Fast Food Nation
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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. First serialized by Rolling Stone in 1999, the book has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair's classic "muckraking" novel, The Jungle.
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[edit] Summary
Schlosser examines the history and growth of fast food restaurants in American culture. Schlosser argues that the fast food industry wields powerful economic - and therefore political - influence on American culture, and exploits that influence to increase profits at the expense of public health and the social conditions of its workers. In the process of making that argument, however, he provides an interesting portrait of the way fast food culture is a unique product of American history, related to the emergence of the automobile, the homogenization of corporate culture, changes in labour conditions, and of course, globalization. He also provides surprisingly respectful biographies of some of the "founding fathers" of fast food, including Carl Karcher, Ray Kroc, and others. The fast food industry, writes Schlosser, "has helped to transform not only the American diet, but also our landscape, economy, workforce, and popular culture" (3).
Schlosser opens the book with the ironic delivery of a Domino's pizza to the "top secret" military base, Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. He describes various high-tech capabilities of the base and its extensive defensive system, speculating that if the worst were to happen and the entire base were entombed in the mountain, anthropologists of the future would discover random fast food wrappers scattered amongst military hardware. Both, suggests Schlosser, give important clues about the nature of American society.
The book continues with an account of the evolution of fast food and how it coincided with the advent of the automobile. He explains the transformation from countless independent restaurants into a few uniform franchises. This shift led to a production-line kitchen prototype, standardization, self-service, and a change in marketing demographics: from teenager to family-oriented. Regarding the topic of child-targeted marketing, Schlosser explains how the McDonald's Corporation modeled the marketing tactics of The Walt Disney Company, which inspired the creation of advertising icons such as Ronald McDonald and his supporting characters. He also mentions the implementation of toys in McDonald's renowned 'Happy Meals' as an example of the issues presented in his proposed argument. The theory behind this shift to child-targeted marketing was that it would not only attract children but also their parents and grandparents as well. More importantly, it would instill brand loyalty in them, which would persist throughout adulthood through nostalgic associations to McDonald's. Its ills are discussed: the exploitation of children's naivety, trusting nature and that the average child watches 21 hours of television per week. This also includes 10,000 t.v. advertisements a year.
Schlosser states that corporate tax cuts that have compromised school funding have presented many corporations with the opportunity for sponsorship within those same schools. According to sources, 80% of the sponsored textbooks contain material that is biased in favor of the sponsors, and 30% of high schools offer fast foods in their cafeterias. Furthermore, high school student Mike Cameron was suspended from school for an incident on "Coke day"; during a promotional event, the student exhibited a Pepsi t-shirt while he and other students clad in red and white formed the word 'Coke' in the football field that was to be photographed aerially.
In his examination of the meat packing industry Schlosser finds that it is now dominated by casual, easily exploited immigrant labor and that levels of injury are among the highest of any occupation in the United States. Schlosser discusses his findings on meat packing companies IBP, Inc. and Ken Monfort. Also, Schlosser retells the steps of meat processing, and notes several hazardous practices unknown to most consumers; for example, the practice of rendering dead pigs & horses and chicken manure into cattle feed. Schlosser notes that practices like these were responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, aka Mad Cow Disease, p. 202-3), as well as introducing dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli O157:H7 (ch. 9, What's In The Meat), into the food supply.
Schlosser notes that there are more robberies at fast-food restaurants than at banks, gas stations or convenience stores.
In the later section of the book, the fast food industry's role in globalization is discussed, linking increased obesity in China and Japan with the arrival of fast food. A summary of the McLibel case is included.
In later editions, Schlosser has added a final section, including reviews of his book, counters to some critics that emerged since first publication, and then discusses the effect that the threat of BSE had on Federal Government policy towards cattle farming. He concludes that, given the swift, decisive and effective action that took place as a result of this interest and intervention, many of the problems documented in the book are soluble, given enough political will.
[edit] Young Adult version
An adaptation of Fast Food Nation for younger readers entitled Chew on This was published in May 2006 by Houghton Mifflin. It is co-authored by Charles Wilson
[edit] Editions
- ISBN 0-06-093845-5 (paperback edition 2002, 400pp.)
- ISBN 0-7139-9602-1 (paperback edition 2001, 368pp.)
- ISBN 0-14-100687-0 (paperback edition 2002, 400pp.)
- ISBN 0-395-97789-4 (hardcover edition 2001, 288pp.)
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
- Super Size Me — a 2004 documentary by Morgan Spurlock on a similar topic.
- The Corporation — a 2003 Canadian documentary film critical of the modern-day corporation and its behavior towards society.
- The Jungle — a 1906 novel by Upton Sinclair on the meatpacking industry. Fast Food Nation makes various references to it.
- Reefer Madness — a 2003 book by Eric Schlosser examining migrant labor and the pornography and marijuana businesses in America.
- McLibel: Two Worlds Collide — a 2005 extended update of film by Spanner Films documenting the McLibel Trial and Campaign.
