Fast Food Nation | 
 enlarge | Author: Eric Schlosser
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1397 reviews
Sales Rank: 550
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060838582
Dewey Decimal Number: 394.10973
EAN: 9780060838584
ASIN: 0060838582
Publication Date: July 1, 2005
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Amazon.com's Best of 2001
On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating expose 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. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with 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 flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat. Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. 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 introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public 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 behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed
Product Description
Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1392 more reviews...
 A thoroughly enjoyable read! But could be a little less end of the world in its tone. July 9, 2008
This book is an expose into the seedy underworld of the American food system. It takes the reader throughout the massive infrastructure that is present in the United States and how the political clout that it wields is unnecessarily putting our health at risk. The message is an important one to cast and we as Americans should be absolutely apalled that things have gotten this bad. That being said I felt that his tone was to dreary and at times he focused to much attention on minute details that took away from his key message. I definately recommend that you pick it up. Don't be surprised if you have to walk away at times because of being overwhelmed by both the nature of the subject as well as his slow and meandering writing style.
 Snorefest. June 23, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
... I am honestly flabberghasted this book has such a high rating. I had to read it for a school seminar class and I was only able to read the first half. Even that was a struggle. But I had to stop after that. I just couldn't take the drone any longer. A large portion of my classmates didn't read it and the ones that did skipped the first half and just read the second half which was apparently more interesting. But whatever; I don't even care. This book is not worth money or reading time.
 Unexpected, but enjoyable. May 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I will warn all of you future readers: this is a great book and is rather historical in content. Contrary to my common thought that this whole book was bashing the fast food industry, it really did neither. Instead he really shows how fast food originated, how it affects industry (especially industrial agriculture), and why we love it so much. Fast food infiltrates everyday life for much of the world. Read the book to see why and how this came to be. I thought it was a fantastic book and a big eye opener.
Wait... what's in my burger? May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading this book, it seems as if the fast food industry is the only industry that was able to slide through the civil rights revolution and the workers' rights campaign back in the 20th century. If you're munching on a burger from a fast food restaurant (or should I say, shack), please put it down for you're own health.
There are several things that might be in there that you wouldn't want to eat. You never know if you got the burger that has the severed remains of a worker's finger/arm/leg. Schlosser writes of how fast the assembly line is moving, putting pressure onto the workers, making them lose accuracy and precision in their jobs that they "trained" for (a few days watching a video). This loss of accuracy can lead to some unpleasant surprises when you bite into your burger.
But burgers aren't the only things that one must look out for; Schlosser also writes of an account in which a whole man fell like a vat of lard taht was still churning. Was the lard reclaimed? No. It was shipped out; the packing companies decided profit was much more valuable than honoring a man and his untimely death.
The disgusting facts don't even start at with the meat-packing industries! In the farms in where the cattle are raised, the calves are fed the remains of cows and other animals. Trash even. The unsanitary conditions also turns stomachs. If you were to take a tour in one of these facilities, the regular person is denied access to the killing level. Schlosser elucidates the scene: knee-deep in blood and feces.
Overall, this was a very well researched book. Even though I'm not an avid fast-food eater, this has still deterred me away from eating it unless I know what's in my food.
Good info, still eating McDonalds though April 29, 2008
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
Well we all know more or less the content but I am still eating fast food. If you change what you are eating you are just fooling yourself. We all know fast food is bad, but tastes good.
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