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: Let the truth be told!!
Summary: 5 Stars
When I went to Paris last year, I was amazed to see Pizza Hut Mc Donalds, Starbucks etc. Those places were packed with people. Since I was traveling with my grandson, he wanted to go to Mc Donalds. Fast Food Nation described the globalization of American corps food commodities in foreign countries exactly...and on vacation I was experiencing exactly what Mr. Schossler described. This was just painful to me, because my grandson at his young age was brainwashed by familiarity to the point trying food from another country was a no go for him. My "aha" moment while reading this book was that the US government (president, Congress) do not run this country, global corporations run this country. The US government attempts to pass laws. However, corporation lobbyists, influence on our elected officials, to bypass standards, (labeling whats in food, GMO food, safety, the list goes on) to acheive their bottom line @ the expense of the vulnerable and unknowing American public. Let's not forget how this book will make a person question what they are comsumming on a daily basis. You may consider organically grown or a meatless diet. You may read in the news about the cancer rate declining, but the age group of the decline in not mentioned. Statistics do not tell the public that the age of new cancer diagnosis is now people under 50. This was not the case 20 years ago. This book is a wake up call and a must read!! It just may change the quality of your life through healthier eating habits and pertinent information.Book Review: An eye-opener
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the most informative and scary book I've read in years. Millions of people around the world eat at McDonald's everyday but also at Burger King and so on. For years, I've enjoyed getting my daily dose of Big Macs like millions of others. But this book turned me into a vegetarian for good. I've never felt disgusted at the idea of eating meat before. That also includes chicken and other meats, not just beef. I don't event want to buy ground beef after reading this book.
The meatpackers have taken over the food industry for the last 50 years with the help of the fastfood industry and this is appalling. When you eat burgers, you eat mostly remains and fecal excrements. Did you know that? Animals are being fed with other animals thereby turning them into cannibals. The working conditions in the slaughterhouses around the country are monstrous and inhuman towards the workers as well as the animals. This has promulged a rate of worldwide obesity (seen even in Japan) the world has never seen. The government has favorized the meat-packing industry and allowed health transgressions and work conditions the average american expects from third world countries and not this one.
Something is very wrong here. After reading this book, I was cured from eating any kind of meat whatsoever. If this book doesn't turn you into a vegeratian, nothing will. It should be required reading in schools. Mr. Schlosser, I commend you for opening my eyes and, I hope, the eyes of a lot of people.
Book Review: illuminating
Summary: 5 Stars
True, this guy is a bit of a soft-hearted leftie... but with such in-depth, exhaustively researched and skillfully executed arguments such as this, I find it hard not to be a soft-hearted leftie, myself (having been raised in the home school of self-reliance and sworn devotion to blind justice - in any type of situation you apply can apply it to)...
While this author makes very compelling arguments concerning the exploitation of migrant workers, ranchers & farmers, the meat-factory side-effect of turning the small town main streets of America in to drug-ridden crime-infested hellholes, the multi-faceted environmental impact giant livestock feed lots, and lamenting over the struggle of the small-outfit, spirited ranchers, farmers and restaurant owners trying to survive against "The Man".... perhaps the most persuasive of all, I found, was the addition at the very end about the history of Mad Cow disease.
Some of my office buddies simply shrugged about it (all of it), basically saying we're damned if we eat the cheap meat and damned if we don't... but I've been effectively scared straight about Mad Cow, even if I may have already caught it (but, knock on wood, hopefully not). Suffice it to say being stuck out in Iraq and therefore limited to what food the government provides me, I eat a whole lot less meat these days and have definitely given up beef (and kicking myself for the two or three times I've caved into the immediately regretted crappy steaks in the past year).
Book Review: THIS is your McWake Up Call
Summary: 5 Stars
I am still amazed at the lines I see in the lines of fast food restaurants as I drive past many of them. Obviously, this book still has a lot of minds to change. In retrospect, it may even be preaching to the choir. That certainly does not diminish the importance of some of the statements in this book.
With over a thousand reviews, I trust that most of the reviews has already done an adequate job of reviewing the facts of this book. So I will make some general comments about the work. First even before this book, it would be ignorant to think healthy food comes from a fast food restaurant. By itself, any fried food is generally bad for you. Second, I was expecting the theme of this book to focus more on fast food establishments. Yet Schlosser's statements about the meat packing industry are staggering and frightening. I really do not have much of a desire to eat ground beef again. My third comment is more of a rhetorical question. How long will it be before the American public gets tired of the Republicans bending over backwards for business just because they continually stump for religion? The malaise of the American electorate frightens me.
The people that need to read this book most are probably waiting in line at the drive thru as we speak. When Americans learn that Ronald McDonald's food is not healthy food, perhaps the obesity epidemic in this country will dissolve. At least it will be a good first step.
Book Review: Terrifying--but necessary
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book, I didn't eat fast food at all for seven years, and then only to taste something at a friend's insistence. I honestly don't think I will ever consume fast food from a chain restaurant ever again, because of what I found out about the food in this book. But Fast Food Nation exposed horrors about more than just the food--it showed us how hideously the employees of these establishments are routinely treated, the unpleasantness in almost every aspect of the wide reach of the industry, and how the major fast food chains came into being and into their positions on top, usually by screwing people over. This is an even bigger reason not spend money there. But that's not the point of a book review.
The point of this book review is to tell potential readers how eye-opening and fascinating--and sometimes horrifying--this book is, and to recommend to them all that they read it. They will learn a lot, and they will be gratified to have learned it. There is much more to this book than just the expose on bad food that people are expecting, and a lot of it is really interesting reading.
I was reluctant to read it after I heard that I'd hear horrible things about the food I liked to sometimes eat, but I'm definitely happy I read it (and that I stopped eating the food, but that was a personal choice and is not obligatory upon reading the book). I think everyone else who reads it will be glad they did too.