Colorado Springs Chapter Summary

1. Eric Schlosser chose the topic of fast food industry because he became quite inspired after reading an article about illegal immigrants in a strawberry field and how they a suffered in the process. The article was based on an investigation that was placed on the fields while they worked. It was also based on the immense impact that this industry had on society. Schlosser wanted to as said in his book “shed light” to the world on how successful hard working industry works. Also the way American industries portray and work in the diligent industry throughout the years . Since the fast food restaurants are known as one of the most active businesses which makes them a perfect example of what he was trying to convey.

In Amitai Etzioni’s essay “Working at McDonald’s”, he argues that the jobs teens take up at popular fast food restaurants are detrimental to their education. His proposal was that working at these fast food restaurants negatively affects their education by encouraging teens to be more concerned about earning money than being successful in their studies. He claims that teens are getting these jobs to spend on petty items. Etzioni states that the routine and lack of creativity of the jobs are harmful and the hours in which teens work are long and interfere with students’ abilities to further their studies and complete assignments. He states that teens that have dropped out and are working at these restaurants have fallen into a stagnant condition

In his article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko argues that today’s fast food chains fill the nutritional void in children’s lives left by their overtaxed working parents. With many parents working long hours and unable to supervise what their children eat, Zinczenko claims, children today regularly turn to low-cost, calorie-laden foods that the fast food chains are too eager to supply. When Zinczenko himself was a young boy, for example, and his single mother was away at work, he ate at Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and other chains on a regular basis, and ended up overweight. Zinzenko’s hope is that with the new spate of lawsuits against the food industry, other children with working

In this piece of his book, Schlosser considers the workforce that keeps the fast-food industry running. Since this workforce is dominatingly embodied youngsters, Schlosser spends a significant part of the section considering how adolescents connect with the fast-food industry- - what are their working conditions; how does "low maintenance" employment meddle with school work; how do high schoolers spend their cash?

“Working at McDonalds”, by Amital Etizonal, speaks out against the social economic issue of today's teenage fast food jobs and their negative impact from an educational standpoint. This analysis of the fast food industry is done by comparing the sought-after morals and values of the jobs of the past while revealing the importance of those lessons for jobs of the future. Two key points are used to analyze the fast food industry to determine how educational the employment really is; the first point evaluates morals and values, and the second point evaluates school attendance and involvement. The problems addressed are then met with a solution that schools and parents can actively pursue.

The author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal is Eric Schlosser. The book was published in New York by Houghton Mifflin in 2001 and there are 288 pages in the main book. The author 's main points focus on the impact of fast food 's impact relating to agricultural and economic practice. Topics described in the book include the creators of many fast food chains and their origins; what goes on behind the counter of a fast food restaurant; how the food, including fries and meat, are retrieved and preparedand the safety of working in the plants that produce that food; and the rapid spread of fast food all over the world.

In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser tackles the idea that the successful and expanding fast food industry has destroyed independent business as well as damaged local economies with its low-cost, high-profit, and convenience business model. From food to clothing, chains and branded products have become the norm: “America's Main streets and malls now boast the same Pizza Huts and Taco Bells, Gaps and Banana Republics, Starbucks and Jiffy Lube's, Footlockers, Snip N Clips, Sunglass Huts, and HobbyTown USA's," (Schlosser 13). These stores and companies are all thriving because the American people continue to support them. However, by over-supporting name-brands, chains, and franchises we lower the amount of revenue and number of customers that local or independent businesses get. This, in turn, allows for name-brands and large corporations to control what happens in the fast-food business.

Eric Schlosser explains that the fast food industry advertises to the nation's young, using marketing techniques devised by psychological consultants and kids' focus groups. It fills consumers' stomachs with high fat, low-nutrition foods and sodas that sport 8-10 teaspoons of sugar each. Additionally, Eric Schlosser decides to make a stop in Colorado to scrutinize the working conditions of fast food industry employees. Schlosser realizes that the fast food industry is responsible for the wholesale exploitation of poor, uneducated, and for those who are the victims of secret pricing by meat processors. Furthermore, “Meat and Potatoes” commences with the examination of chemical ingredients that make the fast food consumed by many taste appetizing. This information is followed by the struggles that an ordinary rancher faces in the field of economy and agriculture. Schlosser is considered persuasive and provocative because he denounces the meatpacking industry, which is considered a fatal job in America. Especially, due to the way those cattle is slaughtered, raised and processed because it can provide Escherichia

As an example, ¨Instead of relying on a small, stable, well-paid, well-trained workforce, the fast-food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have long been the perfect candidates for these jobs. They usually don't have a family to support. And their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control than adults¨ (p. 27, lines 189-193). This proves, these teenagers have so much potential to be working in better jobs that they can get the biggest bang for their buck.

Next, Schlosser visits Colorado Springs, CO and investigates the life and working conditions of the typical fast-food industry employee, fast-food restaurants have among the highest employee turnover rates and pay minimum wage to a higher proportion of their employees than any other American industry. The second part of the book begins with a discussion of the chemical components that make the food taste so good. Schlosser follows this with a discussion of the life of a rancher, considering the difficulties presented to the agricultural world in a new economy. Schlosser is perhaps most provocative when he critiques the meatpacking industry, which he tags as the most dangerous job in America. Moreover, the meat produced by slaughterhouses has become exponentially more hazardous since the centralization of the industry: the way cattle are raised, slaughtered, and processed provides an ideal setting for E coli to spread. Additionally, working conditions continue to grow worse. In the final chapter, Schlosser considers how fast food has matured as an American cultural export following the Cold War: the collapse of Soviet Communism has allowed the mass spread of American goods and services, especially fast food. As a

The restaurant industry is a dominating power in the United States. Specifically, fast food restaurants are the leading force of the food that Americans consume every day. The popular chains- such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s- control the way that consumers eat, due to the fact that they remove most mom and pop type businesses. In Chew on This, authors Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson explore the effects that the fast food industry has taken on children’s lives, food distribution and packaging, and health of the public since its rise to fame.

AmitaiEtizion’s ‘Working at McDonald’s’ is an essay, about the impacts on teenagers of fast-food chains such as McDonald’s. While the author puts aside the issue of consumption, he focuses on the impacts of the jobs these types of restaurants offer, and argue that such jobs negatively impacts students’ school performance. The issue is presented in a critical way, as the author firstly looks at how parents think that having a part-time job between classes is a good thing for students. However, upon further criticism, the author finds that such jobs fail to offer the entrepreneurial experience they were hoped to give students, citing as examples the poor pay, routinized forms of work, unhealthy work environment, and long-term impacts on the job

In the book Schlosser focuses the attention of the book on behind the scene of a fast food restaurant. He brings up traps that the industry set up for buyers with their advertisement targeting younger audience. Another point that Schlosser brings up in this book is the quality of food in the industry. A majority of meat that fast food restaurant uses comes from slaughterhouses when slaughterhouses only make money from fast food they are more willingly to mass produce their product making everything much cheaper. This book can show me what happens behind the scenes in a fast food restaurant and what makes it so bad. How fast food is very convenient and inexpensive making it everyone's first

In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser writes about the fast food industry. However, his book is not merely an expose of the fast food industry but is even more a consideration of how the fast food industry has shaped and defined American society in America and for other nations as America exports its fast food culture to others. Schlosser describes a great deal of American culture to the fast food mentality, and he finds that globalization is taking the fast food culture around the world at a rapid rate. Schlosser addresses a number of specific issues related to food production and distribution. He connects the social order of a society to the kind of food it eats and the way it eats that food, with American society very

Quick Service Restaurants have been serving swift and tasty meals since the 1930’s. The industry focuses on a high speed product with a low cost for the satisfying convenience of the valued customer. Behind every commercial, smiling employees serve their customers as they cheerfully claim to adore their job, famous logos line highways that serve as a friendly reminder of the familiar, and “now-hiring” signs deck the interior of hundreds of restaurants that beckon it’s beholders to become part of the great family that is the fast food industry. In fact, to the common eye, the industry seems optimistic, a venue of opportunity – at least for the meanwhile – and an environment of simplistic means. Hardly ever do you hear about the costs of