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: Holy McFrijoles! Subsidized shakes, cradlerobbing commercialism
Summary: 5 Stars
The most surprising story in this book, to me, was how much of the profits of fast food come from our tax dollars! It appears that the franchise system takes advantage of grants and tax breaks meant to encourage small businesses. The fast food companies also suck up federal job-training subsidies (tax credits of $2400 per low-income worker hired) even though they don't actually provide that value of training. Disgraceful!
The most horrifying aspect to me was not the slaughterhouse scenes, but the extent to which junk food is marketed to children. As the mother of a two year old I feel frustrated and puny against the powerful flood of billions of marketing dollars, enveloping children in their profitable but fundamentally amoral fantasy land. The fact that fast food and other companies try to recruit toddlers to their brands is not surprising-- but what does scare me the inescapability of this brainwashing... a little tike has absolutely absolutely no chance when toys, music, clothes, television, and even public schools are partners in cross-promoting fast food. Tastes and brand loyalty is being formed before children can talk, let alone discriminate between truth and advertising. "Discover your own river of revenue at the schoolhouse gates," urged a brochure at the 1997 Kids Power Marketing Conference. (p. 52)
And to make the advertisers' Super-Sized cups run over with happiness, all this free advertisement is FULLY TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!
This is not the free market, but an abuse of subsidies and tax incentives meant to promote American innovation, independence, and education.
Book Review: It's Very Hard for me to Eat Meat or Processed Food Now.
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book a few years ago. I found the book eye-opening and the information amazing. The facts I learned still stick to me like a chronic case of heart-burn. I guarantee that if you read this book you will never be able to look at food the same way again.
I was sickened by the meat-packing injury. The way the animals are treated prior to slaughter is akin to torture. The meat-packers themselves, according to Schlosser, have the highest injury rate of any workers in the U.S. They are in a double bind, however. If they report the injury or claim Worker's Comp their jobs are in jeopardy. Others are illegal aliens who are not supposed to work in this country and are not able to claim any benefits if injured. This is beside the fact that many workers are killed on the job.
Now, to chickens. I gag when I look at a chicken in the meat rack in a store after reading this book. All the additives, antibiotics, hormones, etc. are harmful to humans. Little girls are developing pubescent secondary sex characteristics at the age of 7 because of all the estrogens in the chickens. Besides this, the chickens are raised in filth and never get to see the light of day.
I won't go on about veal and pork. I think you get the idea. I now eat organic. I try to eat 'Free Range', where animals get to roam a bit and get to see some sunlight in their lives. I think about the way an animal is killed before I put it in my mouth. I am not an animal activist but I am a breast cancer survivor. I know enough to know that this book scared the s..t out of me.
Book Review: Shocking indictment of our food system
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is about a decade old, and it's still shocking. As our nation undergoes nearly weekly national food scares and we continue to suffer with the effects of our headlong drive for lowest-cost, highest-profit enterprises, it seems as if nothing has been learned in the 10 years since this book was published. We're all more aware of the downsides of the mass industrialization of our foods, but we're not doing anything about it.
Schlosser excoriates the federal government for cutting back on OSHA staff to check out meat packing plants and other food workplaces, but he was writing during the Clinton Administration. It got worse under Bush, and it hasn't recovered in a meaningful way now.
The same can be said for the childhood obesity problem, the ill treatment of immigrant workers, the anti-union bias of government and big business, the appalling environmental impact of large farms, the destruction of open land for sprawling suburbs in the West, and more. Every single trend identified in this book continues to destroy our economy, health, and environment.
If a political candidate stood up and said that he or she would follow a playbook to tackle the problems in this book, I'd campaign 24-hours-a-day for that person. Fixing how we produce food, where we eat it, and what we eat would solve about 2/3 of our nation's ills. And yet, nobody who has real power at stake is going to take on those businesses. It's left to journalists and activists -- and they can't stop the tide.
Book Review: Eye opener for American Families-The dark side of the American food culture
Summary: 5 Stars
Eric Schlosser says: " American spends more money on fast food then on higher education ", how bad is that?
This book is an great eye opener for American families, who want to live a healthy lifestyle.
The author goes deep into the all American fast food nation. About the industries, who delivering and producing the processed food like hamburger patties and how fast food restaurants like MC Donalds just heat them up again and have this ironical good customer fast service to deliver a meal in minutes after the order.Companies like that making their share of profit from our unhealthy lifestyle.
Nobody knows what they really eating and how poorly the animals got treated before they coming to the slaughter house.
Employees working in the slaughter house or fast food restaurant for minimum wages and only the companies make money out of it. Either animal or employee get treated right.
This book goes in to the whole history of these problems and how bad fast food really is for all of us.
And what tops it all, companies like MC Donalds having the happy meals for kids with new toys in it. How nice is that ! Making special meals with their processed food attractive to our kids. Or they have play grounds, where kids can play after they had their unhealthy happy meal with their family.
That leads to an unbelievable act of childhood obesity.
I strongly can recommend this book for all, who likes to know what is really going on behind the fast food restaurant counters.
Book Review: a highly enjoyable read.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is jam packed with great detail about the origin of the fast food frenzy. This book answered most of the questions that I wanted to be addressed. The author went into how the first restaurants operated and who originally started them and their locations. Originally owned and operated by modest, hardworking individuals the fast food chains started off with skilled workers handling the food service and in this book Schlosser records the process in which skill becomes as easy as pushing a button. The hiring of minors cuts the cost of the work force significantly because a company needs to pay people over the age of 18 a different wage than those employees under the age of 18. Schlosser addressed the working conditions of the slaughterhouses and show how the meat packing plant performs daily cover ups and skews data to pass the meat through USDA inspections. Schlosser talked briefly about how to make things taste the way they do (both the fries and the mcnuggets were and possibly are still injected with beef flavoring and the fries are cooked in an oil that is comprised of 7% cottonseed oil and 93% beef tallow)by mixing chemicals to create the taste of something that should not taste the way it does (artificial and natural flavors). Schlosser discusses the cost in which Mcdonalds and many other chains get their products for pennies and then turn around and sell the product with a 1000% markup. Just an amazing book that everyone should read just for the interesting facts and the great investigative reporting.