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Loading... Fast Food Nationby Eric Schlosser
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Glad I had already given up red meat! Chicken soon to follow! (  )ms.c.earthsci | Jul 7, 2009 |   Amazing read that will make you think about how your food got from the pasture to you ( )brayzinski | May 31, 2009 | This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I know I expected it to be sort of like the movie Super Size Me which I saw a few years ago and loved. It certainly followed in the same vein as Super Size Me--at least it tried to outline some of the same ideas--so it didn't disappoint there. However, there were things I loved about this book and things that didn't really grab my attention the way the author probably wanted them to. I'm just going to come right out and say that none of the "shocking" information presented was really much of a surprise to me. For example, this book goes out of the way to explain that the McDonald's staff is comprised mostly of teenagers getting paid minimum wage and that slaughterhouses are very dangerous to their employees. Duh? I would have thought this was already common knowledge. I didn't really see much of the "dark side of the all-American meal" that the cover bragged about, which was a disappointment. However, despite the fact that most of these revelations weren't that ground breaking there were still a few gruesome facts presented in the book that warranted the use of colorful little annotation flags. They were mostly small things that I found personally interesting but there is worthwhile information in there, I assure you. My favorite part of the book was near the beginning. The first few chapters went into depth about the histories of fast food, the different fast food chains, and the different innovations (such as driveways). The book also takes the time to explain how the businesses works, how the stores are run, and he even dedicates an entire (very intriguing) section to explaining throughput. I've never really given much thought to how fast food chains actually work (on a small scale or a large scale, take your pick) or how many there are, or any such mechanics. This book gave me a better insight to how something that has become such a large part of our nation is actually run and WHY. My verdict: Four stars. While it didn't deliver the shock I would have liked, the information was enough to keep me reading. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants more of insight on how fast food chains are actually run, or to anyone who has yet to be acquainted with fast food's more common horrors. (I know that I said the "dark side" was a little obvious, but I know there are plenty out there who just aren't as acquainted as I have been. If you're one of those people, this book is for you.) ( )RottenSweetThings | May 19, 2009 | Very eye-opening book about the fast food industry, the meat industry, and more. A liberal bias. (  )jawee | Apr 7, 2009 | What I liked best about Fast Food Nation was how Schlosser presented all the facts before launching into his personal opinions and viewpoints. I enjoyed learning more about the fast food industry and all its counterparts and walked away from the book with a whole new knowledge. ( )steenface | Mar 17, 2009 | 0.045 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com's Best of 2001 (ISBN 0060938455, Paperback)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 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. 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 (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:20 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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