Victoria Coe

Manifest Destiny: America’s Fast Food Landscape

Fast food establishments dominate our landscape. Whether we are getting on the bus, walking down the sidewalk, or coming home from a long day at work, fast food is ever present in modern American life through advertisements, images, and architecture. Bright signs saturate our surroundings and light up night skies.

In the early 1970s, the farm activist Jim Hightower warned of the “McDonaldization of America.” Forty years later, we are spending nearly $145 billion annually on fast food. As of 2009, there were about 300,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. We are fast food. Fast food is our culture.