I began reading Fast Food Nation under the impression that it would be something like a book version of the very frightening documentary Supersize Me. An analysis of just what fast food, especially fast food consumed day in, day out, day after day, year after year, can do to your body.

I was wrong. Schlosser does touch briefly on how a sustained diet of fast food can make you ill by pumping concentrated doses of fats, sugars, and highly processed, chemical-heavy junk into your system, but that’s only a very minor part of what this book covers. He begins with what seems a nostalgic trip down memory lane: a history of the ‘founding fathers’ of the fast food industry, how men like the McDonald brothers, Ray Kroc, and Carl Karcher, and others, riding on the back of the booming automobile industry, set up restaurants to cater to people on the move. Food cooked factory-style assembly line, self service, drive throughs. Uniformity, low prices, no cutlery needed.

So far so good: interesting, informative, but not scary.

It gets scary the deeper Schlosser goes into what makes the fast food industry so bad for pretty much everybody except the big wigs in the industry. One section at a time, Schlosser examines the fast food industry from different angles. The young and minimally trained employees who work behind the counters. The children to whom this food and drink is marketed ruthlessly, using a ‘cradle to grave’ approach. The franchisees. The suppliers, in particular those who supply the potatoes and process them into fries, and the slaughterhouses that process the beef and chicken that go into most burger-and-fries orders. The chemists and scientists who create the flavour cocktails that make your shake or your chicken patty or your fries taste the way they do—always.

He looks into how the fast food industry has become the face of the globalisation (or, perhaps more specifically, Americanization) of the world. And how there could be an alternative, how the same burger-and-fries meal could be clean, safe, and ethically produced.

Fast Food Nation was an eye-opener for me. Some (a very little) of what Schlosser mentioned, I already knew of. A lot was new and horrifying. The sheer lack of ethics, the callousness and greed that guide the most inhuman behaviour on the part of the fast food industry and those who supply it took my breath away. There were facts here, too, that I hadn’t even thought about (for instance, that fast food stores, often full of cash and staffed mostly by teenagers, are easy targets for robberies). The conditions in slaughterhouses and meatpackers’ factories. What cattle are really fed.

If you are a frequent customer of McDonald’s and the like, this book might help you think differently. Not just about how your burger can kill you, but also how it’s possibly killed, debilitated, or otherwise negatively impacted many people in its journey to you.

A must-read.

I feel like I have to disagree with the author here that a problem created by rampant capitalism can be controlled and/or fixed by more capitalism. This book is an indictment of both the capitalist form of economics and conservative American politics (personified mostly by the Republican Party). Fast Food is not the issue. Convenience is not the issue. The issue is a society which is entirely driven by greed, maximizing profits, and a complete disregard for Human life. The author never criticized Ronald Regan, although Regan's drive to deregulate the food and agriculture industry directly led to the death of children through tainted meat. The author seems to think that we, as consumers, can just simply demand McDonald's change, and they will - just like that - even though he spent pretty much the entire book talking about how corporations lie, manipulate facts, present false data, and otherwise do everything in their power to ensure that we are kept in the dark and know nothing about anything - and that they will sue to ensure it remains that way, as well as ensure that the right politicians stay in power.

Capitalism will not solve any of these issues.

Anyone who reads this book and still walks away a defender of the capitalist system (like the author) completely misses the point.

Written on May 29, 2012:

I am glad that I had a large Pizza and a KFC burger at the Delhi airport before I started this book. Adios fatty fries, triple-decker domes and cheesy discs, you will be missed. Ignorance is indeed bliss sometimes.

Update: June 22, 2014

I am happy to report that I have largely stuck to this. Ever since reading this I have virtually avoided this sort of trash and must have eaten a maximum of a couple of burgers and pizzas in the last two years (and that too most reluctantly, when unavoidable). Thanks, Schlosser.

So I was eating a Big Mac at a McDonald's in the town where I was going to college, while reading this book, when a woman walked over to me and asked me what I was reading. I showed her the cover of the book. She asked me what it was about. I said it was about fat people in a fat nation. She was horrified with my response. (Let me tell you that I played football in college, and I've always had a few extra pounds on me: 5'10" 240lbs.; I was strong-side linebacker.) Anyways, she went on to ask why I would be reading this book in a McDonald's. I really didn't have an answer to her question; it just happened to be the one I grabbed before walking over for a burger. I should have asked her why she was so unsettled that I was reading this book while enjoying a Big Mac and chocolate shake, but I didn't. I shrugged and said it was a good book and she went away.

That was almost ten years ago; I've modified my eating habits. I guess as you get older the old metabolism decides to stop working at full capacity. I had all but forgotten about this book until I read a review of one of my GR friends, Nancy. After I read her review, I was reminded of how much I really like the book. Yes, it is sensationalistic journalism at its finest, but it does make some good points. And even with all the scare tactics thrown in the book for good measure, the book does raise awareness to exactly what we are putting in our bodies when we decide to eat fast food, and how the animals are treated before being slaughtered for our consumption.

(On a side note, there happens to be a section about meatpacking plants, and the one in the town I grew up in is mentioned by name. Hurrah Midwest!!)

Read the book. But make sure that you know just what exactly is be spotlighted. Like any piece of investigative journalism, the reader has a responsibility to think about the facts after being exposed to them.

Man, I'm kinda hungry.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A terrific non-fiction book about the overwhelming effect fast food has on our daily lives, including the national diet. Schlosser's impeccable research offers the reader insight into this startling phenomenon of corruption, deceit, and power.

It turns out a handful of companies control much more than fast food in the US...they are also responsible for drafting legislation, influencing industry oversight, and manipulating mass communication outlets to maximize gains.

The book, however, does not read like a conspiracy theory due to the detailed research, drawing greatly from primary sources.

Somewhat outdated, so some of the statistics and practices may be wrong, but it is still a fascinating read on account of what is described in terms of human behavior.

This book was sooo tasty I might buy another

3.5. To be completely honest, the first maybe 1/3 of this book was kind of boring and I was very close to simply quitting. I’m glad I persevered. Though this book is more than 20 years old, the horrible truths it exposes in the fast food and industrial agriculture settings are if anything even more relevant now. Not an easy read, but an important one.

Look what they've done to my cow, lord
Look what they've done to my cow.
They ground him up, feces and all Then they fed him to us all
Look what they've done to my cow.

Look what they've done to our souls, lord
Look what they've done to our souls
We're getting fat, we're getting sick Can't even pick up a stick
Look what they've done to our souls

If I could, I'd leave this earth
Go to a planet where the food is good
But I'm stuck here on this greedy earth
Look what they've done to my cow
Look what they've done to our souls.

Wowwwww.

By the time you finish reading this book, you will strongly consider becoming either a vegan or a hard-core local eater, or both. I took a tiny bit of comfort in knowing that I eat vegan about half the days in the year; still, the book really scared me. It's hard, factual journalism with a huge section of footnotes in the back. As much as I'd love to dispute some of Schlosser's claims, I look around me and see evidence to support what he says about the amount of cheap food we eat and what it's doing to us.

Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a book that vilifies fast food. Chains like In-N-Out Burger are extolled for using fresh, safe meat and peeling their own potatoes. Nor does it vilify carnivores. The gist of the book is that, in our relentless demand for a cheaper, more efficient system, we have neglected the human element of each phase of food preparation, from farm to plate. Something has gone horribly wrong.

The author avoids what could be a smug, glib attitude in favor of an urgent, prodding tone: it is clear he believes we are in a crisis, and he is probably right. It's hard to go back to your favorite restaurant and order a hamburger after reading "What's in the Meat," or to complain about work after finishing "The Most Dangerous Job." Serious stuff.

I do think Schlosser comes down way too hard on conservatives in the book, and he admits in the epilogue that to be fair, many liberals are guilty of the same sins. For instance, the Clinton family has close ties to the poultry industry in much the same was as the Bush family does to the beef industry (which is the primary subject of his research.)

Finally, I applaud his conclusion, which is a very pragmatist (and even capitalist) approach: in a free market, we vote in dollars spent. If, through our purchases, we demand safer meat, fresher produce, and fair pay for food service industry workers, we will get what we want. It's a simple matter of doing research before we buy, of supporting small farms who do things the old, slow, respectful way.

Well, I'd say "enjoy" . . . but I read it too! I gave it three stars only because I couldn't justify saying I "loved it" when it consistently made me want to skip dinner. But I'm glad I read it. You should read it too.

Kyrie eleison!

Wow, so much information! I found this very readable yet also very disturbing - which is exactly what I believe Eric Schlosser meant to do. This was first published in 2001. The edition I read was published in 2002 and included a new afterword where Schlosser discussed some of the feedback and results from his book. I would love to read an edition updated to 2010. I'm sure much of what he discussed has changed in that amount of time.

My favorite part of the book was his section on the flavors, colors and smells of processed food provided by "natural flavor," "artificial flavor," and color additives. That section alone was worth reading the entire book - although it made me very suspicious of all sorts of food I eat and not just fast food! Schlosser says: "For the past 20 years, food processors have tried hard to use only "natural flavors" in their products. According to the FDA, these must be derived entirely from natural sources--from herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, yeast, bark, roots, etc. Consumers prefer to see natural flavors on a label, out of a belief that they are healthier. The distinction between artifical and natural flavors can be somewhat arbitrary and absurd, based more on how the flavor has been made than on what it actually contains."

Just a few other things I found interesting and/or disturbing:

"The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross."

"America's fast food restaurants are now more attractive to armed robbers than convenience stores, gas stations, or banks. Other retail businesses increasingly rely upon credit card transactions, but fast food restaurants still do almost all of their business in cash."

"For years, some of the most questionable ground beef in the United States was purchased by the USDA--and then distributed to school cafeterias throughout the country."

"Having played a central role in the creation of a meatpacking system that can spread bacterial contamination far and wide, the fast food chains are now able to avoid many of the worst consequences....The enormous buying power of the fast food giants has given them access to some of the cleanest ground beef. The meatpacking industry is now willing to perform the sort of rigorous testing for fast food chains that it refuses to do for the general public. Anyone who brings raw ground beef into his or her kitchen today must regard it as a potential biohazard..."

I'm sure I won't stop eating fast food altogether, but this book will certainly make me think about it first!

An interesting take on how evil “big corporate food is”. I assume in America, because I have heard of so many that have had the exact opposite happen to them in Canada.

People who have had the “Fast food” joint endure they were well cared fir after an accident. I have dealt with 100’s of claims against insurance companies (and workers comp) that deny the workers claims and often I am paid by the employers.