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Summary: Moving and Eye Opening
Review: This book was truly an eye-opening experience for me, as well as a very moving and emotional one. I found myself at turns being sickened and angry at the enormous greed of the fast food corporations, meat packers, and government bigwigs who would allow children to die from tainted meat just so they could have more money in their pockets, and in tears reading about some of the people who were injured or died as a result of this huge empire (meatpacking injuiries, food posionings of children, etc.). I am going to send a synopsis of this book to all my friends and hopefully they will boycott fast food restaurants too. I believe the author described the industry as both beautiful and horrific, and that's exactly true. It's like looking at an amazing feat of science, but it's a science that has no ethics or interest in the public good. It's all about greed. Very sad how this effects so many people in a negative way -- ranchers, farmers, teenagers and immigrants who can't get any other type of job, and us, the consumers and our children, who eat fast food because it's plentiful, cheap, and convenient. The REAL cost is much more expensive than I ever dreamed. It's definitely not worth it.
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Summary: Eye-opener!
Review: One of the most comprehensive, fascinating, readable books I've experienced. You will be intrigued, surprised, appalled, angered, and horrified. And you will never be able to look at a fast food restaurant or employee, watch a commercial, scrutinize a pound of hamburger or eat another french fry the same way again! ....Upton Sinclair, move over. Thanks, Eric Schlosser.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: Almost makes you want to be a vegetarian.. Sad thing is after I read the book, despite the disgust I had for fast food, I had an instant craving......
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Summary: Read This and Weep
Review: How McDonalds, Burger King and the meat industry of the high plains have become the Robber Barons of the 21st Century, send a copy to your Senator.
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Summary: Fast Food is Unhealthy
Review: The story of fast food is the story of post-war America. Fast food has hastened shopping malls, fuelled an epidemic of obesity, and widened the gap between rich and poor...There are now two classes of people in rural Idaho: the landowners, and the people who work the lands.McDonald's french fries have long been praised for their taste. The secret is beef fat. This gives them more saturated fat than a hamburger! Potato processors add sugar in the fall, and remove it in the spring for a uniform taste and appearance. Fast food workers are the largest group of minimum wage earners in America. Only migrant farm workers earn less. The fast food industry exploits children, both as workers and as customers. Chapter 2 (p.54) tells of the profit margin on soda:...Twenty years ago teenagers drank twice as much milk as soda; now its the reverse. This can lead to calcium deficiencies and more bone fractures; the "liquid candy" leads to an epidemic of obesity. Chapter 3 notes that there is nothing in a fast food kitchen that requires young, lo-paid workers in place of stable, well-paid and well-trained workers. The "Work Opportunity Tax Credit" gives tax credits...for each new worker hired for at least 400 hours. It is repeated when a worker is replaced. Could this explain the high turnover rates? Chapter 4 explains the franchise business. The franchiser can expand an existing company without spending his own money; the franchisee can start his business with going alone and risking everything on a new idea. When the profits roll in, both are happy; when things go bad the franchiser usually wins. Franchising is not new; car manufacturers have done it for a century. It uses the money of small investors, not banks or Wall Street. ...The rest of the book is filled with nourishing information. The book tells of the problems due to industrial processing of ground meat.... I will continue to order a baked potato instead of french fries!
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Summary: You'll Never Eat Fast Food Again
Review: Be forewarned. If you read this book to the end, you'll never eat fast food again. I know I won't. Eric Schlosser's book is an impressive dissection of the fast food industry in the United States, one that unflinchingly examines each aspect of that industry. The result is an unflattering picture of an industry that has changed US business and eating habits in an almost secretive fashion. The book is fascinating, comprehensively critiquing hiring, franchising, purchasing and other practices. The most fascinating, and indeed the most disturbing chapters concern, however, the beef served at fast food restaurants and how it gets there. I warn you now, it is not a pretty picture. If you care about the food you eat, these chapters will sicken you. But if you care about the food you eat, you must read this book (unless you never eat fast food at all). The food quality aside, this book is very, very critical of the fast food industry and I believe that if you are a fan of that industry, this book will disturb and upset you. As I said above, the picture Schlosser paints is not pretty, but it is well-researched and well-written. A must read.
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Summary: Thorougly disgusted!!!
Review: Wow!! This book was such an eye-opening read that I could only read it in little chunks because it made me SOO angry!!! Fast food has indeed changed our nation and its food supply, making it unsafe, overprocessed and encouraging coporate greed on a global and shocking scale!! It shocks me that people overseas embrace this McDonalds culture with such a fervor, as described in the book!! Is it brainwashing that blinds these people to the incredibly detrimental health effects of the crap they are eating----what about us here in America????? I wouldn't doubt it after reading this book. Someone else only gave this book 2 stars because it was such an easy read, really written at maybe a 5th grade level. GOOD!!! Everyone in America should read this book---schools should make this required reading!! These kids need to know the truth behind their favorite hangout and greasy food!!! I have been totally moved by this book---mainly left with the overwhelming feeling of how to avoid bad meat products from these slaughterhouses!! It is so easy to just go to the grocery store, fill your cart with healthy sounding products from Healthy Choice and think you are eating healthy. Well, think again.... I at first was swayed to become a vegetarian, but as I feel that human beings are omnivores, I am currently doing research as to purchasing free-range beef and poultry over the internet and will NEVER AGAIN eat fast food!!!! This new way of shopping will be a hassle, maybe more expensive, but I feel that the health of myself and my family depend on it....
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Summary: Did Somebody Say McDevastating?
Review: 'Grab a Big Mac and fries and get reading. This is simply an excellent book, a new classic in American muckracking. Exhaustively researched (with supporting references, unlike those who criticize the book with little more than sweeping assertions) and well-written...so well-written in fact you'll actually be anxious to begin the next chapter (yes, this is non-fiction). Unfortunately, most who read this book focus on the unappealing descriptions of dirty underbelly of American fast food--beef processing. 'Just like Upton Sinclair, who "aimed for the public's heart but hit it in the stomach" in his classic "The Jungle," here Schlosser presents a searing indictment of the "New World Order" of corporate management without being preachy or naieve. He lines up fact after fact, vignette after vignette, pushing the reader to the inevitable conclusion that the American Consumer is a wealthy pawn in a very well-calculated profit game of corporate America. I was most struck by how Schlosser begins with a relatively straightforward focus (American fast food), but by the end of his book manages to work in everything from environmentalism, marketing and advertising, the American diet, labor relations and immigration, America's "new" agriculture and so much more. But it still retains a clear focus throughout. A book like this reaffirms my faith in the power and usefulness of journalism. Compared to the world of CNN Headline "Noise" and the two-minute "in-depth" story, the Crossfires and Meet the Presses and 20/20s, this book is a legitimate use of journalistic free time. By changing minds and creating awareness, Schlosser will accomplish more in this book than a room full of chattering politicians, policy hacks and news anchors. Bravo!
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Summary: A frightening look into the franchisization of America
Review: Upton Sinclair's disturbing though populist rant in 1906 created a whirlwind push for legislation of slaughterhouse safety. At the time, powerful business interests used their political clout and political contributions to conservative politicians to stifle any real change. Teddy Roosevelt demanded that legislation be made to improve matters. However, buffered by "feel good" print advertisements, slaughterhouses and the "Beef Trust" were able to wrongly convince American consumers that the nation's meat supply was nothing to be concerned about, and few substantive controls were ever put into place. Almost a century later, little has changed. "Fast Food Nation" does an excellent job of bringing to light the inherent conflict of big business - whose chief responsibility is maximizing shareholder value - regulating it's own product safety. What I find intriguing from a sociological point of view, is how we as a supposedly intelligent society allow zealous right-wing politicians with campaign coffers full of big business money to eliminate resources from services such as OSHA, USDA, that have a direct, measurable impact on the health of our food supply and therefore our children. Alas, that's for another debate. The fact of the matter is, Schlosser does a great job on two fronts of exposing how politicians and corporations have decreased the safety of the food supply for all Americans, lowered the standard of living, blighted and homogenized our countryside with colorful plastic-signed franchises indistinguishable from those anywhere else - and perhaps most unfortunately, contributed to an increasing social stratification that is pushing the community fabric of this country further and further apart in the interest of maximizing shareholder value and negligent laissez-faire politics. Now, before you go off and dismiss my review as that of a hopelessly bleeding heart, I have to say I only gave 4 stars to this book because Mr. Schlosser, perhaps intentionally, gave virtually no air time to the accused in this book. Perhaps there's something missing here that the heads of these organizations know that we don't. Nah....
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Summary: Are you happy with your happy meal?
Review: What do french fries have in common with Calvin Klein parfume? How about your burger deal with the hydrogen sulfide polution in rural country of Colorado? Or, what is the 'official' language of the majority of the fast-food worker? If you think English, think again. Thanks to Mr. Schlosser, who opened the pandora box of the whole business of fast food, I will never look at fast foods the same way again. Every bite of that juicy chicken nugget brings with it the consequences of millions of people in this land, from illegal immigrants, to high school students, to the top of the food chain managements. While the industry had revolutionized the way we manufactured our food and made our lives easier, it also brought the dark shadow of capitalism and fed on the smaller people who are part of our family. When you look at the soft-drink dispenser machine on the aisle of your children school, think of how it can bring about the school's decision of when your children will be back to school from summer. Or the cartoon advertistments that they watch every Sunday morning on TV, how affects the welfare of individual ranchers who struggle for their lands. The fast food culture reaches deeper than that, from generations ago to many generations to come. Grab the book and read it, you will think twice the next time you drive your children from soccer practice for a drive-in to get happy meals.
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