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Food: Fast Food
Organic Fast Food Restaurant Chain   (+13, -3)  [vote for, against]
Using the McDonald's method of appealing to children

A chain of fast food restaurants, which offer a healthy organic menu.

Incentives to children would be blatantly ripped off from McDonald's, i.e. a free Disney figure with every "happy meal". The opportunity's there, as I'm pretty sure I read that Disney have pulled out of their affiliation with McDonald's.

With the right advertising, children could be convinced that eating broccoli is "cool". Traditional fast food could still be offered, but it could be made much healthier by reducing sugar & salt (not by the paltry amounts that McDonald's have done to appease the media, but by truly significant amounts).
-- jtp, Nov 03 2006

It's on the way to being baked - 4 locations at present http://www.boston.c...y_fast_but_natural/
[xandram, Nov 05 2006]

Why would you need the government's involvement?
-- jtp, Nov 04 2006


In the UK at least, sales of organic food have been growing exponentially over the last couple of years.

I personally think that within 5 years, we'll be gagging when we remember "the good old days" when we bought a scrawny polluted chicken for £1.99 at Sainsburys. And ate it.
-- jtp, Nov 04 2006


I would love it. Give me a vegatarian meal or two. Indian food would be terrific.
-- jmvw, Nov 04 2006


OK [rcarty] I admit that we can't blow the fast food market open overnight. Maybe more sensible to start with one restaurant, then slowly franchise more off to disenchanted McDonald's franchisees...
-- jtp, Nov 04 2006


Just give me fresh food made from local ingredients by well-paid, well-insured, people who can cook. This doesn't need to be a chain, although it would be great to have a chain that is different everywhere.

"With the right advertising, children could be convinced that eating broccoli is "cool"."
-- I strongly disagree. There's something inherently attractive to sugary drinks and salty, fatty foods. There's a huge industry dedicated to convince children of all kinds of competing things, and so far it seems to be a crapshoot.
-- jutta, Nov 04 2006


//There's something inherently attractive to sugary drinks and salty, fatty foods.//

Er, no. My 3yr old daughter has no desire to drink coke, because I've never given her the option. She encountered it recently, and turned her nose up at it. I gave her a diet that excluded fizzy drinks, and she never complained. Only by leading by example (i.e by eating healthy food yourself) will you convince the child that it is desirable.
-- jtp, Nov 04 2006


Recently, I was out with my son (eating healthy) and some friends (eating unhealthy). My friends were joking about torturing my children with my eating habits. They said to my son, "Wouldn't you rather have a nice twinkie?" to which he replied, "What's a twinkie?" - That's my boy! A 9 year old American kid who doesn't even know twinkies exist. But I have to agree with jutta. Someday he will discover twinkies and all the other crap out there. Likely he will turn on me, and hopefully turn back at some point, but that will be his decision. Here's hoping. +
-- Shz, Nov 04 2006


Do people really eat twinkies? I mean, other than to find out what they taste like? *Boggle.*

Good luck with both of your kids, but I think what you're doing as responsible parents by eestablishing these good food habits is much more than just "advertising" or "example". As well it should be!
-- jutta, Nov 04 2006


//Do people really eat twinkies?//

I'm not sure. I just assume so since they are still sold. But maybe they're the same ones I saw as a kid, sitting in the same spot and they were actually discontinued in the 70's.
-- Shz, Nov 04 2006


Amen Jackthepickle! Bun to you just for understanding how important the parents role in diet really is. Can I just send you a bun in the mail?
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 04 2006


Very good idea and a little late, but just barely. Stonyfield Farm is a maker of organic yogurt in Vermont, I believe, that has branched out into the fast food industry. The chain is called O'Naturals and offers only organic stuff. I believe they offer meat at this time but I'm not sure. The guy who owns the thing has very agressive plans to open next to every McDonalds in the world. Okay, maybe not that agressive, but pretty out there.
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 04 2006


I'm going to split some semantic hairs about this idea. I think it would be better to be a *healthy* fast-food restaurant than *organic* fast-food restaurant; the 'organic' aspect would add unnecessary costs to the whole venture.

This is mainly due to the definition of 'organic'. My understanding is that 'organic' fruit and veg must be grown without any artifically created fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides etc. and there are similarly strict standards for meat. However, there is almost no quantitative (i.e. measurable) difference between organic produce and the regular stuff (particularly for fruit&veg). (admittedly I would prefer my meat to be antibiotic and growth hormone free, but not necessarily 'organic').

Organic food is more about imposing standards on how the food is produced, rather than the final product iteslf.

Organic ingredients can be combined into unhealthy food. So, for example, McDonalds could theoretically source all its ingredients from 'organic' producers, and still produce the same high-salt, high-sugar, preservative loaded food. And inversely, non-organic ingredients can be combined into healthy food (by minimizing salt, sugar, fat, preservatives etc).
-- xaviergisz, Nov 04 2006


Baked. Grubbs Organic Burgers (as previously mentioned on halfbakery). [marked-for-deletion] Not an original idea.
-- DrBob, Nov 04 2006


To be fair, baked need widely known.

EDIT: baked needs to be...
-- Germanicus, Nov 05 2006


semi-baked [see link]
-- xandram, Nov 05 2006


//To be fair, baked need (s to) widely known// Why?
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 06 2006


widely known to exist - this is widely known to exist in the real world. Mere existence alone is not grounds for deletion; it needs to also be widely known. (What exactly constitutes "widely known" is subject to interpretation by the moderators.)

From the help file, baked isn't technically a catagory, this is.
-- Germanicus, Nov 06 2006


Germanicus, This is why I love the HB so damn much. It is one of the only places you can ask a stupid question and receive an educated answer! About defining "WKTE", possibly the Gods of the HB could toss in a paragraph about that.
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 06 2006


//I think it would be better to be a *healthy* fast-food restaurant than *organic* fast-food restaurant; the 'organic' aspect would add unnecessary costs to the whole venture.//

I would like a healthy restaurant, but organic would be much better. Production of artificial fertilizer takes as much as 1% of the world energy production. Reducing this will help toward sustainability.
-- jmvw, Nov 06 2006


The "widely" in WKTE allows people to claim obscure inventions as their own, when they are clearly not. If you're not the first, you're not the inventor, and therefore your posting should not remain. My opinion, of course.

Rules is rules, though.
-- Texticle, Nov 06 2006


As opposed to all that inorganic food we've been eating all these years.
-- Cuit_au_Four, Nov 07 2006


//the paltry amounts that McDonald's have done to appease the media//

To make up for the damage I contributed to while I did the advertising for McDonald's (Mexico) I have to let you know this: their food is as unhealthy as it was before. The whole "salad" option was just to "appease the media", but a McDonald's salad is as high in fat and cholesterol as a Big Mac.
-- Pericles, Nov 07 2006


[phlish] I agree that it won't be easy. But advertising people are clever buggers. Who'd have thought 10 years ago that you could put water in a fancy bottle and sell it at £1 a pop?
-- jtp, Nov 07 2006


//As opposed to all that inorganic food we've been eating all these years.//

What he said.
-- DesertFox, Nov 07 2006


I would like to see this idea get baked. I cringe when I have to forage for fast food during lunchtime. I would like some better options.

Don't listen to these naysayers. I think the market demand for organic foods is on the rise. Besides, there are fattening and sugary organic options as well. You can make an organic Twinkie if you want and get as fat as you like. You just won't get poisoned by chemicals doing it.
-- XSarenkaX, Nov 07 2006


//they tasted too good to be healthy//

The story of fast foods of all times.
-- Pericles, Nov 07 2006



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