Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser

Had any fast food lately? A quick burger and fries on the road? A taco perhaps, or maybe a pizza? Have you ever thought about what was actually in that meal, or where it came from? Did you ever wonder how fast food came to be such a dominant, visible industry in North America?

Eric Schlosser answers these questions in a candid look at an industry that generally doesn't want people looking at it too closely. He shows you what is happening throughout the entire chain from the farmer's field to the meal you recently ate. He doesn't restrict himself to just the food, he looks at the people and circumstances at each step of the way.

As well, he explores how several fast food chains grew to their current size, and the impact their growth has had on other industries. Some of the connections were a surprise to me, such as the artificial flavour industry. Schlosser himself noted that during the two years it took to research the book he ate an enormous amount of fast food, and "most of it tasted pretty good." What that means is that a couple of factories in New Jersey are doing their job very well.

I almost couldn't read the chapter on the meatpacking plants because I used to know a guy that ran the little treatment plant most slaughterhouses have. Blood and the various cleaning agents are very hard on the local municipal sewage treatment plants, so the waste is often pre-treated before it enters the municipal sewage system. What he had to say about it drastically cut back on the amount and kinds of meat I ate. Nothing Schlosser says was new to me, but the level of detail will make most people uncomfortable, and rightly so. The people working in a slaughterhouse have one of the most dangerous jobs in North America, in that about one third of them are injured every year.

There is much about our society that doesn't make any rational sense at all. The American federal government can recall a defective toaster oven or a stuffed animal, but it lacks the power to recall contaminated, potentially lethal meat, even when it is proven to exist by the ton. Americans spent more than 110 billion dollars in 2000 on fast food. If I've kept my zeros straight, that is almost $300 per year for each individual person in America. That's on average, and there have to be a few people that don't touch the stuff, driving the total per person up even higher. As Schlosser points out, that is more than what is spent on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. It's more than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music - combined. To my mind, this explains much about modern America.

I haven't eaten at a McDonalds since the late 70's, and have no intention of ever doing so again. Schlosser would like more people to have this attitude, since he doesn't think much will affect the industry besides having it's profits reduced. The longest lawsuit in British history hasn't had much effect, and neither has the hundreds of deaths due to E. coli 0157:H7.

I'd like everyone to read this book, and at least make an informed choice about the food they are eating, and feeding to their children. Some of the consequences of the fast food culture are not immediately obvious, and Schlosser's book does a good job pointing them out. It's an uncomfortable read at times, but it's interesting and well written. The only reason I'm not buying it is that I've absorbed the lesson well enough not to need it reinforced.

 

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001
ISBN 0-395-97789-4