Rating: 
Summary: It wasn't all that it seemed to be...
Review: After reading some of the reviews I thought. This should be interesting to read. You know, big scandals, things that would gross me out and never want fast food again. I don't really eat it anyway unless I have no other options.
First off, I found the history of fast food interesting. The author did it from the view of the guy that started Carl's Jr. It seemed like most of them were being the honest businessman looking for a way to make money but they kept integrity alive in their business. Then as they got bigger people solely looking for a profit came in and integrity was gone.
Second, I agree that monopolies over work ethics, food industry and the treatment of animals are abused. Which is a big part of the rest of this book. In all honesty is this going to change? No, because only a small handful of the American people truly care. The rest just want a Big Mac and a large fry with a Coke. Money is power, and they know it.
So there was nothing new learned other than they use flavorings in everything. Big whoop. Everything in a store has flavorings and preservatives and coloring. The only way to avoid that is to eat totally whole foods that are organic. That's the same handful that are really mad about it all. Even the author enjoyed the potatoes they gave him, all fast food style.
Overall, this was a dry book. He goes to a potato processing plant about how they make fries. And a ranch to see about the erosion of the earth with cattle raised for fast food eating all the grass.
Last was about nasty meat processing plants and the conditions they're in and about the workers that are treated unfairly. It was pretty bad, but did we never know about any of this? No, we do. We just choose to ignore it.
I care about the earth, but he could have showed all this on 20/20 and be done with it. It probably would have been more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent review of important part of American history
Review: This book really explains how successful businesses try to notice trends and needs, work hard to fill them, try to lower costs and deliver superior products.Hamburgers filled a need to deliver food to impatient customers, without losing silverware. The people who started it took huge risks, but believed in their dreams. French fried potatoes filled the same need, but took too much work. A chapter or two is devoted to describing the ingenuity and perserverance of the guy who figured out how to make frozen french fries. The "horror" of the book was that animals get killed in slaughterhouses. How is this a surprise? Moo at one end, meat at the other, most of us realize it. Again, fast food places were the first to insist on improved conditions, improving the health of animals, and ensuring that meat is safe. The book points out that meat from the supermarket or small restaraunt is far more likely to be contaminated with bacteria than any fast food place, because the fast food places only buy food that passes their tests, whcih are far more stringent than any government tests. The sections on how fast food was on the forefront of giving good jobs to people who otherwise had a hard time finding work was also excellent, and pointed out how this trend is being followed by many more retailers. They discussed how fast food went to great lengths to recruit such people, then be careful that they enjoyed the work, and tried to help them out in other ways. The book has one major problem, which is that the content and title do not match, and will appeal to different people.
If you are looking for dirt, well, the author tries to deliver, but doesn't have much to work with. If you are trying to understand business and how it is done well, this book is a treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth it for anyone who eats out
Review: The book is not just about the quality of the food you get at fast food restaurants. The coverage of how the chains try to keep down the minimum wage and to have complete control over the franchisees was sad but not surprising. The parts about how McDonalds changed the way that all chicken (not just fast-food chicken) is produced was pretty depressing. Well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Eric Schlosser is a hero!
Review: People need to be writing more books like Fast Food Nation! This is one of the best books I've read in a long time! Whether or not you care about what you eat - it is so interesting. You will have a greater respect for so many people after reading this. I thought I knew what I would be reading when I bought this book but it is so much more. Eric Schlosser writes in an "every man" style that you will completely identify with. It's also shockingly in depth, supported by pages and pages of notes. I'm sure you will be surprised at how defined North Americans are by Fast Food. It's not just about the food - it's the people, the industry, the culture. It's almost ridiculous how its all connected! Go out and buy this now! It will amaze you! You will thank yourself for giving it a chance. Also, don't miss his next book Reefer Madness.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: If you're chicken enough to stop eating at fast-food restaurants, then you should probably quit buying food at your local super-market all together and grow your own food! Most of the food we consume has chemical color, scents, and flavor enhancers...including simple things such as hot dog buns. Guess what, the pink that makes your strawberry ice-cream look its color, is made out of insects. Pick up this book! It is intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: As Many Americans as possible should read it!
Review: In the end more than anything else this book let's you know that greed is at the bottom of it all. Everything in this jaw dropping book points to greedy people in suits that only care about their deep pockets and not much else. The bottom line.
Rating:
Summary: The evils of American business
Review: This is the best-researched non-fiction book I've read in years. This is unimpeachable proof about American business leaders; If it wears a tie, don't trust it. Even after the success of "Fast Food Nation," do you think the Bush Administration would ever do anything to protect U.S. citizens from the very food corporations that are supposedly "serving" us? Fat chance, but fat is what you'll certrainly be if you fill your belly with the frozen garbage served by McDonald's another other fast food merchants. After the 2000 election, this book, and what's happened since 9/11, it's obvious that America 2003 harbors the dumbest, laziest population in the history of the earth: Well-fed, but blindly unwilling to look at our coroprate leaders and our own daily actions. Read "Fast Food Nation" and then try to convince me that the right people are in power in this nation. If you have a heart and a conscience, you'll be as sickened by the revelations in this book as I was.
Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: From the the original McDonalds brothers restaurant to how they push to keep the unions out their restaurants now, this book will tell you more about McDonalds than you ever thought there was to know. From how they came up with the process for making french fries to the dangerous slaughterhouses. While McDonalds is not the only corporation holding down and eliminating the 'little man' in the battle for the public's buck, it is certainly one of the worst offenders.
Some of the figures are hard to slog through, but they paint a picture that too few people will see because most of America is busy handing over their hard-earned cash to the underpaid teenagers working the drive-through at their local fast food restaurant.
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening!
Review: Even though I still eat a bit of Fast-Food this book goes into detail on the industry, what is actually in your food... and oh yes... the chemical additives for flavor and smell... Ewww!! Eric is the man. This book was a very easy read. Sometimes sickening, yet in a prose that is easy to digest (pun intended). I will be getting his next book -sight unseen- FIVE STARS!!!
Rating:
Summary: No excuse!
Review: Everyone (well I hope at least most people know) knows that the Fast Food industry is unhealthy. It's a given, no where in the entire menu of any fast food joint does it say "We're 100% healthy!" So coming into this book I was hoping for some real eye opening stuff....and my wish had regretfully came true.
When I started out in the book I was at first amazed at how some of these businesses's got started; by people who had not finished high school. But then I became quickly bored with the continued facts and history (which is why it isn't a 5-star...too much info!), little did I know that the author appears to take kindly to giving you the history, so as in to tie in the present situation. A 'this is how it started, and this is how it is now' idea.
Anyway, moving on, then he came upon what the fast food joints do, not only to their customers but to their employers and the motto they go by. My vision of McDonalds being the bright and sunshine place of happiness has now turned into a dark, McDisgusting hell. I am still too repulsed to even consider telling you what some of the stuff that happens in the fast food work areas, and I read this book a month ago!
Then he goes onto the meat packing industry, and they are worse. I thought being a teenager was hard enough, turns out being new to America and trying to raise a family is the hardest thing now, so much for the land of oppertunites (you'll see what I mean when you read this one).
I wish I could describe how much I hate fast food now. The plotline of this book? Your taken back in time, given data, then moved to the present shown the realities of todays fast food and meat-packing industries (and if your wondering why he is talking about the meat-packing industry, where do you think they get their 'meat'?) and how pathetic our world is becoming. And I use to eat that stuff!! I won't even begin about the globelization that McDonalds and the other fast food joints are working at (say goodbye to diversity!). A must read, ignorance is no excuse, either die from the Ecoli in your hamburger, or say hello to a healther lifestyle!
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