Rating: 
Summary: The Hidden Costs of Mass Consumption of Fast Food
Review: If you ever eat in fast food restaurants, you should read this book. It will fill your mind with issues that probably had not occurred to you before. The fast food industry today is the service equivalent of the harshest environments of industrial America. The industry's size creates behemoths among its suppliers who can be even more aggressive in cost-cutting than are the employers of your neighboring teenagers. This book recounts the many dangers and hidden costs this industry imposes on everyone in our society, and suggests some ways to improve. The best defense, however, is a discerning consumer. Read this book to help become one. Mr. Schlosser begins with the founding of the modern fast food companies, and traces them all back to Richard and Maurice McDonald's first hamburger parlor on E Street in San Bernardino, California. Carl Karcher (Carl's Jr.), Glenn Bell (Taco Bell), and the founder of Dunkin' Donuts all visited there and designed their stores to take advantage of those ideas about achieving higher throughput and consistency. Naturally, Ray Kroc later came along to refine the practices into the foundations of the modern McDonald's. With success came market power, and abuses of that power. The book looks at several ills that have resulted. For example, the cost of meat needs to be as low as possible. This has led to dangerous conditions where many people are injured in the slaughter houses. His story of Kenny Dobbins at Montfort will chill you forever. The industry has also succeeded in getting inspection standards reduced so more harmful bacteria are making their way into your meal, and more people are getting sick. The old and the young are most likely to be harmed by the rapid growth of E. coli 0157:H7. This hit home with me, having just suffered a bout of food poisoning after a fast food meal last week. The Federal Government buys meat for school children with lower quality standards for bacterial contamination than even the fast food people apply. Pressure from slaughter houses on ranchers has driven many out of the business. The human price can be high, as one story recounts here. The food is harmful in other ways. It is full of sugar and fat (that's what makes it taste good). The growth in obesity (what some people call an epidemic in America) closely tracks the expansion of fast food meals (25% of the population will eat at least one weekly). And the trend is getting worse, now that you can have unlimited refills of sugared soft drinks. Children are especially vulnerable, because advertising is so persuasive to them. As a result, they go to eat the meals in search of toys and games, and other novelties. Teenagers are often employed in fast food parlors in violation of the child labor laws, costing them sleep, exposing them to late night dangers, and leaving them too tired to focus on school. Those who deliver the food often create accidents and are at risk to be robbed. The physical appearance and culture of towns is brought to the lowest common denominator by the drive to produce these meals fast and cheaply. If the local management isn't very good, goofing off employees have been known to put noxious substances into the food. Franchisees often work long hours, costing them a normal life. Carl Karcher reported that he was still heavily in debt after 50 years in the industry. The main sign of progress he told the author was that the road outside used to be dirt, and was now paved. These ills are being transported around the world now, as fast food is globalized. Mr. Schlosser has several suggestions for improvement including tougher regulation of food, working conditions, and of advertising to children (he wants it banned). I thought his most realistic suggestion was that the fast food companies themselves lead the way by raising standards. McDonald's has done this in the past (to its credit), and could certainly do so again. After the facts in this book are more widely know, it is highly likely that there will be an interest in eating food from restaurants that provide these meals in more socially productive and humane ways. I know that I would shift my purchasing to reflect such improved standards. To me, the interesting part of this story is that the problems exposed here are not hidden. This book could have been written at any time in the last 40 years. Why do we turn a blind eye to the problems that fast food creates? After you finish this interesting and thorough book, I suggest that you consider where else problems exist that we do not pay attention to. For example, where does the sewage from your town go? What are the implications of how it is disposed of? Where does your trash go? What problems does that create? What are the pollution effects of your new SUV? How much more likely is your family to be injured or killed because it could roll over? Consider all the costs of the products and services you consume, not just the ones you pay for directly to the person who sells to you.
Rating:
Summary: Read It and Be Revolted
Review: "Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music - combined." Whew! That's the sort of surprising statement that you can find throughout _Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal_ (Houghton Mifflin) by Eric Schlosser. But the dark side is not how much we pay. If we were enjoying a wholesome, safe product with our bucks, and the money was going to happy workers and happy managers, that would be one thing; but Schlosser shows that from bloodstreams to landscapes, fast food is doing us little good. The structure of his book is just right. It starts mild and gets more and more distressing chapter by chapter. The start is nothing more than stories of guys successfully pursuing the American dream. Guys like the one commemorated in the Ray A. Kroc Museum, which is located at One McDonald's Plaza in Oak Brook, Illinois. We learn of the corporate strategy to pull the kids in, who will pull in their parents, who will pull in their money; the other arm of the strategy is to set up kids with an appetite for fast food that they will continue to satisfy as adults. Before that, the kids will be teens, and teens are the main employees of fast food joints. Their turnover means that they don't have even the slim chance their companies give of earning pay upgrades, overtime, or medical benefits. Even more important, they don't stay around long enough to organize unions. We learn about the chemistry of taste and smell production. We learn about how large scale ranching can ruin the land, and how ranchers hope that they don't have to manage corporate cow factories like the chicken factories now bedeviling chicken farmers. We learn of the dangerous jobs in the abattoirs, and the even more dangerous job of cleaning them. People have died for your fast food, and it is killing people who eat it, too. Some die from germs, some just from cholesterol. The subject matter of the book makes it hard reading in places, but that is an emotional response. Schlosser has a clear style, and while he can use wit, he does not let his anger over injustices and irrationality color his writing. He presents stories, facts, and analysis with cool reason. This is useful, worrisome muckraking. He gives examples of restaurants that are doing things the right way and are not going broke in the process. He has suggestions for what we can do to improve the situation. One is to urge Congress to stop subsidies of dead-end jobs, improve food safety laws, protect workers, and fight concentration of economic power. I somehow can't see the current administration doing this. Another is that we should walk out of fast food restaurants and stay out; I may do this myself, but I don't know if many are going to follow. If you can read this book and not consider boycotting fast food places, you have a stronger stomach than I.
Rating:
Summary: The Greasing of America
Review: First I read Fast Food Nation and encounter some well researched and very alarming statistics about what really goes on in the fast food and beef processing industry...and if that wasn't bad enough, I read "Out To Lunch" by Walt Crocker who worked in the industry for 20 years...and between the two I think I'll become a vegitarian!!
Rating: 
Summary: Ranks With "The Jungle"
Review: This is one of the most startling books I have ever read. Schlosser does an excellent job of exposing the hidden side of fast food and indeed the entire franchise mentality. He is not hysterical or sentimental, just factual and unflinching. After reading this book, you will find yourself taken aback by the number of McDonalds and other franchise signs that sprout along our highways. You will actually find yourself SEEING many things about our economy that were not part of your previous everyday thinking reality. You will also realize that the meat-packing industry today consumes poor Mexican and South American workers with the same ferocity that the 19th-century meat-packing industry consumed poor Polish workers. This book is very highly-recommended. The only critique I have is that Schlosser did not offer enough solutions for our franchise economy. The end of the book seemed a little hasty. However, perhaps consciousness-raising will be enough to bring about change.
Rating:
Summary: Fast food will never get my money again
Review: I found Mr. Schlosser's book highly enlightening and extremely well researched. I have never been a big fan of fast food; it's too greasy, it makes me feel sluggish after I've eaten, and I never know what chemicals I may be putting into my body. I'm no saint, I've eaten McDonalds, Burger King, Carl's Jr. in the past, but this book was the final push I needed to give up fast food for good. I grew up in the generation targeted by these corporations, I've heard the many and varied jingles and catch phrases, and I've participated in the mad rush caused by the Teenie Beanie Baby, Pokemon, and the dozens of other toy promotions put on by these corporations every year. After reading this book, and being enlightened to their marketing schemes, the goals and quotas they set, their targeting of the teenagers, pre-teens, and children of this nation, I am horrified, mad, and extremely disappointed with these fast food giants. I have vowed neither myself nor my children will ever spend another cent at any of these "restaurants."
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Important and Powerful Book
Review: Fast Food Nation deserves the widest possible audience. It should be assigned reading in every high school in the country. Parents of young children should also be encouraged to read it. Fast food chains, with their bright primary colors and happy faces, need to keep the truth about their products and practices well hidden. Otherwise their customers might think twice about coming back. Schlosser not only tells us what's in the food and how it gets produced, but he examines the depressingly one-sided business arrangements that run the gamut in this industry, from the way the chains control their own low-paid, low-skilled, no-benefit-receiving workers, to the downward pressures they exert on meat, potato and chicken producers, who work in dangerous, low-paid, unpleasant jobs with little control over their lives and livelihoods. This is a great book in the tradition of muckraking journalism. If readers take it seriously, hopefully, like Upton Sinclair's 1905 book "The Jungle," it will lead to major reforms.
Rating:
Summary: Schlosser offers what many shy away from--truth.
Review: Fast Food Nation is a compelling yet raw view of an industry given too much reign over the health of a society. Schlosser gives the reader, in plain and succint language, a snapshot of four critical facets of our society: food, labor, education, and government. I feel this book might be some of the most important non-fiction written this decade. I read earnestly, hoping for some bright light, some redeeming value in this industry. There is no light. There is no redemption. I found the book to be especially helpful in revealing the meat-packing industry and its pivotal position in the fast-food industry. Illustrating corrupt medical practices by internal health workers and the clear violations of moral, ethical, and governmental policies by executives and managers was especially enlightenting. The information presented is alarming minus the alarmist rhetoric. Captivating, fact-filled, almost poetic in prose, this book is a must read for anyone interested in their well-being and the well-being of America.
Rating:
Summary: Pardon the pun, but Holy Cow!
Review: I just received this book today. Before I knew it, I read the whole thing in just a few hours because it was so compelling. This book clearly and graphically explains what the multinational food conglomerates have been forcing down our throats. However, it also reminds us that we have the ultimate ability to change the way the system works through choice. As difficult as the fast food outlets make it, we can still walk away and eat something truly healthy. You can decide that you aren't going to eat pooburgers any more. This book was well written. Every time I would finish a section, I'd think, "That is the worst thing I've ever heard of." Then I'd read the next section and repeat that process all over again. The author does a good job of building your sense of shock and revulsion. In my opinion, one of the most important issues to come out of this book is the immediate need to address what's being fed to children in the schools. You and I have a choice about whether to buy from a fast food, it's hard to even use this term now, restaurant. A hungry child walking into a school cafeteria for lunch doesn't have those same options. I'm giving this book four out of five stars, instead of all five, because I don't feel the author does enough to suggest solutions. It would be easy to come away from this book feeling a little powerless. It would have been nice, for example, if the author had pointed out some contact information on organizations that are, in a meaningful way, trying to address the issues. Because of this book, I'm done with fast food. It just isn't worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: The dark side of Fast Food Nation
Review: At first reading, this book is a powerful and moving call for people who care about their health, environment, and the treatment of workers to rise up and stop pulling into the McDonald's drive thru. I have to say after reading this book I was very upset at the direction that America has gone since the beginning of the story in the early 1900's. One thing that bothers me is that the author claims that he began the book with the intention of it being a tongue-in-cheek look at American culture, but that the actual practices of the fast food industry led him in a different direction. I suspect his real intention from the beginning was to write the 21st century version of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". I was frankly bummed out after reading this, and I felt helpless to do anything about the problems showcased in the book.
Rating:
Summary: THERE'S *WHAT* IN THE MEAT?! TELL ME YOU'RE KIDDING, RIGHT?
Review: Reading this exhaustively-researched book is an experience that is enjoyable, disgusting and infuriating all at once. Some of the stuff described in Schlosser's book seems to be so farfetched (can corporations really be that nasty?) that you'll initially dismiss it as being highly improbable. However, one glance at the unbelievably lengthy reference and note appendix and you realize with great sadness that none of it is fiction. To this extent, Schlosser stuffs an incredible amount of information in this book and, throughout, his writing style is easy and flowing. If only the shocking information he gives us was as smooth and easy to digest. An earlier reviewer dismissed him as being avidly anti-Republican. All of Schlosser's comments are factual (refer again to the note section in which you will find ample documentation). Though the subject matter would lend itself to such abuse, Schlosser doesn't push his personal opinion on the reader: he's there to give us the facts and allows us to make the decisions. You've probably read in other reviews some hints of the horrors described in the book: worker abuse, dangerous working conditions, tainted food supply, etc. The chapters on the meatpacking industry and the slaughterhouses are truly frightening. And these corporations' ability to evade the law and to control governmental agencies are even worse! Poop-filled meat and school lunches tainted with e.coli are only the beginning... This book will make you think twice about what you put into your body. Was it written to scare you off fast food? Not specifically, but its main purpose is to have you THINK. And this it does with excellence. A must-read for everyone.
| 
