Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting
Review: After reading this book you will probably think twice before buying your next big mac.
It allows one to know what lies beneath the fast food industry, the reasons of it' s immense growth these last decades, how it changed not only America's diet but also it's landscape, economy, workforce and culture. After all, as Schlosser writes: "A nation's diet can be more revealing than it's art or litterature."
My only regret would be that I would have liked to see more about the situation in other parts of the world. It might have open doors to interesting comparaisons and maybe help to understand even better what has happened in the United States.
But over all I would recommend Schlosser's work to anyone interessted in the fast food issue or simply in the american culture.
Rating:
Summary: challenging informations and analysis
Review: This book is definitely worth reading.
It provides very interesting insights about the many implications of fast-food industry in United States.
I think the most interesting is the global approach the author has on the issue. He analyses not only the consequences of fast food on people's health, but also its very serious implications on workers, on American way of life and its communities.
He shows very clearly how he rise of fast food industry revolutionized the production chain in United States fo example. Farmers are put into dependence of the big industry buyers, workers are being exploited and their work is completely alienated by the production chain which requires very little skills and autonomy. And these are ones of the many examples of the very bad consequences of this kind of development, based on growth only, without other type of consideration: quality of life, health, working conditions, wages, workers decisions on their lifes, environnement, lanscape, etc.This is one example of the many aspects of current global capitalism which is ruining people and environment. However, comparisons are lacking in the book: not only about the fast-food in other countries but also about other industries (How is it different and similar to other types of industries?. I would recommend it as a challenging initiation to thinking about these problems.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic and eye opening
Review: I used to eat at Burgur King, McDonalds and Wendys fairly often. Since picking up this book six months ago, I've eaten at those establishments twice. This is a truely eye opening book on how processed food is changing our nation for the worse. Read it and you'll change your diet for the better immediately!
Rating:
Summary: You'll may not eat fast food again...
Review: An insightful eye-opening expose about fast food. Delves deeply into the unseen costs with respect to health, disease, labor, farming, industry, etc. Also chronicles the rise of fast food from it's humble roots in southern California to the multi-national force that it is today. Not only are the health costs of fast food consumption staggering, but the social and environmental costs are enormous as well. This book lays it out in a mostly unbiased fashion, and includes extensive references at the end which thoroughly support all claims made. I never was a big fan of fast food, now I go out of my way to avoid it.
Rating:
Summary: What we all really knew
Review: I guess that this book really tells us what we already knew. That beneath the all-American shiny facade, fast food really does have a dark side. It is a long standing joke that the meat in fast food burgers is not real meat, and that the chicken burgers are rabbit. Well, it's not such a joke after reading this book. It may not be rabbit, but it's only just chicken. Starting from the first page, this book attempts to strip away the glitz and the glamour and show us the dirtier side of fast food life that the marketing and PR departments of the fast food empires would rather not let us see. While the history is fascinating to read as a 'typical' rags-to-riches American dream story, the rosy glow fades as the nostalgia of the 50s and 60s is replaced with today's' realities. Part 1 deals with the lighter side of the issue. These are the parts of the fast food business, such as marketing, that are not so unpleasant to the consumer. However, the point is made that it is this side of the business that is the most vicious and vindictive, and ultimately vital to get us to hand our money over the counter. It doesn't matter how good or bad the food tastes if we don't go through the door. One of the most frightening points made is how, through clever marketing, the fast food chains have come to symbolise all that is good and normal about the American way of life. Go through Drive Thru in your GM or Ford, and all is right with the world. Part 2 deals with the meat of the issue. Literally. In 114 pages, Schlosser outlines the various processes that govern the manufacture of the French fries and patties that appear in the restaurant. And you should be afraid. Mass slaughter houses, poorly fed cattle, maltreated workers and hideous injuries are used to demonstrate how these companies care about the bottom dollar and not much else. This is a book that may just possibly change your life. At the very least, you will never look on fast food the same way again. It may even make you think about buying that next hamburger. What ever happens, you will never look at the fast food experience the same way again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tainted Book
Review: Not technically inaccurate, but chocked full of dubiously inflammatory comments that reveal the author's heavy bias. For example, when describing industrial french-fry production he says that, "Air cooled by compressed ammonia gas quickly froze them". What he's describing are the contents of the freezer's evaporator unit, which could be many irrelevant chemicals. This is a pretty cheap piece of writing in my opinion. I don't think he should have stooped to this level of cheesy rhetoric. The sort of gas being used in the freezing unit's evaporator is not really relevant unless you claim it's leaking onto the food, which he doesn't. For the many people who have no idea how a freezer works, this sounds like ammonia is somehow being added to or at least contacting the fries. This is like saying, "electric motors, using more current that an electric chair and containing poisonous (possibly lethal) amounts of lead, propel the french-fries toward the unsuspecting consumer." I suspect he wishes he had thought of that one. Some damage to credibility is impossible to avoid. Not too far from the Dihydrogen Monoxide warnings on the Internet. The author takes a juicy and serious subject, grinds it up, and riddles it with just enough feces to make it dangerous. The sensationalized yellow journalism damages the cause the book hopes to promote. The splatter from this will taint any future more reasoned and less shrill criticisms of the fast food industry.
Rating:
Summary: Is It Safe Or Not? Hmmm Is this really SAFE for me to eat??
Review: FAST FOOD NATION!! When I picked up this book I knew that i was going to be reading some stuff that I was not prepared to read but by the end of the book i was curled up with my trash can trying to throw up every sing burger, french fri, and taco I had ever eaten. This was am extremely detailed book that was benifical to the readers beucase it let us know what they (the fast food resturants) did not want us to know. This book expressed well the dirty, and un-clean way the fast food resturants are kept, as well as the food is cooked, and the dark side of the employment at these resturants. I would reccomend this book to ANYONE who eats's at fast food resturants as well as anyone who does not because I think that this is an informative book that should be read by EVERYONE!
Rating:
Summary: Like Upton Sinclair, but tastier
Review: Schlosser builds a convincing and fascinating case against major Fast Food companies and their effect on the nation's culture while examining the American culture that created the men who created the company. His argument continually cycles around so you can't tell (and i think, neither can he) which is the effect of the other.
The wealth of knowledge that Schlosser imparts is not overwhelming (though it is often disturbing) because the book reads almost like a novel.
The book is very well researched and very well written. He makes a compelling argument, and calls all his readers to action.
I love fast food, i always have, but since finishing this book i have not been to a McDonalds, and have significantly cut down my intake of other major chain fast food. Instead i go to smaller burger joints for my fix of grease. I would urge you to do the same (and so does Mr. Schlosser).
Rating:
Summary: McDonalds wants you to eat...
Review: Before reading this book, I thought horribly unsanitary conditions throughout the meatpacking industry had been eliminated long, long ago. I guess I was wrong. If even half the things in this book are true, the government is grossly negligent in it's responsibility to keeping us safe from contaminated food. I feel reluctant to eat at fast food restaurants as of now and it will be a long time before I stop wondering what awful substances are in my food.
The expose of how the big companies do business was very dreary. It's sad how the small-scale ranches and farms are being driven out of business by the big companies just so fat cat executives can drive up their stock values and buy another vacation home in Florida. I think this is bad for our economy because it eliminates competition from the marketplace. There are many examples of things like this and it is depressing just to think of them all.
I recommend this book because it is a well-written description of how an important and representative part of our economy works and also because this book reveals the unpleasant truth about our food. Our society has been greatly changed by the fast food industry and this book helps people understand how. I think it's our right to know what's in our food and how it was handled for the sake of our health and this book provides us with a lot of things to think about. This book is also a wake-up call for all of us and could support positive change in the government's food inspection system if enough citizens take action and lobby for change.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough but a little dry
Review: I am *struggling* to give up meat and animal products and bought this book to further my education on the cruelty and abuses dealt to factory farm animals. I have found it very interesting. Schlosser impeccably researched his material and exposed a lot of the misconceptions people have about fast food. I was most interested in the sections on ranching and food production but was pleasantly surprised to find treatment of employment practices, history of fast food, and other aspects of the industry. I agree with the above reviewer to an extent that the author is extremely pro-union--I personally tend to have reservations about unions--so I took sections about organized labor with a grain of salt. It was interesting reading though.
As I mention in the review title, the book was a little drier than I expected. Granted, it is nonfiction, written like a long subdivided essay, and the material itself does keep the reader's interest in many places--but I must admit I expected an easier read. It is not dense reading but not a quick read either. I have skipped around within the book, reading chapters out of order depending on what interested me most.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fast food on a regular basis--particularly to parents who would like to know what they are REALLY feeding their children. It has changed the way I look at not only McDonald's but also processed food as a whole. Incidentally, in the month or so since I bought the book, I have only eaten fast food once.
I am glad to see authors like Schlosser attempting to give the public a true idea of what the lives of farm animals--many of which never set foot in a pasture or see the sun--are like, and the price these animals pay so that we can enjoy whole fryers for 39 cents a pound and "premium" steaks for a few dollars.
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