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Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. However, he rapidly moves behind the counter to the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavour company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns". Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--faeces in your meat.
Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of regulation. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting and unsanitary practices that introduced E.coli and other pathogens into restaurants, schools and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young", insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behaviour", he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing.,
By
This review is from: Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World (Paperback)
I thought this was going to be another one of those foam-in-the-mouth anti-business exposes that aim for a quick impression and then leave you with a bunch of unanswered questions. How wrong..This is an extremely well written and researched book; fluid investigative journalism is combined with facts and statistics that are impressivelly backed-up by 60 pages of notes and bibliography. Far from being one-sided and polemic, the writer's style is even-handed and sober, if sometimes caustic. He comes across as genuinely concerned with improving the food industry, rather than gaining a reputation for himself. Mr. Schlosser's findings are nothing less than astonishing (read the book and see what I mean); his calm, collected manner makes them all the more believable and disturbing. This is a MUST READ book.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Well Researched Jeremiad,
By
This review is from: Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World (Paperback)
The food chain is not what it used to be. More and more centralized and autonomous conglomerates have supplanted local food production and butcher shops. Well paid workers, ranchers and farmers have been replaced by mega-harvesters and food processors and by minimum wage, unskilled workers. Most of us are at least dimly aware of these changes, but Eric Schlosser provides the sordid, often gruesome, details. In this carefully researched and informative jeremiad, Schlosser leads us directly to the villain's doorsteps. His targets are sometimes highly visible (ubiquitous fast food chains, especially) but often off the radar screen, (manufacturers of chemical taste substitutes, french fry suppliers, congressmen and lobbyists). The main thrust of his argument is that the less localized the source of our food, the greater the risk of harmful exposure to e-coli, salmonella and other bacterial pathogens. Bacterial outbreaks are not often discovered until they have become widespread. Most damning of all, the companies that are responsible for the outbreaks often drag their heels in releasing information and are under no legal compunction to do so. Government agencies such as the FDA, the FTC and OSHA are hindered by, and in some cases controlled by, the industries they are supposed to monitor. Schlosser's battle plan calls for public pressure upon our government to effect changes in labor practices, safety standards (both in terms of worker safety and sanitary standards), and quality of workplace. The food industry, left to its own devices, has shown no historical willingness to make improvements on its own. The food industry's proposed solution to bacterial contamination is irradiation. Addressing the source of the problem (assembly lines in meat packing houses move too quickly to be accurately monitored and lead to worker accidents) would cut into the bottom line profits of the corporations. Schlosser proceeds in his inquisition in a measured manner for the most part. The one exception might be when he takes us into the depths of a slaughterhouse "somewhere in the high plains." I can appreciate that the scene he witnessed and which he describes is genuinely horrific, but his tone shifts from reportorial/objective to horror novelist/sensational. Though it is not a major mark against his credibility, I did take the book down one star for that chapter. I do hope that the book performs its purpose and that Schlosser's clarion call will be heeded by the powers that be in government. Of course, that will happen only if his readers tell their friends and at least organize some e-mail campaigns to let their government representatives know that they are concerned about the quality and safety of what they and their children put in their stomachs. BEK
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll never eat a burger again.,
By Rudy (his bedroom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World (Paperback)
One of the most thought provoking books you'll ever read; and far more gritty than "No Logo". Eric Schlosser has written a book drawn from extensive research on the history of the U.S. fast food industry including a decent amount of his own investigation and interviews. What he does is expose what goes on behind the scenes which has just as much implication to European residents as it does to our US counterparts.To just scratch the surface is to talk about the fact that there's more beef fat in a certain purveyor's chicken nugget than you'll find in their burgers. In fact, there's more saturated fat in their fries than in their burgers too. If you want to avoid fat then have a milkshake - less fat than you think but easily containing 20 man-made chemicals.... and do you mind if the strawberry flavour is manufactured 3000 miles away in a New Jersey chemical company in the room next door to where they're manufacturing the taste of the burgers? Schlosser goes beyond just this and illustrates how the fast food global industries are destroying small farming traditions, encourgaing abysmal pay and benefits for their employees plus poor working conditions that can and do lead to diseased meat (and even worse) getting into our food chain. He also examines how their marketing is becoming more and more ruthless, even invading schoolyards in the US (how soon for us?) - What is the most recognisable advert to US children under 10 years old? Budweiser. Sheer Genius or Criminal? I've only touched the surface of what the book covers, check it out - espescially if you eat in any fast food restaurant - you're deceiving yourself if you think you know what you're putting in your mouth. And if you're wondering - I'm not a vegetarian! I am a confirmed meat eater and an ex-fast food eater.
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