My Solution

Unfortunately, I was unable to complete Testing the Opportunity Hypothesis Part 1. My girlfriend's older sister's wedding (maid of honor) was Saturday and my week has been extraordinarily busy. Keeping with the theme of my previous blog posts, had I completed TTOP, my choice would have been with healthy fast food. I believe massive changes are coming for our agriculture industry, with consumers actively seeking healthy, unprocessed, non-genetically modified food options. The fact that industrial agriculture is depleting freshwater stores across the world seems to be less concerning to the average citizen, but it is another frightening consequence of this system. By shifting to a more sustainable food supply, water resources, and the general heath of all those involved will improve dramatically. One of the main issues that I see with this model is supply. Large chains like McDonald's order their food from a relatively few number of locations, making the process much more simple. Food that is not created with preservatives (with sugar being the most common) spoils more quickly, meaning that it will need to arrive more quickly after harvest/slaughter and be sold quicker as well, as the reduced shelf life will be a problem. To survive in fast food, these new restaurants will likely need to locally source the majority of the food they sell. While it presents a less common business structure than standard fast food, the concept of farm-to-table establishments have been widely successful recently on a small scale. It will also provide the local, organic farmer (also becoming more prominent, with Costco actually giving money to people to start organic farms to keep up with the soaring demand) with a major outlet for their products and thus forming a symbiotic relationship between  two sustainable, lucrative businesses that will have major implications for the local economy. The entrepreneurs would have to establish their restaurants in areas that can keep up with demand and seek these farmers out. That would not be a problem for those with the necessary motivation to succeed, however. These farms also will need to form a system of refrigerated delivery to the restaurants. Politicians frequently tell us they will do one thing, with the opposite actually happening in the end. Adding more laws to the largest legal code in the world is also not the answer. Want to see healthier, more local food options? The only way to accomplish that is with your checkbook. Money talks and the massive demand for organic food shows that the consumer is no longer satisfied with being duped by the FDA. McDonald's anticipates that over 500 of their restaurants will close this year, with countless other fast food chains being affected as well. Who will replace these once booming food institutions? Who indeed...