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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
 
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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal [Hardcover]

Eric Schlosser (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (392 customer reviews)
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On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat.

Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

Schlosser's incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining our values and our economy. The first part of the book details the postwar ascendance of fast food from Southern California, assessing the impact on people in the West in general. The second half looks at the product itself: where it is manufactured (in a handful of enormous factories), what goes into it (chemicals, feces) and who is responsible (monopolistic corporate executives). In harrowing detail, the book explains the process of beef slaughter and confirms almost every urban myth about what in fact "lurks between those sesame seed buns." Given the estimate that the typical American eats three hamburgers and four orders of french fries each week, and one in eight will work for McDonald's in the course of their lives, few are exempt from the insidious impact of fast food. Throughout, Schlosser fires these and a dozen other hair-raising statistical bullets into the heart of the matter. While cataloguing assorted evils with the tenacity and sharp eye of the best investigative journalist, he uncovers a cynical, dismissive attitude to food safety in the fast food industry and widespread circumvention of the government's efforts at regulation enacted after Upton Sinclair's similarly scathing novel exposed the meat-packing industry 100 years ago. By systematically dismantling the industry's various aspects, Schlosser establishes a seminal argument for true wrongs at the core of modern America. (Jan.) Forecast: This book will find a healthy, young audience; it's notable that the Rolling Stone article on which this book was based generated more reader mail than any other piece the magazine ran in the 1990s.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews

392 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (392 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars More than a mouthful..., Dec 8 2002
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This review is from: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Hardcover)
I was astonished at how little the USDA cares about food quality and how much it cares about profit. It is time to take a stand, one person at a time, and reject E-coli burgers and poop fries!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly Refreshing, Nov 19 2002
By 
1978J "1978J" (Cleveland Hts., OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Hardcover)
There are tons of things that we tend to take for granted around us. Few should concern us as much as the details that surround the food we may be eating every day.

Eric Schlosser did an incredible job of collecting tons of dirt on the fast food industry. This book takes its readers of a shocking and endlessly informative journey through a vast and often surprisingly strange world. Filled with historical references, privileged inside information, and endless statistics, Schlosser manages to satisfy the mind on many different levels.

Written in true muckraking fashion: blunt, informative and critical.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book that informs and stimulates thought.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Food Nation Dropout, April 3 2001
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This review is from: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Hardcover)
When I was in junior high school, I read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. At that time I was developing my own ideas about diet and what I should (and should not) be eating. Sinclair's book detailing the failings of the processed meat industry at the turn of the century caused me to turn towards a diet based more on whole foods, and less on processed foods.

I had thought, until now, that the American processed food industry had much improved since the time of Sinclair's writing. However, upon reading Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation" I realize that I have been duped. I am no vegetarian, although I respect those who are. I don't belong to any organized anti-business, anti-corporate or pro-environment group. But I am a consumer, who is very concerned about feeding her family healthy and safe foods. I had long ago given up frequenting fast food restaurants on a regular basis, but I thought that an occasional visit was still okay.

What I found from reading Mr. Schlosser's book is that what we consumers had thought was safe, inexpensive "convenience" food is in fact oftentimes high-risk food that comes to us at great cost in terms of our health, the environment, and even our political, social and economic structures.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned about not only what we and our families consume, but also what happens to those people who produce, process and serve our food and what happens within the larger environmental and economic arena where this consumption takes place.

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