Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

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Summary: The Jungle Revisited
Review: Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation," is one of the finest pieces of writing I have encountered in a long time. Schlosser tells a riveting and humanistic story of how a seemingly innocuous purchase of fast food has broad reaching social impacts. It is a tale of betrayal by huge corporations, disgusting conditions in factories across America, and a true illumination of how little we really do know about these fast-food monoliths and their suppilers. This book is well worth the read, coming in at a crisp 270 pages. The story of inner-workings of the fast food industry is a book in-and-of-itself, but this is far more hard hitting. The first hand accounts alongside grim statistics provides a magnificent synergistic feat. Here's to the new breed of "muckrakers," Upton Sinclair would be proud.

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Summary: required reading
Review: Fast Food Nation should be required reading for anyone who eats. Not only does Schlosser give the reader good background history on the rise of the fast food industry, he gives a thorough, easily read, detailed account of how food is produced, manufactured, packaged and sold to us the consumer. The fact that what we eat is controlled by large corporations that care only for the bottom line regardless of the damage done to consumers and workers should make everyone stop and think before they bite into that big mac

Schlosser shows the reader the dangers we as consumers are exposed to when we eat processed beef. How cattle are fed is an eyeopener and explains how diseases such as e-coli, salmonella, mad-cow disease and others put as all at risk. He also connects the failure of government to respond to the dangers by detailing how corporations are able to control the government.

Finally Schlosser gives concrete solutions for the problems he outlines in his book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who eats or works in fast food or knows anyone who does. The book deserves to be on a list of required reading for highschool or college classes on American culture/government. Read it! you'll be glad you did.

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Summary: So, why doesn't the N.J turnpike smell better?
Review: Quite a few years ago when McDonald's franchises first began to proliferate across the local landscape my friends and I placed bets on how long it would be until a Burger King appeared in the same block. It was pretty clear to us the latter enterprise did not spend a great deal of money on independent site selection. According to Eric Schlosser, we had no idea of the accuracy of our speculations. His book, FAST FOOD NATION is a prodigious page turner filled with interesting facts about every aspect of the processed food industry, equal to the very best of the supermarket variety mystery/thriller... and in retrospect, the book could be construed as a literal supermarket horror story.

Frankly, I have no intention of entertaining any delusions I will not frequent a multiplicity of fast food establishments in the future, but those visits will be informed choices, now encumbered by heightened levels of anxiety and a degree of self-flagellation in recognition of my obvious paucity of convictions. The bottomline is, I am an American conspicious consumer, the food *does* taste good, and I exist a state of urgency. I know it promotes obesity, I'll add a couple of miles to my walking. Anyway, if Mr. Schlosser's credibility is not in question and I find no reason why it should be, I have a better chance of ingesting tainted beef purchased from my local market than is currently the case with any of the franchises, where our litigious society has obligated they demand enhanced quality control from their suppliers; levels of vigilance the pertinent federal agencies that are supposed to protect my health interests fail to duplicate.

Mr. Schlosser's expose` is an enthralling account of the fast food industry, its' marketing; the influence it wields on american consumerism; how it is a prototypical model of capitalistic excursion; the work-force exploitation of teens, seniors and the undereducated; advertising designed to mesmerize and captivate society's youth; dejure and defacto subjugation of franchisees; and the industry's negative effects on the american landscape. In many respects, the book is an update of Sinclair's THE JUNGLE as it pertains to the meatpacking industry but Mr. Schlosser expands his analysis to cover agribusiness enterprises, including the chemical plants adjacent to New Jersey's rte 95. The vegans among us may find some solace that their exposure to *e coli* is reduced but I have a hard time believing the business practices of a ConAgra or McCain's and their subsidaries like Hunt's or Healthy Choice will not impact the meatfree crowd as well.

I am not as convinced the industry is, or was, the activating agent in all of the categories he outlines; I view the executive leadership in the industry to be opportunistic in responsiveness to adaptive consumer demands. It seems to me lifestyle changes commencing after World War II spawned the fast food and processed food industries, not vice versa. Yet, Schlosser does not limit his review to the shores of the United States. The author demonstrates where the tendrils of the leading players snake out to constrict the global market, with the prevailing definition of civilized society now represented by the ability to enjoy a burger, fries and cola while clad in your locally purchased Gap ensemble and Nikes anywhere in the paved world.

From his assiduous account of the genesis of McDonald's in California to the surreal experience of Gorbachev as the keynote speaker at a capitalist dog and pony show in Las Vegas, the book never fails to impress, although at times the heavyhanded infusion of Mr. Schlosser's personal liberal environmentalism was unnecessary.

However, whether you are meat and potatoes or vegan/vegetarian, this is a book that will have you shaking your head for days to come. Grab a supersized soda, sit on the couch and have a look.

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Summary: Fast food is slow death
Review: Schlosser's expose of the fast food industry is an eye opener. But he shows only the tip of the iceberg. Weston Price, Denis Burkitt, and others, showed years ago that when people ate their traditional food, they were free of the degenerative ailments that are rampant in our society, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, etc., etc. These pioneers also showed that, when people abandoned their traditional diets and ate our junk food, they came down with the same ailments that we suffer from. Sally Fallon, and Mary Enig explain this fully in their book, "Nourishing Traditions." That being said, Schlosser's book is a welcome addition to the growing number of books helping people see the truth about junk food. Everybody should read it. Thousands of lives could be saved if they did. Fast food is slow death.

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Summary: Hydrogenated oil and refined sugar and starch
Review: Schlosser has uncovered lots of information about fast food we all should know about. Unfortunately, he's unaware of two of the ways fast food destroys our health: The first is refined sugar and starch. These concentrated foods stimulate the pancreas to secret insulin and, among other things, contribute to obesity by converting glucose into fat and storing it in our fat cells. Second, fast food places, like most bakeries, use hydrogenated oil. This artificial fat has been proven to clog our arteries, and is a major cause of heart disease, stroke and other ailments. Westonaprice.org explains this fully. Just the same, there is so much good information in this book, everybody should read it.

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Summary: An eye-opener and a page turner.
Review: This is a fantastic book. I'm 24 years old and generally find myself eating fast food once or twice a week. After reading this book I'm really going to make an effort to cut it out completely.

For the reviewers who don't understand why Schlosser spends so much time talking about meat-packing and can't understand how it related back to the fast food industry, the explanation is simple. Because of the hundreds of thousands of fast food joints around the world, this "fast food agricultre" has to be used all over the world. Like Schlosser says, in the 50's your local butcher would ground his own beef. Because McDonald's needed all their burgers to be uniform, the only way to do this is in giant meatpacking plants, where the bottom line is the only line. Production and profit take precidence over everything else.

And to the reader who thinks that e-coli is caused only by undercooking, you are missing the point. The point is that this strain of bacteria should not even EXIST. Because cattle are being fed improper nutrients, antibiotics, etc, this strain has materialized along with several others. The irresponsibility of the Meatpackers and the indifference of Republican lawmakers will eventually lead to some kind of epidemic.

This book is fantastic and I recommend it to anyone with kids, or who is just interested in taking a look at what really happens to the food you eat, not only at a fast food joint, but also the food in your refridgerator.

I think Schlosser put it best when he said you'd be better off eating a carrot that fell in your toilet than one that falls into your kitchen sink. There's more fecal bacteria in your sink than your toilet, b/c meatpackers and cattle feeders work with such reckless disregard to the consumer.

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Summary: Tell A Friend
Review: Eric Schlosser captured my attention from the very beginning of this book all the way to the end (including his notes & acknowledgements). I was absolutely engrossed and had a hard time putting it down. Schlosser does a fine investigative reporting job without making all of the statistics and information boring or dry, on the contrary; I couldn't wait to read the next chapter.

The crux of this book is about how the fast food industry has been a major contributor in shaping our new cultural values: "Profit, Profit, Profit" on the Corporate side and "Cheap, Fast and Convenient" on the Consumer side, all at the expense of our health, workers' safety, and fair labor practices. And the hardest thing to swallow (even more so than the tainted beef he tells us about in explicit detail) is the fact that our government aids and abets these corporations. These corporations and organizations (and yes he names names) have wrangled congress (by making huge campaign contributions) into reducing safety regulations, minimum wage, and meat inspections, and have persuaded them to overlook anti-trust laws. And although Big Business is always yelling that Government should stay out of their affairs, they are certainly eager to take money from government subsidies. They have also wrangled ranchers and farmers into virtual serfdom, or out of business completely using even more nefarious dealings such as price-fixing.

Schlosser doesn't stop at telling us about these corporate wranglings he also shows us how these reduced standards effect real people. He tells us the personal stories of Eliza Zamot a 16-year old counter person at McDonalds, Dave Feamester a Franchise owner of Little Caesars, "Hank" a cattle rancher, Alex Donley a fatal victim of E. coli 0157:H7 and countless horrifying stories by meatpackers.

He ends the book noting that there are people/companies bucking this tide and he talks to a free-range cattle rancher, he also notes that in the March 2000 annual Restaurants and Institutions Choice in Chains survey In-N-Out Burger, (a personal favorite of mine) a family owned chain that uses only fresh (not frozen) ingredients ranked first in food quality, value, service, atmosphere, and cleanliness, and has ranked highest in food quality every year that the chain has been included in the survey (so that was encouraging). He also tells us that the problems with the fast food industry are not unfixable and, you guessed it, the consumer ultimately holds all of the power to fix these ills, or to let them continue.

This is a MUST read not only for teenagers but also for anyone who eats processed food (and let's face it that's about 99% of us)! So get this book, read it and tell a friend!

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Summary: misunderstood
Review: It looks like there are a few reviewers that misunderstood the aim of the book. While it does take a very detailed look at the fast food industy and it's rise to international popularity, the book also seeks to illustrate how the industry has infiltrated every aspect of food production - from the cattle to the people working behind the counter. It is a book about fast food and it's affect on the capitalism as a whole, how the business community seeks to squeeze every ounce of profit without any regard for anyone except themselves and their pocketbooks. The author implies that it is a trend that that started with the birth of the fast food industry, and he makes some very provocative arguments. I read this book cover to cover in a couple days time, and I don't think there is a word to describe the revulsion felt at such a detestable industry and way of doing business. You owe it to yourself and to your kids to read this book. One thing is for sure: if you continue to eat fast food after reading this, you deserve what's coming to you.

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Summary: Must read!
Review: Fast Food Nation is a book that is very disturbing to read and which will create deep discomfort in the reader. Despite its title, the books focuses as much on the fast food industry itself as its suppliers and for my money, the latter are the real problem. Sure, fast food has nutritional implications, and additives are quite a scam, but nobody is forcing you to eat it all the time. If you want to live on burgers, well that is your choice.

The story of the meat industry however is sickening. I am not referring to the early days of the meatpackers; bad as matters were in those days, that was no different from the robber baron mentality of that age. The shocker is that the meatpacking industry (beef, chicken, whatever) even today has no compunctions about its terrible practices. The shame of America today is that corporates can buy off regulatory oversight of their activities by political donations. The USDA has been so hamstrung today that even when it knows of rules being traduced, it can do precious little. It is scary and disgusting to read just what we are eating in the name of meat products. It is even more frightening to read how the industry in a standard knee-jerk reaction resists safety measures not only in production but even in product recalls when all else fails. As for its treatment of its workforce, all I can say is that the sweat shop is alive and well in the US of A. From ever increasing line speeds that induce injuries, to inhumane treatment of injured workers, this is an industry that has lost all tough with humanity as it chases profits. Sure profits are essential and of course the investors must get a return on their capital. But do they know the human cost (to workers, to customers, to the very fabric of society) of generating this return? Thank you Eric for an eye opening book.

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Summary: Eye-opening/Disturbing/Too sick to be true???
Review: I remember the way I felt after finishing our assigned reading ("The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair) in 11th grade English. While in 'The Jungle', Sinclair was discussing the merits of socialism amongst the poor and hungry in Chicago's meatpacking industry in the early 1900's, I am not exactly sure what Schlosser's overall message is. Perhaps I was distracted by thinking about all those times I have eaten at Burger King and McDonald's. I will certainly think twice before hitting the fast food place for a meal again.