Rating: 
Summary: Too much for one book!
Review: This is a most ambitious book. The author tries to cover every conceivable downside of the fast food industry. He touches briefly on many things, leaving the reader with the feeling that no aspect has gotten its due. I would like to have read less about injuries of cleaning crews in meat packing plants and more about fast food employees hurt on the job and merciless toy marketing. Still, it's an eye-opening read.
Rating: 
Summary: Want to know what is REALLY in that hamburger?
Review: This book just opened the door to a variety of concepts about the fast food industry. There is an old saying "We are what we eat!" If what we learn here is any example of "what we are," we are definitely in trouble. It is no wonder our society is filled with heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, etc. If you are a "fast food junkie" this book may change your diet forever! We all know how important fruits and veggies are to our diet and the importance of eating healthy. However, our fast-paced lifestyle, and the fact most of us are exhausted after a long day at work or only have time for lunch-on-the-run, can result in a hasty trip through the drive-through for a quick meal. If you REALLY knew what was in some of that "quick fix food", where it's been and where it came from, fruit and veggies would suddenly taste better than double swirl chocolate-raspberry cheesecake! Comparing fast food to healthy food is like comparing grungy swamp water to clear spring water. We all know that eating healthy is important to foster health, energy and longevity, but once you read this book, that double burger will never taste the same again. You will probably have a better understanding of why the burger looked so appealing BEFORE you ate it, and tasted like garbage AFTER you ate it! This is terrific book! From an inside view, you will learn basically everything you wanted to know about the fast food industy...and a few things you would rather not know, especially if you have just finished lunch!
Rating:
Summary: It's time to wake up
Review: By far the most important book to hit the bookshelves in a long time. Written in a style that is both accessable and intelligent, "Fast Food Nation" will most definitly make you re-think what you put in your mouth. Eric Schlosser weaves the stories of the underpaid, under-educated, and mostly immigrant meat packing workers, with the underpaid and young restaurant workers, and the overzealous sickeningly wealthy proprietors of all this junk we so happily chomp down on in alarming amounts. Myself, a lover of meat, found my heart wrenching at the squalid living conditions and painfully tragic lives of the cattle and chickens which will become hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. Especially the story of one cow that somehow knew what he was about to face. My stomach churned at the process as to which these animals are turned from living things into mounds of meat. I was also touched by the lives of the farmers who are quickly being run off their property or risk becoming serfs in a "Corporate Farm" style of farming. I was also concerned with the way fast food chains are encroaching upon foreign nations eroding their sense of individualism. Invading even India where the cow is sacred! Schlosser includes some very frightening quotes in this section, including one very sad and discouraging remark by a Japanese franchisee. He also includes some interesting stories of how many people in these nations are turning against these chains, or being taken to court by them. This is a novel that needs to be read, not just for curiosity, but for your well-being. It is the perfect example of the death of the middle class, and the horrifying reality of homogenization. A book that shows just how oblivious we can all be. How an industry bent on profit strips away our identity simply by giving us what want.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: One of the best books I've read in a long time. Recommending to all. More than just about food. About how large amoral corporations influence laws and lawmakers, exploit their employees, screw their customers, and cynically exploit popular images and symbols of "freedom" and "the American Way." Truly first rate. Couldn't put it down. Schlosser has performed a great service and told a compelling story.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the money and very informative
Review: This easy to read book brought home my lurking suspicion that there is something vey, very wrong with the takeover of the American landscape by endless fast food and retail chains. The book offers excellent detail about the history of fast food, the effects of fast food work on poor teenagers in the US, as well as the shocking conditions of the meat packing industry in this country. The author is not as hard hitting as I would have hoped in judging these corporations, but it did offer enough information for me to be able to make my own judgements and analyses. Do yourself a favor and read this book before you eat another burger or let your kids eat another school lunch.
Rating:
Summary: Please, Just Read This Book
Review: Schlosser does a magnificent job of describing how the fast food industry is somehow both a fundemental cause as well as a result of the pathetic money-is-God, keep-up-with-the neighbors society we are building. Great section on advertising to children, which should be illegal. He does a great job of weaving in some real scary elements of American society, such as sprawl. Would have liked him to talk a little about true-cost economics, but that would have been too good to be true.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: This is quite simply an outstanding book. It should be required reading for all parents. With a child on the way I'll be thinking long and hard about the food choices I make for my child. Schlosser does an excellent job of reminding us that food choices are our own choices, there is nothing inevitable about feeding ourselves junk. We can, and we must, change our eating habits and after reading "Fast Food Nation" you'll feel compelled to make changes.
Rating:
Summary: Thank goodness I'm a vegetarian!
Review: This book is well-researched and so brilliantly written, I could not put it down. I had simply never realized what a chokehold the fast food industry has on the US and global economies. As an ethical vegetarian, I forego meat because of the animal cruelty associated with the meat-packing industry. But this book opened my eyes to the wretched treatment that *humans* receive every day in slaughterhouses, as well as the risk that food-borne pathogens pose to millions of fast-food aficionados every single day. Colorado Springs was also the perfect city to profile in depth. I've only lived here for 6 years, but even in that short time I've seen enough open space destroyed to make way for McMansion developments -- along with the obligatory fast food joints -- to know that a nation once committed to rugged individualism is now selling out to the highest corporate bidder. And if kids (and adults!) are poisoned and immigrants are exploited in the process, too bad. Profit is king, and nothing else matters. I've recommended this book to almost everyone I know. It WILL make you think twice next time you get a craving for fast food (or are just too busy or lazy to go elsewhere), and I genuinely hope it will also lead people to THINK about what they're putting into their bodies, and make better choices as a result.
Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE!!!!
Review: I started to read this book and could not put it down! I am urging every person that I care about to read this book immediately, and I urge you to do the same. Not only does our health and life span depend upon it but so does the fate of our country as we know it! The author did an incredible job researching and writing this book. I guarantee your jaw will be dropped in utter shock the entire time you read this. You will also find yourself saying "Oh my God!", repeatedly throughout this fantastic book. I eagerly await Eric Schlosser's next book!
Rating:
Summary: ape impressions
Review: An excellent book for someone like myself who works with teens and supervises the diet of four of my own children who are all under the age of 8. It is the modern day version of Sinclair's "The Jungle", although at times I wished the author did not spend so much time on side issues (such as labor issues at meatpacking plants) that only indirectly pertain to the fast food industry. I enjoyed learning about these periferial issues, but I was hungering (no pun intended) for more meat (no pun intended) related to the ill effects of fast food on society.
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