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Summary: Fast Food-No Thanks
Review: This book completely change my life. I had never known what went on behind the scenes in the fast food world until I read this enlightening and disturbing book.
The author takes you on a journey that looks at what goes on in the making of fast food. From the lives of fast food CEOs to slaughter houses to E. coli, we see that fast food has a dark side. The food bought at McDonald's came at a great cost to someone and this book explores those costs.
Even if you don't live in America, this book is still applicable to you because fast food is present in every country around the world. It is important to know what is going on and how that food got there. Fast food is not just an innocent burger and chips sitting on a plate, sweat, blood, and even lives were put into the making of that greasy meal and every consumer should know this.
I have never liked fast food that much, but after reading this book, I decided to never eat fast food again. This book struck a chord with me and I can never be the same now that i've read it.
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Summary: No thanx to fast food...
Review: Although I am not a fan of fast food, I eat pizza occasionally and a burger from McDonald about once in a year. When I read this book, it confirmed me of rumors I heard over the years about how bad the fast food is. It was very researched book, and described all the necessary detail to stop wasting my money on fast food. When I was about to finish reading this book, I ceremoniously went to McDonald's, ordered small french fries, one cheese burger, and 6 pieces to say permanent good-bye to such fast food industry. As described in the book, the shop was clean and the food was given to me within a minute by kind and cheerful worker of South Asian origin. Not only the food was very oily, they were not worth the price and taste for the hardship people went through as written in the book. I am very glad that I read this book.
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Summary: Response To Reviewer From Portland
Review: Arby's is mentioned in this book, on page 222. Overall, this is an outstanding book. Some of the stories will actually make you cringe, particularly about they way workers in the slaughterhouse are treated. Almost as bad as the way publicist Michael Levine of Los Angeles treats his interns. Let's hope he doesn't read this book or he'll get some good ideas on how he can cheat people even further.
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Summary: fast food vs. home food
Review: By reading this book it really changed the way I see the fast food restaurents because now I think about what I am really eating instead of just eating it. Also I think that the fries that I though were so good aren't as good as I though because I know now that what I am really eating is pure grease and hamburgers that may have a bacteria. Maybe I'll just stay with my homefood and I will know what I put in all my food so I won't have to worry that I could get sick with any other food. I know that I will be safe with my cooking than other people cooking my food.
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Summary: Disturbing Book - maybe you don't deserve a break today
Review: Yikes!! this is my one word review for this book. This book is alarming and sickening to say the least. Schlossel takes the reader on a trip from the origins of the fast-food stands in post-war Southern California, and onwards to potato farms in Idaho; meatpacking houses in Colorado and Kansas, and McDonalds in Europe and throughout the US. The portrait rendered (pun intended) is enough to make you not only never eat at a fast-food joint again, but to worry about eating anything but vegetables ever again. Sure, the author does a very good job at making various sociological observations about how post-war Southern California has influenced the world in many ways, but I feel the most disturbing aspect of this book is reading that even if you do NOT consume beef, you may still be consuming beef thanks to the inventive way animal products - blood, gristle etc. - is utilized. Could you ever imagine eating old newspaper, sawdust, or chicken and cow blood? Well, apprently we eat these products even if we only eat chicken. According to the author, beef products are fed even to chickens and pigs. Beef tallow - beef fat - was formerly used to 'flavor' McDonalds french fries. I thought that the recently publicized lawsuit invoving Hindus and beef-flavoring of McDonalds fries was interesting, but now I see why ALL Americans should be upset. I feel I am a well-informed person, but actually no person is well-informed in this country regarding food products. I had no idea that beef products were being used to feed other animals. I thought beef, pig and chicken products were being used for pet food - a thought which still doesn't make me happy. As Schlossel writes, " mad cow has a meaning." I believe this to be an accurate statement. I have tried organic products and found these products taste much better. Items such as organis milk, eggs, chicken and other items actually seem to taste better. Now, I may realize that it isn't just my imagination, more 'organic' products have better imputs, and therefore, have a better end product. If I have old newspaper pulp in my beef or milk or whatever other product I am consuming, I can see that it won't have the same taste. I thought newspapers were only for reading. The meaning of the book to me is greater than the point the author tries make. In a certain sense, I believe the author is somewhat too political in condemning Republicans for support received from agribusiness; Democrats are equally too blame in this regard as well. However, the author misses a key point in my estimation. We are all to blame as people. We expect that cheaper is always better. We have lost touch with our humanity in that we forget the animal aspect to our beings. We have forgotten that milk, eggs, cheese and meat doesn't just come from the grocery store. In fact, these items must be produced. Yet, many people only think about the economics of their food, and not at all about what they are actually consuming. It is a societal problem that we as Americans have become so lazy that we don't demand the best in food quality. We have allowed the food producers to become as corrupt, lazy, and as disgusting as the food producers portrayed in Upton Sinclair's book, "The Jungle." Capitialism without values is as corrupt and as soul destroying as communism, facism, or any other ideology taken to the absurd conclusions of its philosophical underpinnings. Unchecked, capitalism seeks the lowest cost inputs to produce the greatest profits. Unfortunately, as we are finding out, the lowest inputs means putting all people at risk. Mad cow may be a nightmare, a horrible epidemic, or not significant at all. But, Schlossel is correct that it has a profound and very disturbing meaning. In Schlossel's book, he fails the bigger question, why have Americans allowed themselves to be bought and sold so easily?McDonalds (merely the biggest and easiest target for the author) isn't the problem, it is the American society that is allowing itself to become a commodity, rather than the owners of the society. Schlossel's book deserves wide readership. Disagree with his conclusions (in my opinion, difficult to do), or disagree with my conclusions about his book; but, ask yourself this question -after reading that your chicken may be fed beef products, and old newspapers and sawdust, are you truly immune? After reading that the grass eating cow is being fed other cow products to fatten it up, and that the slaughterhouses are every bit as dangerous as 100 years ago, can you afford not to be interested? You should read this book - since you are what you eat.(And no, I am not some PETA freak, but after reading this book and observing the present crisis vis-a-vis Mad Cow, perhaps the PETA people aren't as freaky as I thought!)
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Summary: Fast Food Nation
Review: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser was a very educational book. Some of the things in there were also really gross sounding. The way fast food is cooked and even where it comes from. Recent events on the news about Mad Cow Disease has astonished many Americans in this country, but if they had bothered to research where their food is coming from in the first place maybe they would not have been so suppressed about the terrible things that are being revealed from the beef industry. Also how do Americans get away with thinking that fast food is good for you? The fries allow, what my dad calls vegetables, have been backed in grease and have absolutely no nutritional value at all. Fries will help add fat to your diet though, especially is you eat them a few times a week like most Americans do. America wonders where its weight problem is coming from, but I guess their just blind to their cravings for constant food. Americans want easy solutions for loosing weight, but for the most part they do not want to exercise or give up their precious fast food this is helping to shorten their lives and make they miserable. I think if more people read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and really make an effort to change their diets; maybe schedule in time for cooking, they Americans in general would be thinner, healthier, and happier people in general. All it takes is some working would in a schedule to be healthy and it is really not that hard. It is almost like brushing your teeth or taking a shower, it necessary and does not take that long.
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Summary: Burger Flop
Review: Fast food has destroyed family unity, diet, employment and health. This book shows and explains how fast food and the production of the food bought by McDonalds, Jack in the Box and other main companies can hurt not only the person, but the animals. I thought that the book went into too much detail about the diseases and the sicknesses that tainted beef can cause but it was very informational. The history of fast food was interesting. Fast food started out as a simple hamburger and hotdog stand, and then it evolved into chain restaurants that spread throughout the country. The fast food industry sometimes does not treat their employees with respect and dignity. In the book, it explains how work at the slaughter houses causes many deaths and injuries. Even the janitors, while cleaning the bloody and infected compounds, get diseases, injuries and exposed to dangerous chemicals such as chlorine. Fast Food Nation showed me how fast food restaurants look decent from the outside, but behind the walls, behind the scenes, things go on that are illegal and should be fixed. No slaughter house worker should have to sign a release saying that if she was injured, she would not tell anyone, but would be put on lighter work. Fast food may taste good, but it ruins the body, land and culture.
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Summary: A lot to think about...
Review: This book is not only an interesting look into the history of the fast food franchises, but it also provides insight into everything from the source to the preparation of the food, the employees, management, and marketing methods. It provides a great overview for those of us who might not have put too much thought into where our food comes from, and how it got to our plates (or bags or boxes or wrappers).
If you eat fast food or intend to eat it in the future you should read this book. In all reality you may not stop eating fast food altogether after reading this, but at least you will be making an informed decision.
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Summary: don't stop with examining problems
Review: For those of you looking into the horrors of modern farming, you might also try researching the problems of running small farms. If private farms did not recieve so little pay for their goods, and if taxing systems were different, we would have more sources of meat. And the small farmers I know do not hire underage workers to slave away, nor do they feed their animals cats and dogs. (That isn't to say none do.) So if you think the information in the book is alarming, go support your local farmer so she may keep on farming! (1 star because I haven't read the book! I know someone who is learning from it, but I had to comment when I saw the problems people mentioned. Maybe the book even gets into the trouble with finding solutions. I don't know.)
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Summary: Hard To Put Down
Review: From what others told me about this book, I expected a very preachy book of fact after fact of why it's wrong to eat fast food. Was I ever mislead! Eric Schlosser does a great job giving you all the background behind the fast food industry, from it's modest upstarts in San Bernardino and Anaheim to the phenomenon that it is today. At times it does seem the build-up is taking a little too long to get to the point he is making, yet Schlosser somehow keeps the reader interested enough to keep reading. And then you're hooked. And of course the true accounts of fast food workers do hit home, from the interesting preparation of Taco Bell food ("Just add water") to the long and unfair hours workers are forced to work without overtime pay, to the fact that restaurants hire teenagers and non-English speaking foreigners and even the handicapped not out of altruism, but because they will work for so cheap. This book is a real eye-opener into a very common facet of American life that is all too often overlooked and taken for granted.
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