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Summary: A Macro Social and Economic Perspective on Fast Food
Review: We all read with expectations. The book should not be held at fault for failing to meet our preconceived notions. That said, this book is a very detailed, very well researched view of the fast food industry and related mechanisms.It seems those who disliked the book center on how it failed to do what they wanted it to. From a somewhat detached academic perspective, this book resonates like the best of papers, just more entertaining to read. I haven't eaten ground beef since!
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Summary: Would you like fries with that?
Review: It's amazing to really sit down and think about how fast food has become such an important factor in today's society. Fast Food Nation: The Dark side of the All - American Meal by Eric Schlosser, has illlustrated the highs and lows of the fast food industry. Schlosser goes into great detail when discussing the conditions and governmental regulations that are enforced or not enforced in some meat packing plants and processing plants. Frankly when I personally injest my fast food I don't think twice about what I'm consuming or where it came from, but after reading Fast Food Nation I've realized maybe I should; though it hasn't changed my fast food eating habits.
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Summary: fast, fun and informative
Review: Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation is a book that I couldn't put down. It provides an explicit encapsolation of modern America by uncovering how and what we eat. The prose are concise and fluid. The content is as informative as it is disturbing, and I reccomend it to every fast-food-eating-American.
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Summary: Eye opening; must read to understand.
Review: vary discriptive and thought provocing. I no longer just eat fast food without thinking about it...
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Summary: Makes You Value What You Eat
Review: A very good expose by Eric Schlosser. Fast Food Nation gives a good history of the fast food industry demonstrating how high school drop outs with little to lose became industry monguls. More importantly the book touches on some of the darker elements of this industry. Most critical are the trecherous conditions in the meat packing industry. How can these business owners mistreat their employees not to mention the consumer? This illegal behavior is certainly leading to people becomming vegatarians. Also, addressed are fast food managers taking advantage of their teenage employees. These fast food employees are so badly underpaid yet profits continue to grow for McDonalds, Wendy's, and Burger King. Can't these big conglomerates offer these workers some health benefits or bonuses? Maybe criminal activity would be reduced by such actions. Hopefully more organizations will take on the principles of Nevada's Conways chain. Overall, a very good account of the problems that take place in the Fast Food Industry. With the growing trend towards health issues, I will certainly grab an inexpensive meal at a more consumer friendly establishment than the traditional fast food enterprises discussed in this book.
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Summary: Disappointed with a Capital "D" (Dairy Queen...)
Review: I, unlike many reviewers, found that this work did not go far enough in exposing the sheer garbage and tricks behind the innocent facade of fast food. Schlosser is a fine writer, a good muckracker, and certainly an improvement on Upton Sinclair. But I am certain that there is a much bigger and detailed book within him that will provide the level of detail, gory if necessary, that will wake up a very complacent nation to the absolute danger (as well as tastlessness) of what these corporations are dishing up politically and nutritionally. I felt like a voyeur when I initally ordered the book and hid in my bedroom, to experience the vicarious pleasure of a real expose. Instead, I'm treated to a discussion of ranching, food processing technology - and worst of all, more than I would ever want to know about Colorado Springs, one of the absolutely dullest places on earth. What that it should be completely paved! I could barely make it through the first fifty pages, and only made it through the rest of the book, because if so much of America loved this book, I should love it too - but I don't. Schlosser makes good points about the giantism (read corporate fascism) that exists in America today which has resulted in massive food/military/corporate/industrial complexes that perceive the consumer as nothing more than a hamster. Well, hell, we all know that. And Mr. Schlosser provides a hurried and weak coda to this book, not really presenting any meaningful alternatives, including guerilla tactics to fight these meaningless, out-of-control combines, other than just saying no. That just won't cut it on its own, but it's a start. I think he just ran out of things to say.
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Summary: Surprisingly Unsurprising
Review: What I found most interesting about this book was how NOT shocking it was to me. The details were certainly impressive, but in its broad outlines I don't think I learned anything I didn't already know. What's more, it seems to me that most of these things are generally known by the American public. Hey, fast food is bad for you! But it goes beyond that: There's stuff in hamburgers that isn't hamburger. Excrement and rats and cats and roaches and deadly microbes and other unsavory parts of the cow are in it. Slaughterhouses are the most dangerous and unsanitary places in the country. Cows and chickens are maltreated most unconscionably. French fries are flavored with beef. The fast food industry is destroying health, safety, and independent businesses nationwide and is the vanguard of American Cultural Imperialism abroad. Fast food labor practices generate poverty, crime, and drug use. Americans are fat and lazy and it's killing us. Yes, yes. What I think is more fascinating is: Why do we keep eating fast food when we know all this? I'm enthralled by my own ability to bite into a burger, look at its cross-section, say to myself "That's disgusting," and promptly take another bite. I'm a disgusting overweight human being, but I'm not alone. We all run straight for what's bad for us. Schlosser's "expose" is undoubtedly a little on the sensationalist side, yet even so I found it surprisingly unsensational. The fact that the depredations of the fast food industry are so well-known as to be banal and commonplace is quite the most horrifying facet of the issue, in my opinion.
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Summary: You are what you eat
Review: You are what you eat, as the old saying goes. However, the links between the food a nation eats and its culture are probably less appreciated. What would France be without wine and Italy without pizza? and what would America be without McDonalds? In "Fast Food Nation" Eric Schlosser does not set out simply to critique McDonalds. In a thoroughly researched book Schlosser looks at how an industry has shaped an entire nation and is increasingly trying to shape the world. The book should be read more as a critique of the food and agribusiness industries than just a critique of McDonalds. The fast food industry had humble beginnings in Southern California. It is interesting to note that Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds was a contemporary of Walt Disney. From its early days the fast food industry has not just changed eating habits, but the way people live, work and do business. Urban sprawl, the rights of young workers and franchising are all examined and shown to be intertwined with the rise of the fast food industry. What makes this book compelling is that the author has obviously spent a lot of time on the road doing research. Rather than just burying himself in books, he has engaged with people everywhere to understand the role that fast food plays in our lives. From franchisees to farmers and meat workers he puts a human face on this industry. For an industry that prides itself on uniformity the experiences of those behind the scenes are far from uniform. The first part of the book looks at the business side of fast food. Franchising and labour are the two major issues examined. The second part of the book looks at food. It begins at the farm and carefully examines the processes from the farm to the finished product. It is this part of the book that is probably the most frightening. It is the details of the conditions in the meat works that are the thing most likely to put readers of this book off eating fast food. The author's interviews with meat workers reveal an industry where workers are regarded as disposable. The employment of illegal foreign workers is commonplace and turnover is high. Workers are put under tremendous pressure to achieve high rates of throughput and many are (often horrifically) injured, yet they have little chance of receiving compensation. Another problem with having a poorly trained and treated workforce is that they take little care in their work leading to contamination of the meat with potentially deadly bacteria. Although Schlosser rightly points out the occurrence of bacterial contamination his treatment of the topic is at times a little too anecdotal. Some more real numbers about the number of people hopsitalised by food poisoning would have served to put the problem in better perspective. Anyone who reads this book will never look at a hamburger in the same way again (and perhaps never eat one again either). It challenges everybody to think about food from its origins on the farm all the way to the plate (or paper wrapper). It is a wake up call that increasing the power of a few food and agribusiness corporations does not benefit society in anyway. The book finishes on a slightly positive note when Schlosser suggests that the real power lies with consumers. If consumers stop buying fast food then the corporations that make it will be forced to change. Last year McDonalds closed down a number of restaurants around the world, perhaps the tide is already turning.
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Summary: Fascinated With Fast Food Nation
Review: I am a lacto-vegetarian and am well aware of the effects of the average American diet on our society. I thought that Eric Schlosser found an effective way of providing the public with the repulsive facts of what they decide to stuff their faces with every day. The book is an easy read, but lengthy at times when unnecessary facts clutter up the book. (I don't care about the Pueblo Mall or Black Hawks never getting handshakes!) This is a great eye opener for everyone interested in how they poisen their bodies and don't even know it. Maybe after reading it people will learn that there are more important means of technological exploitation and that this is a serious problem. People are underpaid and the American people are putting their health at a serious risk when they are not conscious of thier "luxuries". A fast food nation is not something to be proud of, by the way. Animals have feelings too.
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Summary: I will rethink ever going to a McDonalds again.
Review: This book layed everything on the table when it comes to the fast food industry. This is a no-holds book about this growing American industry. I think that anyone who plans to eat at a fast food restaurant should read this book. A MUST READ!!
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