I read this for school and it was actually really interesting!! I don't think I'm gonna ever eat fast food again, though....

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.

Some pretty shocking information. Reading about the cattle production reminded me too much of "The Jungle" It was very gross :(

Eye opening

Wow... it has taken me months to get through this book. Up until the last 2 chapters, I couldn’t go more than a couple of sub chapters at a time because I just got so mad and so heartbroken at the eye opening and really horrific details that the author goes into.

Every time I opened my Kindle, I had to take stock of how I was feeling that day, if I could handle more information that would make me want to tear my hair out or break my already fragile heart. And most days, I opted to skip Fast Food Nation because I just couldn’t handle it.

But I soldiered on. I realised we just needed to face the ugly truth and being ignorant is NOT bliss. It does more harm than any good. So about once a week, I steel my nerves and read maybe 5 to 10 pages and quit before I do irreparable damage to my nerves and my heart.

I do have to commend the author for a thorough investigation into this entire segment of business. While I knew it wasn’t healthy to eat, I did not know quite the extent of it. Nor did I realise just how much it hurt those who worked in the industry.

Sure, life is money and money is business. But, I’m increasingly cognisant of the fact that we can still make money while having a conscience and being fair towards others. This whole scarcity mentality is NOT real and we should rise above this self-centredness we’re all guilty of. Nobody has to lose for you to win. We can all win together.

Regardless, sticking to the topic at hand, this book was truly an eye opener and should be read by everyone! Even if you don’t agree with the book. Just read it. Doesn’t hurt to have a different perspective, k.

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

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.

Of all the books that made me physically ill to read and filled me with a sense of utter and complete hopelessness, exacerbating my cynicism, despair, and suicidal tendencies, this was among the very best. Oh it's just so good, you'll want to slash your wrists. Or, depending on your personality and how you direct your rage, throw a brick through the window of the nearest McDonalds. Then climb through the broken window, retrieve the brick, and hurl it through an adjacent window. And then, when you run out of windows and realize your first instinct was a pretty good one, grab some of the broken glass and just go ahead and slash your wrists anyway. Because, really: what's the fucking point? If we live in a society in which our very sustenance is based on this horrific shit, why bother?

It's hard to fathom the mentality of people who live lives of hedonistic luxury at the top of the enormous mountain of greasy deep-fried suffering they cause. I'm not even talking about the animals, who obviously fare far worse than the slaughterhouse workers themselves. But those workers, as Schlosser illustrates with enough detail to make Uptain Sinclair ask him to maybe tone it down a little, are three times more likely to die on the job than a police officer, and many many times more likely to have a limb inadvertently turned into the precursor for some unsuspecting kid's happy meal. How do people sleep at night knowing their wealth is built upon such textbook examples of man's inhumanity to man, let alone his inhumanity (or inbovinity) to cow?

Earth's human headcount recently crossed the 7 billion mark, and this exploding population is a primary incentive for the wholesale mechanization of our food machine, the ruthless efficiency of production, discarding any and all concerns but quantity and profit. So really, go ahead and read this, and maybe lay off the Prozac first, just to see if you can handle it without reaching for the relief offered by that jagged piece of glass. If not, well, 6,999,999,999 to go.

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.

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 was surprised at how balanced this was! I'd heard about it and expected a start-to-finish diatribe against the fast food nation industry from top to bottom, but that wasn't the case. Schlosser's approach is more soft-touch than ham-fist, which is good, because I prefer my medicine to go down easy, not taste like acid.

This book had lots of great information and provided some "food for thought," but it's definitely dated. When the author talks about the Internet, for instance, he brings to mind the days when Alta Vista was the search engine of choice, and YouTube was years away from becoming a reality. Surely much has changed with the foods we consume, both good changes and bad.

The author's personal and political biases are on full display throughout the book, and I found this distracting. This was perhaps Fast Food Nation's greatest flaw.

not just a look at how the food is unhealthy, but also an anti-capitalist analysis of everything wrong with America that allowed such an exploitative to crop up. The mistreatment of minimum-wage workers, disappearing small farms, dangerous slaughterhouse jobs, the lack of power given to organizations like OSHA and the USDA, and private companies lobbying congress are all covered and it made me genuinely mad, both for the general state of things and knowing that this book was published like 20 years ago and nothing is better