By Eric Schlosser
Review by Jordan Mann
This book lures the reader in with an inspirational first chapter titled The Founding Fathers. It covers the pioneers of the fast food industry, hard working family men, most with rudimentary educations. These men lived frugally, strived and struggled and fairly quickly built massive, world influencing corporations. Schlosser inserts a bit of foreshadowing here when he writes about the conspiracies of the auto, truck, fuel and tire industries to destroy passenger rail service to increase car sales. Some of the companies were actually convicted and ordered to pay fines of $5000.00, about the amount the companies earn in a few seconds.
The narrative slowly turns more ominous. The advertising tactics, focusing on children, the fast food industry uses are exposed; the use of toys and play-lands to lure families is carefully examined. A chapter on why fast food tastes so good explains how the flavors and aromas are manufactured in huge east coast chemical plants.
The exploitation of the workers that bring us the bounty of garbage we willing consume is discussed in detail, from the farmers and ranchers to the slaughter house workers and the restaurant employees. Schlosser presents a good argument for unionization by showing what happens to workers when unions are barred from an industry.
The most disturbing part of the book for me, a dedicated carnivore, was the description of the slaughterhouses. This is a condensed, nonfiction, version of Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle, with the addition of modern medical and chemical analysis. The details of the filth and disease, the data on the sickened, injured and the deaths caused by food poisoning are startling. Schlosser shows how meat, chicken and eggs are needlessly contaminated in our country and how lobbying and campaign contributions by industrial titans hobble the government agencies put in place to protect us. This is not just about fast food restaurants; it is about all meat, especially ground beef, consumed in our country. Interesting side note, Schlosser won the Upton Sinclair Award for his commitment to social justice.
The book ends on a somewhat promising note, describing a few restaurant chains and ranchers that are dedicated to their customers and employees. The food in these restaurants is priced within pennies of McDonalds but their employees are paid living wages with benefits and their food is much safer to consume. Â Schlosser also shows how easily the problems can be solved by comparisons with some European countries.
This book is a quick and easy read and contains information every meat eater in America needs to know.
Houghton Mifflin Company, New York 2001. ISBN 0-395-97789-4
