Book Review: Fast Food Nation
Published in January 2001, "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser delves into the history of the fast food industry and its impact on the world. Arguably a modern day "The Jungle", Schlosser's book exposes ill-treated immigrants, corporate cover-ups and facts that will make you think twice about eating mass-produced meat or stopping at the drive-thru after work.
The novel is broken down into chapters and then into sections which read like a series of articles. The topics cover everything from the origin of fast food, its history and success, to the processes used to make the foods on fast food menus, to its impact on children and the obesity epidemic plaguing our nation
Schlosser examines fast food corporations with a scathing eye, adding a bit of humor and tons of hard-core facts. Take the town of Greeley, Colorado for instance. "You can smell Greeley, Colorado long before you can see it," writes Schlosser, "The smell is hard to forget, but not easy to describe, a combination of live animals, manure and dead animals being rendered into dog food."
Factory towns, which produce hamburgers for the fast food conglomerates and create pungent odors, span America. "Fast Food Nation" introduces readers to more of these towns and the people working at the plants. People like Kenny Dobbins who, during his sixteen years working for a Monfort meat-packing plant, experienced six severe on-the-job injuries. After he suffered a heart attack, the company fired him. Dobbins didn't know he was fired until his payments to the company health insurance plan were repeatedly returned.
Schlosser examines the meat packing plants, like the one Dobbins worked for, and the countless safety violations committed by these companies daily. Employees aren't properly trained, many cannot speak English and they are often taken advantage of for their inexpensive labor and eagerness to work. Due to inexperience, accidents and deaths are frequent. Arms and fingers are lost when operating machinery. Workers have suffered horrible deaths including decapitation, being torn apart in machines and falling into vats during cleaning.
"Fast Food Nation" also focuses on the food found on the menus of McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other fast food chain restaurants. For instance, Schlosser explores why so many people find McDonald's fries addicting. So, what makes them taste so good? Up until 1990, McDonald's used a combination of "7 percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow" for frying; the flavor of the fries came from the beef fat. Due to the high cholesterol content of the fries, McDonald's began using vegetable oil for frying. They needed to figure out a way to keep the subtle beef flavoring in their french fries. "Natural flavoring" solved the problem, and McDonald's admitted to "Vegetarian Journal" that animal products are used in the process. Despite this, many vegetarians are unaware of the animal-byproduct still present in McDonald's french fries.
How about the beef itself? Schlosser informs us that since the price of grain has skyrocketed, cows are eating differently. Up until 1997, when Mad Cow disease became prevalent, cattle were eating "dead sheep, goats, cattle, deer, mink, elk, dogs and cats." Currently, cattle are still fed dead horses, pigs, poultry and meat waste of any kind from restaurants.
Schlosser heavily researched every aspect of the book, and detailed notes comprise the last seventy pages of the piece. If you're hungry for more, pick up "Fast Food Nation" today.