suppose that designation excuses a multitude of sins, including too much grease, not enough flavor, and more wrapping than content. I’ve often thought at the conclusion of one of those gastronomic experiences that if possible I would be better off to eat the packaging and throw away the food. There would be more of it and it might even taste better. It’s not that I’m against fast food restaurants, they clearly have a place. But when I realize that somewhere in the future they may be the only place to eat, I get concerned. When a generation grows up on Burger King and Roy Rogers and all of those others, and only occasionally gets the rare treat of a home cooked meal, what will another generation do? Will our society become populated with people who won’t realize that beef also comes in roasts and steaks? Or that a whole ham properly prepared and served with the right additions is much tastier and more nutritious than a ham sandwich and fries. And will the job of eating home cooked foods with all of their ethnic and regional variations be replaced by the corporate hamburger, recon stituted and frozen fries and a WHITE WASHING with DAIRY WHITE • DRIES WHITE • DOES NOT RUB OFF EASILY • NO WET FLOORS • IS COMPATIBLE WITH DISINFECTANT A FLY SPRAYS • WASHES OFF WINDOWS A PIPELINES EASILY BARN CLEANING SERVICE AVAILABLE WITH u COMPRESSED AIR_ To have your torn cleaned with air it will clean off dust, cob webs ft lots of old lime. This will keep your barn looking cleaner ft whiter longer. We Mill take writ within 100 mile radius of Lancaster MAYNARD L. BIITZKL Witmer, PA 17585 717-392-7227 Bern Spraying Our Bo tinea, net a sideline. Spaying shut 1961. High Pressure Washing & Disinfecting Poultry Houses And Veal Pens “I will not single out farmers to bear the brunt of any embargo” President Reagan • Lifted the Carter-Mondale Grain Embargo • Lowered Interest Rates • Lowered Inflation • Lowered Taxes (Including Inheritance and Gift) Mondale was an active, full time partner in the failed policies of the prior administration that pushed American farmers to the ground. Rampant inflation, high interest rates and high production costs crowned with the crushing grain embargo that cost farmers precious markets and billions of dollars were terrible burdens for anyone to inherit. But President Reagan moved aggressively to reverse the down trodden course of agriculture and the entire nation. There is a brighter hope for all of us now. President Reagan is committed to policies that will provide for sustained, broad-based growth in agriculture. His leadership is working for fanners. Vote AG-Leadership shake that contains no dairy products? Despite a recent study that supports the nutritional merits of fast food, I still hope for the con tinuation of home cooking. I hope that children - boys and girls - will still leam to cook and that a fast food dinner will be the exception rather than the rule - reserved for poultry meeting LEESPORT - A meeting on Monday, Nov. 5, at the Berks “Production and Marketing County Agricultural Center. Economics” will be held for Speaker will be Dr. Paul Aho, Backyard Poultry Producers and Penn State Extension Poultry Poultry Fanciers at 7:30 p.m. Specialist. PRESIDENT REAGAN Leadership That’s Working that occasional time when nobody in the family has time to cook. Maybe I long for a simpler time - - a bygone day with family gathered around a dinner table piled high with the best of agriculture’s abundance. Somehow I just can’t picture that table loaded up with today’s fast food cardboard containers and foil wrappers. Berks plans ATTENTION FARMERS... 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