"As God as my witness, I shall never eat another hamburger as long as I shall live!" That's what I said after reading this book. Then the phone rang. It was my friend who wanted to go grab a quick bite at Wendy's. I had a cheeseburger. I never looked back baby!
It's not that this book paints the fast food industry in a wicked horrible light. It doesn't become a witch hunt, this isn't "Hey, you know, Elie Wiesel is right, Nazi's are real sons of bitches!" (which is what I expect most people think after reading Night. I've never read it myself... I just expect people think that after reading said book... though to be honest, most people probably think that already, unless you're Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), but it's not all puppys and flowers either. Really, it's rich old white men looking out for themselves (and who else are they going to look out for?)
It's been a few years since I've read the book, so I could be wrong about this, but I'm going to say this book isn't even as harsh on the fast food industry as Supersize Me (A film which I refuse to see, because: Duh! Eat nothing but fast food for a month and you're going to get sick? Who was shocked by this movie? "No, but you don't get it... it's how sick he was, and how fast." That's usually the opposing argument I get. I still say "Duh!" I'm going to make a movie where I shoot up heroin three times a day for a month, or smoke seven packs of cigarettes a day for a month, or hit myself in the head with a hammer five times a day for a month, and see what happens. I really want people to say, "Man, I knew that hitting yourself in the head with a hammer was dangerous, but who knew how dangerous it could be. I mean he was brain damaged by the second day! I'm never hitting myself in the head with a hammer again!" But I digress, this isn't about film... this is about books).
It's a pretty good book for the history lesson on how fast food got started, and how the industry has done a good job screwing everyone from farmers, to fat kids, to illegal migrant workers, to small business owners, to who knows who else. And just when you start to think, "Man, screw fast food..." the author himself says he still eats fast food... then you think, "I sure do like them McDonalds fries." Then you hear about the newest Halo 3 tie in at Burger King, where not only will your fries be wrapped in a Halo 3 themed package, but your soda will come in a Halo 3 cup!?!?"
So what, so what if the meat might be tainted with the fingers of an illegal, or so what if the farmer who sold the slaughtered cow can barely aford new boots, dammit, I want it my way, and I want it my way now!
Plus there is this one part of the book that talks about how some fast food companies will donate money to schools in exchange for advertising space or a spot in the cafeteria... and let's be honest, what would you rather have fat smart kids, or fat dumb kids? (Smart thin kids isn't an option- this is public school we're talking about here).
It's a light romp through the dark underbelly of the fast food world. It'll learn you but good, and it certainly gave me pause, right before I went out and got a #4 supersized with a Dr. Pepper (cause Dr. Pepper rulz).

I thought that this book was going to be like Super-size Me only in book form. Not that the author would eat McDonalds everyday but that he would talk mostly about the unhealthiness of fast food.

I was wrong.

The author barely touches the "fast food is full of fat and fattiness" deal. He mainly talks about the greed, power, and evilness of fast food companies. I would read this book in the mornings as i drank my coffee and I would get so mad at how only a few people can make so many people miserable. I would cry at the working conditions of the meat industry (and trust me, i'm not crying over the cows. it's the workers that have it so bad that i just want to take them all away from that horrible job and give them all sacks of money and comfortable chairs to sit on.)

He discusses the ranchers, the feedlots, the slaughter houses, and the packaging companies. He talks about the potato farms. He talks about minimum wage. He talks about how our government is supposed to regulate and keep us safe from unhealthy meat and that it not only doesn't do that, but CAN'T do that, legally. The USDA cannot recall meat that is unhealthy. It has no rights to do that. The meat companies can voluntarily recall meat, but they can't be forced to, even if the meat is infected with epidemic proportions of e. coli 0157:H7, which, as far as i can tell, is like ebola, it turns your organs into mush.

The meat industry is so corrupt and has bought so many republican congressmen that it has no watchdogs, no police. OSHA is not allowed to investigate a factory unless the injury records show above the national average. The meat companies hire doctors to lie about the severity of injuries and, and, and they keep two injury logs. the real one and the one they turn in to OSHA. This is illegal. And when the companies are caught they have to pay a piddly fine.
The FDA doesn't care about the food you eat. They only care about prescription drugs.
The USDA is not allowed to police the thing it was set up to police. (This is not new and it's also the reason i don't drink milk.) The author also says that the government will not change any of this. That the only way to make some change is if McDonalds will make the change. So if enough people complain and make bad press about McDonalds using nasty beef instead of clean, grass-fed cows...nothing will change.

He discusses the franchise/franchisee relationships.

He discusses the hisory of fast food and the american west. It's amazing.

This book was so interesting. If I were to become a vegetarian it would not be because I had a problem with the way cows are treated. Nay, it would be because of the treatment of humans.

When it comes to wordplay, Eric Schlosser, author of the bestseller Fast Food Nation, is a gourmet chef. But on closer inspection, the arguments he cooks up result in a serious case of intellectual indigestion.

Schlosser, a talented writer and even better self-promoter, came to fame with the 2001 publication of the book. With the help of the media, which hyped the book without challenging Schlosser's "facts," Fast Food Nation made The New York Times bestseller list. Many publications put it on year-end lists of the "best books of 2001" -- resulting in renewed interest.

Schlosser was smart enough to know that a study of the intricacies of the "fast food" industry would not appeal to most book-buyers. So instead of presenting an objective investigation of this major industry, or giving a fair shake to companies like McDonald's (which offers one in 15 Americans entry into the workforce), Schlosser used "fast food" as the basis for a rhetorical assault on capitalism.

"Greed" is the ingredient that gives Fast Food Nation its flavor. Schlosser seems utterly shocked that these businesses exist... in order to make money! And to rage against business, Schlosser had no problem in engaging in what The Wall Street Journal called "cavalier manipulation of data."

Fast Food Nation is piled high with anecdotes and served with a heaping helping of skewed data. It's all intended to support Schlosser's case that "fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society" in harmful ways. It's not about the food itself; Schlosser himself says fast food tastes "pretty good" and that "the odds are low that eating a burger is going to make you sick." Instead, it's a diatribe against the very concept of making a profit by creating a product that consumers enjoy.
Schlosser says he doesn't eat "ground beef anymore," but not because he's "worried about getting sick from it; I'm pissed off at the corporate greed." He blasts McDonald's for reaping in "17 cents in pure profit" on every large Coke it sells, assuming that the sort of people who buy his book (at a profit to the author) will be disgusted by the notion of making money.

But he's strangely silent on the benefits to consumers of a hamburger that costs only a dollar -- except to use this, too, to attack the industry. Schlosser claims that "increasing the federal minimum wage by a dollar would [only] add about two cents to the cost of a [99-cent] fast food hamburger," ignoring a nearly endless supply of available economic data to the contrary generated by university economists including winners of the Nobel Prize in economics.

Instead, Schlosser uses one report from the Department of Agriculture to make his case -- and inappropriately at that. His two cents "evidence" comes from a study of labor costs and price hikes for the sale of prepared food and drinks in general, not just the fast food industry. More importantly, 75 percent of the employees studied were not even in the minimum wage range.

Schlosser is too savvy a polemicist to let something as small as facts stand in the way of a good rant. Counting every minor scratch and bump, Schlosser claims that meatpacking is "the most dangerous job in the United States." The government's Bureau of Labor Statistics disagrees. On its ranking of truly dangerous industries -- those with the most "injury and illness cases involving days away from work" -- meatpacking doesn't even make the top 25.
But bad data and a lack of logic do not stop Schlosser from claiming the worst about the fast food industry. He tries to have it both ways on overtime hours, favorably noting that the Depression-era Fair Labor Standards Act placed limitations on mandatory overtime.

Then, on the very next page, Schlosser complains "managers try to make sure that each worker is employed less than forty hours a week, thereby avoiding any overtime payments." In fact, labor unions support the very practices Schlosser condemns, in part because they keep workers from being overburdened, and also because they encourage the creation of more entry-level jobs.

This is not the only place where, despite Schlosser's progressive politics, he seems almost reactionary. Schlosser notes that "inside job" robberies at fast food restaurants occur because those they employ -- the young, poor, and minorities -- are also responsible for much of the nation's violent crime. Is he suggesting these at-risk individuals should not be given jobs and a chance?

Decidedly selective in his presentation of data, Schlosser realizes that a cavalcade of deceptions is necessary to leave the reader with his funhouse-mirror image of the fast food industry, where fat-cat executives in fancy suits get rich while entry-level restaurant workers struggle to get by.

These are just a few selections from Fast Food Nation's menu of mistruths. Schlosser, himself the wealthy son of a former NBC president, knows exactly what he is doing: Crafting a politically motivated weapon to fire against restaurants that play such a vital role in helping entry-level and at-risk Americans enter the workforce.
Professional rabble-rousers like Schlosser pretend to care about those poorer than them -- just like Schlosser pretends to care about the facts. But in reality, these are just the means to an end: The glorification of political dogma at the expense of truth. And that is the most unappetizing morsel of them all.

I found the intersection of social/economic/agricultural/political history so interesting. I don't think the author is really arguing that we only eat organic, pasture-raised beef so much as arguing for informed, thoughtful consumers and the need to check corporate greed (for instance, being willing to implement more safety measures in slaughterhouses that would protect both workers and consumers). He never calls out Democrat politicians, but I'm sure plenty of Democrats have been swayed by corporate lobbying, too. His book would have been better if he'd simply called them "Congressman" instead of always identifying the political party.

I'm never eating fast food again. Not that I eat much of it anyway, since I try to eat mostly plant-based. But sometimes when you're super busy and tired, it's easy to hit that drive through.

Never. Again.

This book was horrifying and fascinating. Factory farming, the speed of the production line, the illiteracy and desperation of the workers who are quite often illegal immigrants (which the industrial meatpackers apparently damned well know), the literal shit that gets mixed into the meat and creates a ripe environment for e-coli -- just, no. Not eating that shit (har-har) again.

I recommend reading this book, or watching the movie made from it, so you know what goes into your food and how it's processed. All of it, not just meat. If you still want to eat it, that's your choice. Mine is that I'm done. It's grass-fed and organic for me, if I eat meat at all. I mostly don't anymore, but when I do, I'm making sure it's not factory-farmed and processed. Bleh.

Một cuốn sách rất hay lột trần bản chất của ngày công nghiệp đồ ăn nhanh, đặc biệt tác giả nhắm đến là McDonald. Từ lịch sử hình thành đến khi tập đoàn này vươn ra toàn cầu.
Rất nhiều góc khuất trong hoạt động kinh doanh của tập đoàn này được tác giả đề cập tới như:
- Các cửa hàng của McDonald bị tấn công, cướp tiền nhiều hơn cả ngân hàng và hung thủ phần lớn là nhân viên cũ bất mãn với chính sách của công ty
- Đồ ăn ở các cửa hàng ăn nhanh được sản xuất theo kiểu "dây chuyền lắp ghép" khiến cho chi phí giảm đi, trình độ lao động không cần cao (phần đa là học sinh, sinh viên, người lao động nhập cư trái phép) là đem lại lợi nhuận kếch sù cho tập đoàn.
- Dây chuyền giết mổ bò, gà, lợn,... của McDonald cực nguy hiểm khiến công nhân có thể mất tay chân, mất đầu hay chết cực dễ dàng không khác gia súc gia cầm. Đây có lẽ là nơi làm việc nguy hiểm nhất trên TG.
- Những thứ có trong thịt của McDonald nói riêng và các sản phẩm thức ăn nhanh khác có thể khiến khách hàng nôn mửa. Phân bò, lợn, người,... có trong bồn rửa, trong khoai tây chiên của cửa hàng còn nhiều hơn trong bồn cầu. Công nhân nhà máy bị đứt tay, có người rơi vào thùng dầu chiên mà chết nhưng vẫn được hoà lẫn vào sản phẩm và đem bán.
- McDonald được coi là biểu tượng của lối sống Mỹ ở nhiều quốc gia, người Nhật từng tin nếu ăn McDonald nhiều thì con cháu họ sau này sẽ cao hơn và có màu tóc vàng.
- Bệnh bò điên xuất hiện do các công ty nuôi bò bán cho các tập đoàn sản xuất đồ ăn nhanh cho bò ăn xác động vật như lợn, gà chết. Nên nhớ bò là động vật ăn cỏ, không phải ăn thịt.

I grew up in Greeley, CO. It was interesting to read about how your hometown is a home base for slaughterhouses. At night the entire town smells bad. I could relate to this book because I lived in Greeley and I can relate to this book because I am not fond of fast food.

The book talks about the start of burger joints and how they grew to be such an influence in today's society. The author discusses the life of workers and the working conditions in the meat packing plants. This interests me as I believe all workers of any vocation should be entitled to a safe and healthy working environment.

I also learned about In and Out burger joint. I have never seen In and Out Burger here in Colorado. I was very impressed. In and Out Burger purchases meat from local farmers. They also pay their employees better than the popular burger joint.

I enjoyed taking the tour with the author into the food industry's practices. I knew a lot about the meat industry before reading this book and I learned even more about what constitutes "natural flavors." The book made me want to read "The Jungle" by Sinclair.

The book was informative. I might have a biased reason for liking this book as it was validation to why I didn't eat meat anyway. I live in Boulder County now so what can I say? Damn Hippies.

"Non à MacMerde"

I’ve always indignantly asked whoever cared to listen how come America, the all powerful America, that banished smoking and prohibited alcohol in the name of public health, does not seem to see the close relationship between obesity (the second cause of mortality in the USA) and fast food and lets fast food industry flourish.

I’d already guessed the reason, but after reading Schlosser’s book I know for sure. And so will you, if you’re interested in the subject, for there is a lot of accurate information of how the fast food chains and the meat industry gained their power and controlled the market until they became a symbol of modern American civilization, to be envied and followed by other nations:

Simply eating at a McDonald's in Beijing seems to elevate a person's social status. The idea that you are what you eat has been enthusiastically promoted for years by Den Fujita, the eccentric billionaire who brought McDonald's to Japan three decades ago. "If we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years," Fujita once promised his countrymen, "we will become taller, our skin will become white, and our hair will be blonde."

Like the huge epidemics in the past, fast food chains are continually spreading, killing people all around the world, for obesity is an illness as fatal as any other incurable disease:

In China, the proportion of overweight teenagers has roughly tripled in the past decade. In Japan, eating hamburgers and French fries has not made people any blonder, though it has made them fatter. Overweight people were once a rarity in Japan.

Moreover, often fast food is contaminated with E-coli or Salmonella, since the process of meat preparation resembles nowadays to a factory assembly line where speed is more important than hygiene. I never liked hamburgers, but after reading what I after learnt to be probably the most quoted line in the book…

There is shit in the meat

…nobody will ever convince me to taste one again.

There are many disturbing facts in “Fast Food Nation”, like improper conditions of working in slaughterhouses and meatpacking companies, the savage exploitation of illegal immigrants and / or almost illiterate workers, the pressure of politicians who create or block laws to defend their own interest in the industry, the alarming lack of protection of children’s health by not only permitting but even encouraging the entry of fast food in schools’ cafeterias whilst heavily advertising it in front of them, the rubbish cattle and poultry eat (like dead pigs and dead horses), the rubbish in the ground meat (which brings “far more fecal bacteria in the average American kitchen sink than on the average American toilet seat”), etc.

All that should warn us of the danger not only of the consequences of bad eating but also of carelessly ignoring the fast food influence on our society, from health to economics, politics and even aesthetics. Are we truly intended to be remembered, for generations to come, as that dark age of fat people who never cared what they put in their mouth? Wake up, people, says Eric Schlosser all along his disquieting study, speak up, don’t let yourself slaughtered on the table of big profit and low esteem of the huge companies. You have the power to stop it, do it before it is too late:

Pull open the glass door, feel the rush of cool air, walk inside, get in line, and look around you, look at the kids working in the kitchen, at the customers in their seats, at the ads for the latest toys, study the backlit color photographs above the counter, think about where the food came from, about how and where it was made, about what is set in motion by every single fast food purchase, the ripple effect near and far, think about it. Then place your order. Or turn and walk out the door. It's not too late. Even in this fast food nation, you can still have it your way.

An eye opener. I'll never look at a fast food restaurant the same way again.

Just finished Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Love your burger?, big fries?, large coke? all served in 2 minutes and tasting the same world over? How did it all happen? Well Eric Schlosser lays it all out starting with the birth of fast food, the first drive thru, and the first McDonalds. And the industry evolved to serve it to us. You'll feel what it's like at the giant meatpacking lines, the huge potato factories, and with the soft drink syrup sellers. Henry Ford started the assembly line and the fast food industry applied it to food with teenagers manning the stations with low wages, no benefits, and E. coli lurking everywhere. Hold on to your sesame seed buns for a ride through the darkest side of our fast food world. The typical American eats 3 hamburgers a week? - you won't after listening to this book.

"Are you eating? Don't start reading this book. The inside track on all things fast food from the marketing tricks to get kids hooked on the food (toys in happy meals), all of the way through to some of the REAL nasties. Minute changes between rat poison and flavouring for strawberry thickshakes, cow carcasses not properly cleaned before being shipped off to be processed - I told you not to eat!! See the power these major companies have to squeeze every dollar out of producers, read about the humble beginnings and how corporate greed drove the market. And what is the most complained about fast food chain in the whole of the U.S.A?? Hint - it's not McDonalds or KFC - you'll be surprised. An amazing book for of facts and horror stories, w
ell worth a read."

Fast Food Nation is a fascinating and very readable book. In some ways it reminds me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. It's not only a critique of fast food, the chemicals we are ingesting and the health problems we are facing, it is also critical of a system that allows exploitation of young, old and immigrant workers, and of the suburban sprawl that resulted from the eradication of efficient and environmentally friendly public transportation by the auto industry. The author focuses his criticism on the states of California and Colorado when in reality the same strip malls with the same chain stores and miles of fast-food clusters and suburban sprawl exist all over the US.

I have always been particular about what I eat and rarely visit fast-food restaurants, so this book has not changed my eating habits drastically. It has, however, made me a wiser consumer.