Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
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Book Reviews of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Book Review: Wish I'd read it sooner
Summary: 5 Stars
I wish I had read this book sooner than I did. Ignorance was bliss, but learning how the food I put in my body is made has opened my eyes. I haven't been eating meat for a couple years, but reading about how meat gets to the plate was still very disturbing. I certainly didn't know that most of the meat Americans consume has feces in it, not to mention a high occurrence of food-borne pathogens like E coli. And while I could've guessed that conditions at slaughterhouses aren't all that humane for the animals, I had no idea there are so many recent examples of the workers being injured or killed simply by doing their jobs and trying to meet the dangerous and unreasonable speed requirements.
But the most disturbing thing of all was the link between the rise of fast food in this country and the rise in obesity in our children. This is no mistake -- it's not a secret that the fast food companies have purposefully targeted children in their advertising campaigns. They learned from marketing experts that if you can get a kid to start eating your food at a young age, you've got a customer for life. And that customer is most likely going to be overweight, if not obese, and have an increased risk of health disease and cancer (among other things) and a decrease in life expectancy.
We should not stand for this any longer. Fast food companies need to stop marketing unhealthy food to children. They need to get out of our schools or change their in-school menus to have only healthy, nutritious foods.
We need to take back our kids -- and not just our own kids. Kids from low-income families don't have adults in their lives who are reading things like Fast Food Nation. So when you're asking your school to make improvements, think about the school on the other side of town and who'll be asking for improvements there.
I read this book as part of a small book club with some friends, none of us with school-age children. When we were discussing it, we decided to look into starting a garden at a school where kids can learn about how food grows and what's healthy to put in their bodies. We found out there's already a garden at a school on the other side of town (literally) that desperately needs volunteers, so we're going to get together and do what we can to help.
Book Review: McGreedy is the name of the game
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved reading this book and becoming more educated about our food supply. I have always been interested in in food, health and nutrition. I have also toyed with becoming a vegetarian, giving up pork first, based on seeing a video by Howard Lyman (the Montana cattle rancher who is a vegan). The little piggies actually have fear on their faces in the pens on the farms.
It appears that much research went into this volume, therefore I feel it is a credible source of information. My niece, who is a vegetarian told me about this book so I had to read it. It saddens me to know that most people don't know that animals are forced into getting fat, crowded into small spaces and slaughtered inhumanely and that meat is only a nice juicy red color due to chemicals and preservatives. No wonder we are a sick society what with all the unnatural junk in our foods. I am not surprised that the slaughter industry has issues, and unfortunately, they haven't improved much since the time of The Jungle, written to document the industry in the early 20th century.
There is one sentence that stands out in the book and I made my husband read it, hoping it might curb his appetite for fast food burgers. When you read it, you will know what sentence I mean. One only has to drive by a feedlot to see the horrid, filthy conditions of cattle raised for food.
I rarely eat fast food but IF I do, I make my selections very carefully. Since reading this book, I haven't been near a fast food restaurant and am closer to vegetarianism. It makes me wonder, too, how safe our grocery store food is, and how safe is our sit down restaurant food really is - do they come from the same slaughterhouses?
It has been proven that cows emit methane gases that are not healthy for our environment, and they eat our grains that could be feeding our people. I would like everyone to read this book or see the video - maybe then we would realize that we don't need meat to survive!!! And jointly, perhaps we could force our government to do what they really NEED to do to make our food supply safe.
May McDonald's have fallen arches! Happy meals don't make cows happy :(
Book Review: Need-to-Know Information
Summary: 5 Stars
The book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser changed my life. As a life-long cook and a current food scientist this book scared the hell out of me. And it's real life people, not fiction. It chronicles the history of all of today's major fast food chains and of Walt Disney. You might say.....Walt Disney.....but yeh, I said it. His connection to Ray Croc and McDonald's is so intrinsic and you never knew. The book details why America is getting so unhealthy and fat...fast food. It reminds me of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" because what he describes is like a nightmare but it is the truth. A fast food industry that both feeds and feeds off the young. The scary part is why fast food is so delicious and how it is so consistent. The food that is created has to be so consistent that mother nature herself had to be dropped by the wayside to achieve what they wanted. How is a burger at McD's the same in Istanbul and in Chicago? The food is all bioengineered. This book made me start buying only organic meats. And that is a big change with me being a cook. It costs more and is less easily found. It chronicles how all livestock for fast food is grown in the most disgusting and dirty conditions. All of the "veggies" are genetically engineered to unnatural states. Mad cow disease. Workers rights trampled to make a buck. Automation to replace workers. Farmers get screwed over. The truth behind the food you eat is in this book. The government facilitates all our health problems by not making legislation for more cleanly practices with our food supply. They make too much money from the meat industry to make any changes for our benefit. This is information everyone in the world needs to know, because in the future we will have no food left because we are poisoning and polluting it so much right now. Or we will become so fat we will not even be able to get up to go get fast food. This book is a must read because it contains information critical your health and of the injustice that these fast food stores are getting away with. 5 out of 5 Page-Turns
Book Review: You must read this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book I made a promise to myself never to eat fast food again!
According to the author, the meat you eat at MacDonald's could be infested with cow feces (and other very nasty stuff such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, bovine spongiform, and encephalopathy)! He reports accidents where employees at slaughter houses got injured and some of their bodily parts made it through to the meat we eat in fast food chains. He even claims that there was an accident where a man fell into the meat grinder and was grinded whole together with cow meat. His remains mixed with cow beef was shipped to fast food chains and served to unsuspecting diners! This book will give you a new perspective on what's in your food!
He also reports on the appalling conditions in slaughter houses, and suggests that the government should intervene and impose strict guidelines. After reading the book, you will be surprised and shocked at the appalling working conditions that actually exist on American soil! Corporations will stop at nothing to cut costs and make money. The author also reports that sometimes the meat of dead cows is shipped to the fast food giants.
The author also describes how the animals are maltreated, confined in small areas, and made to eat garbage and even old newspapers! Meat from their own kind and other animals are also fed to them (this is how Mad Cow Disease started. Cows are herbivores not carnivores!).
However, the book is not only about the gore in the meat we eat at fast food chains. The author does a good job tracing the history behind the big fast food giants, such as MacDonald's. He explains how the growth of fast food chains has changed the American economy. So anyone with an interest in restaurant history and management will find this book useful. An interesting fact: 1 out of 8 teenagers in the U.S has worked at a Macdonald's!
Be prepared to get sick - very sick - after reading this book! And be prepared to change your eating habits!
I only wish I had read this book sooner!
Book Review: Implications of a Fast Food Nation
Summary: 5 Stars
In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser provides a thorough examination of the fast food industry's impact. Schlosser seeks to make the consumer aware of the hidden cost of a fast food meal by detailing the social, economic and health ramifications. The book is brought to life by personal accounts with varying viewpoints, including people who have shaped the course of the industry and those who have suffered under it. The personal nature of this book is engaging, however the book is substantiated by extensive research on the part of Schlosser.
Schlosser is critical of government policies that have allowed the fast food industry to flourish. Government subsidies reward restaurants for hiring new workers, even if those workers are never trained and employed a short time. Relaxed FDA and USDA inspection requirements allow the meat industry to focus solely on production output with little regard to safety of employees or the product. The government has aided the industry in creating a culture where workers are disposable and only conglomerates survive.
Schlosser claims that food safety should be a non-partisan issue and aims to stay politically neutral. His attempt at neutrality is lost, as he shows how the Republican Party has fought food safety laws and an increase in the minimum wage. I support his position, intended or not, because it is hard to deny the connection presented between Republicans and the fast food and meat packing industry. I would like to ask the author his outlook on policies under current Democratic control.
I highly recommend this book to all consumers of food products in the U.S. and beyond. Every consumer deserves to know the true origin of their food, no matter if the food is prepared at the local McDonald's or in a home kitchen. The measure of a good book is not only in how it changes your thinking, but how it spurs action. I give this book five stars not only because it is compelling, but because it inspired me to consider action I can take to combat the injustices of a fast food nation.