What I thought of the book

Hello! 

Today, I will introduce you to the last two chapters of my food-related book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser and what I thought of the book. 

Chapter 9 “What’s In The Meat”: In this chapter, Schlosser explores the horrors of E Coli and compares it with AIDS. There are some similarities between AIDS and E Coli such as, they can be spread to healthy individuals by infected individuals. For example, the way cattle are raised, slaughtered, and processed provides an ideal setting for E Coli to spread. E Coli does not kill as many people as AIDS and it is not fraught with the same political or social history as AIDS. 

Schlosser also talks about the legislation and agendas of the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations relating to the beef industry. And illustrates how financial contributions affect legislation. The meatpacking and fast-food industries are able to make large financial contributions to the Republican Party because of their size and strength in the American economy.

What is E Coli?
Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli) are bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals. E. coli are a large and diverse group of bacteria. Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can make you sick causing diarrhea, urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia, and other illnesses.

Chapter 10 “Global Realization”: This chapter opens with a discussion of Plauen, Germany, and its history. Then, Schlosser places the United States in a global context and he calls attention to the role of the consumer. 

Fast food is a chief American export, thus Schlosser has focused on specific people in specific locations (Colorado Springs, Greeley, etc.). In considering the effect fast food has had abroad, Schlosser emphasizes the significance of his research. Not only is fast food harmful to Americans, but it is also
creating a worldwide epidemic. Moreover, foreigners frequently associate fast food with American culture and want to take part in the experience (or protest the experience) because of what the United States represents to them. 

In the epilogue, Schlosser makes the powerful statement that 

“There is nothing inevitable about the fast food nation that surrounds us.” 

These are what Schlosser recommends: 

- Congress should immediately ban all advertisements aimed at children that promote foods high in fat and sugar. 

- urges Congress to eliminate tax breaks for chains that have high turnover rates and do not teach their employees any skills. 

- Minimum wage and child labor laws should be enforced. 

- OSHA should implement regulations on workplace violence. 

- The USDA should insist on the highest standards for food served in school cafeterias. 

- Congress should create a single food safety agency. 

- State and federal authorities must consider looking at the meatpacking industry’s injury rate from a new perspective. 

- OSHA should greatly increase its fines, in addition to mandatory plant closures and criminal charges for negligence when meatpacking employees are injured or killed. 

Schlosser argues that in addition to Congressional legislation, the consumer must become involved to ensure change. 

Simply, the consumer must stop buying fast food.

What I learned:

Lesson 1: Fast food companies target children in their marketing because they’re impressionable.

Children are responsive, easy to impress, and can be convinced with very simple incentives. So fast food companies show kids toys, funny characters, and burgers. Then kids simply annoy their parents until they buy it for them. As a result of adding the toys alone double or triple sales in any given week.

Lesson 2: Wherever big meat packaging companies go, crime and poverty are on the rise. 

Companies hire cheap, replaceable employees, often illegal migrants, homeless people, or refugees, and pay them next to nothing. Illegal immigrants can’t form unions. The natural result of these practices is not just a cheap burger, but also a downfall of the cities these companies move to. Because poor and desperate people make up the workforce of meat packaging firms, the cities they move to see a drastic spike in crime and the need for medical care. For example, Lexington, Nebraska, doubled both its crime rate and state-subsidized medical care incidents within ten years of a big slaughterhouse moving there in 1990.

Lesson 3: There’s a worse health issue than obesity that the fast-food industry creates, and it affects 130,000 people a DAY.

There is a big obesity problem in the US, and fast food is largely at fault. However, there’s an even bigger health issue, one that affects more people; E Coli. Because in both the meat packaging and fast food industry the work is done fast, by unskilled people and in unsanitary conditions, it’s not uncommon for those bacteria to somehow come in contact with the meat. Also, by illegally feeding the cattle wrong; naturally eats grass but feeds corn instead, and sometimes dead horses, pigs, or chicken poop, they’re increasing the chances of E. coli even further. Since few companies supply all of the US with meat, just one contaminated batch can affect millions of people. As a result, 130,000 Americans get sick from food poisoning every day.

My opinion: 

Now, I will write my opinion on what I thought of the book. 

I think Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser was a very convincing book that told the background history, unimaginable facts, and how different aspects; affairs in slaughterhouses to children getting sick with E Coli to McDonald’s being built in China affected the fast food industry to nearly taking over American society. 

When I read the title, I thought the book will focus on the negative side of fast food which it did but there are benefits as well. 

1. Long work hours 

For example, parents who work for long hours can count on a nearby fast food restaurant being open at all hours. And drive-thru comes in handy when families have to move constantly or when you’re too lazy to make a meal at home or sometimes, you don’t feel like sitting down in a restaurant. 

2. Low income  

Another example is for parents who struggle to buy their family meals, fast food is an alternative option. McDonald’s company historian says, “Working-class families could now afford to feed their kids restaurant food” (Schlosser, 20). Of course, every parent wants to give their children the best but taking them to restaurants is expensive. And that is where the fast-food industry comes in handy with cheap food but still delicious. 

With the success of the fast-food industry in America, it has become a major symbol of Western living and is highly desirable to many foreign nations. The consumers’ love of fast food made a successful economy but what about human life? Are they nutritious? As for the first downside/negative effect on society of fast food, this is it; the entire standard of nutrition and healthy living has gone down. 

How healthy do you think fast food is?

According to Schlosser, the meat at these joints is processed at huge industrial plants in which thousands of cows are packed in the small sheds where they barely have space to walk. 

What shocked me the most was the fact that a milkshake’s strawberry flavor is more likely to come from a test tube than from actual fruit since they do a lot of testing to get the highly addictive flavor. 
We know that fast food companies target kids to teens since we love junk food and sometimes, fast food tastes better than school lunches. Everyone should be noted that health comes first and health is a priority whereas the fast-food industry and its food are like cancer. 

And for the workers, the working conditions are even worse. There are deadly bacteria everywhere. 
On page 165, it says “we have three odors. . . burning hair and blood, greasy, and the odor of rotten egg . . .It rises from the slaughterhouse wastewater lagoons causing respiratory problems and headaches, and . . . damage to the nervous system.”

Another negative effect is that large fast food companies have now monopolized not only the consumers but also workers and small businesses. As Schlosser notes, fast foods are responsible for “wiping out small businesses, obliterating regional differences, and speaking identical stores throughout the country lie a self-replicating code” (Schlosser 4-5). 

The practice of franchising has become the operating system of the retailing industry, which leads to killing many small businesses that can’t compete with these powerful corporations. 

After reading this book, it made me not want to consume fast food and I realized that I need to change my behavior. I am certain that this book will definitely make someone have second opinions before purchasing a burger from McDonald’s! 

Finally, I recommend this book to everyone. Go to Amazon or your local library and read and let me know your thoughts :)