Irresponsible is a word that fast food companies are no stranger to and is defined as the lack of accountability of a person or thing, for something that’s within their power, control, or management. I believe that fast food’s irresponsible and negligent behavior has damaged and impacted our society.

A. It has become extremely evident that the fast food industry serves a major role in destroying our environment. 1. Fast food has contributed to the significant growth in food wastage and is the second largest contributor of discarded waste. The amount of food waste generated in the last 25 years has skyrocketed by 1.2 million tons, greatly due to fast food’s increasing expansion and popularity. 2. It also drives the industries that strip our land of its natural resources, such as grain, cattle processing and transportation. 3. Every second, MacDonald’s sells 75 hamburgers and producing a cheeseburger involves the emission of about 3kg of carbon dioxide. Data shows that McDonald's contributed 1,882 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. 4. MacDonald’s uses beef from 350,000 cattle a year and a cow will produce 220 kg of methane gas in its lifetime, however, methane gas warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide. 5. Greenpeace claims that tests done on KFC’s pulp-based products like napkins and French fries holders, found fibers of tropical hardwood trees, specific to Indonesia’s forests that are home to many endangered species, including the critically endangered Sumatran tiger. 6. These forests play an important role against climate change, however, approximately 5 million acres of forest are cleared every year.

Transition: Another example of fast food’s irresponsible behavior is how it’s marketing is brainwashing children into buying their products.
Children are a lucrative prize in the fast food industry and fast food companies prey on children through target marketing. A. In 2012, a study done by Yale, showed that fast food companies spent $4.6 billion on advertisements and $2 billion was spent on target marketing towards the youth. 1. Research shows that children aged 6-11 are exposed to 8% more advertisements than adults. 2. 79% of fast food ads aimed towards children are aired on channels such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and 70% of those ads included toy giveaways and were often tied up with children movies to promote their products. 3. Fast food companies marketed kid’s meals by placing toys and other giveaways in their ads to entice children and were less likely to feature food products in their advertisements. 4. Fast food restaurants also continue to target African American and Hispanic youth. 5. African American children and teenagers see approximately 60% more fast food ads as compared to their white peers and among Latinos, kids are a particularly attractive target to food marketers because of their increasing population size, spending power and exposure to media. 6. Diabetes and obesity is already a concern for this targeted demographic and it’s even more worrying that fast food companies are still targeting these at risk children. 7. Research shows that when companies promote brand-oriented messages to children, they are fostering long-lasting emotional connections and this results in an unhealthy eating lifestyle that will cause health complications in the future.

Conclusion
The toys, give-a-ways, and playgrounds within each fast food restaurant, may seem like the perfect paradise to any child, unfortunately, I believe that it is only an illusion that the fast food industry has mass produced, carefully packaged and sold to us, consumers and we have happily bought their deception.
No matter what you think about fast food, you’ll no doubt agree that rainforests shouldn’t be destroyed. If companies like KFC continue to turn a blind eye to rainforest destruction, endangered animals like the Sumatran tiger will become extinct.
Some of us may be loving it and think the taste is so good but it is extremely poor in nutrition and quality. Although fast food is cheap, treatment for health conditions like cardiovascular disease isn’t and is definitely a fast way to go. We are what we eat and if our society does not stop going to fast food restaurants as much as we do, our health now and in the future is only going to keep declining from here.
Fast food may be a cheap and quick fix when you’re hungry but the reality is that consuming fast food is harming us, harming our families and harming our environment.