Fast Food Nation Research Paper

Then instead of slaughtering one cow at a time and grinding that meat into a couple hundred burgers. Slaughterhouses slaughter thousands of cattle and grind all the meat together. Now there is no variation of taste in the meat. Finish the meat off with an acid bath to kill any E. Coli O157: H7, and pray that one of those 1000 cows didn’t have “Mad Cow Disease” (No Known way to kill prions). This power permeates all matters of Fast Food. Fries, soda, buns, equipment, employees, and most influentially: Marketing.

Fast food is very popular amongst today’s society. Fast Food Nation has reasons for the explosion in popularity of fast food restaurants in the mid-1900’s. It also explains negative effects on American Culture in today’s society. The fast-food industry has multiplied across America and changed the food industry. Eric Schlosser describes in Fast Food Nation the way people think about what they eat and what people think of the fast food industry, and also its impact on society.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

In Eric Schlosser’s 2001 piece, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, he examines the rise of the fast food industry in the 1950’s as it was associated with the rampant consumerism of the era and shows how this led to the fast food industry becoming one of the most unethical, manipulative, and greedy industries that ever existed. Schlosser shows how fast food corporations, through mass appealing advertising, were able to manipulate consumers, especially young generations, into buying their products. Children were made the targets of advertising campaigns because these corporations knew that they were the most gullible audience. The 1950’s were filled with consumer trends in which buyers went after products that they believed to be popular and wanted to have the same things as everyone else. Corporations knew that they would have a very easy job in luring consumers because many other products and services had become trend setters in the 1950’s, so consumers would line up to buy fast food if it was presented as being “modern” and “trendy” in a sense. This paper will detail how consumerism and advertising played a large role in constructing American cultural identity during the post-war era.

Fast and processed food consumers are passive victims of food industry franchises. Such consumers usually purchase these food items, without questioning the cost or the origin. None of us ever stop to think how fresh or hygienic the food is. Does the processing procedure decrease the nutritive value of the food? Were chemicals used in the growing of it and if so is the food then dangerous? Would the food item be cheaper if the advertising, transportation, and packaging costs were excluded? ("Pleasures of Eating - Wendell Berry | Center for Ecoliteracy"). Industry consumers have no inkling the conditions under which these foods were produced; no idea of the type of farms, techniques or impediments that the

Disadvantages include the mere appearance of reduced responsibility to its customers. As written in The Economist’s article “Moveable Feasts; Food Trucks,” “…businesses that sell food are suspect. And what could be more suspicious than an outlet that sells food and then drives away before customers expire?” This may be a bit of a satirical take, but the sentiment of fear is real. While a restaurant would be punished with poor reviews and possibly a lawsuit following a case of food poisoning, a food truck is seen as operating with impunity. If confronted by dissatisfied customers, the operator will simply find a different locale. They are pejoratively referred to as “roach coaches,” echoing the sentiment that their offerings are of low quality, unsafe, and should not be consumed. Brick and mortar restaurants are subject to inspections that food trucks are not, bolstering the doubts of skeptical diners. According to The Economist, food truck operators are typically required to cook their food in inspected commercial kitchens (“Moveable Feasts”). This is an added operational cost, but it can possibly be mitigated by having the chef’s private cooking area inspected by the relevant authorities. As expected, food truck operators have triggered the ire of local restaurant owners with whom they directly compete. Local restaurateurs argue that, “food

Manipulation can not only be found to be used towards fast food restaurant employees, it can also be found in the food. Using man made additives such as monosodium glutamate, trans fat, and sodium nitrate manipulates the flavor of fast food by helping to enhance its overall flavor which is the result of having people go to fast food restaurants regularly. Altering the flavors of their food, especially meats, has not only helped them to attract consumers, it has also helped them to mask what goes behind the processing of their meats. Enhancing the flavors of their food makes the consumer totally disregard the potential dangers behind processed foods, as bacteria and viruses that cause foodborne illnesses are hiding within their meats. E. Coli, Salmonella, and other various diseases are not uncommon to find within a fast food industry due to the fact that they rely on the mass productions of beef and chicken. Relying on meatpacking industries results in the huge lack of concern when it comes to the supplier and the animals, just as long as the corporation gets their

Poor conditions leads to poor health and even after these inspections conditions didn’t improve as demonstrated in the novel, “Chew On This” by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. In fact the visits became even less when in 2006 only 9,164 inspections were conducted (food inc.). What this corresponds with is an increase in foodborne illnesses. NBC News can be noted as saying in 2009, “Ten years ago, a team of CDC scientists put together the best enduring estimate of how many Americans get food poisoning each year: 76 million illnesses, which resulted in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.” (nbc.com). As the number of chains began to increase soi did this number. This evidence is no coincidence. The CDC scientist mentioned previously also can be noted as saying the “1 in 4 americans are affected by foodborne illness each year” (nbc.com). In correspondence to this researchers who wrote the book, “Chew on this” stated “One in four children and forty percent of all teens eat fast food daily.” (Schlosser/Wilson 8). Without jumping to conclusion researchers are able to conclude that the increase in fast food visits directly connects to the steady

“Our purpose goes beyond what we sell. We’re using our reach to be a positive force. For our customers. Our people. Our communities. Our world.” This is what Mc Donalds has in place for their mission statement, or as they call it their “ambition”. Although on the surface it seems genuine and wholehearted, one must look beyond the words being stated and towards the actions that follow. According to Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, Mc Donalds does not follow said mission statement. He argues how there is a danger with fast food, yet many people are blinded by the golden arches and unaware of its harmful effects. I for one agree with Eric Schlosser, based on the findings I discovered regarding their food, employees,

One of the most shocking books of the generation is Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. The novel includes two sections, "The American Way" and "Meat and Potatoes,” that aid him in describing the history and people who have helped shape up the basics of the “McWorld.” Fast Food Nation jumps into action at the beginning of the novel with a discussion of Carl N. Karcher and the McDonald’s brothers. He explores their roles as “Gods” of the fast-food industry. Schlosser then visits Colorado Springs and investigates the life and working conditions of the typical fast-food industry employee. Starting out the second section, Schlosser travels to the western side of Colorado to examine the effects presented to the agriculture world in the new

Fast Food Nation: The Darker Side of the All-American Meal is very interesting and stimulating. The author, Eric Schlosser, makes excellent points in all his chapters, for example in the epilogue he describes how we can make a difference and that is by not buying fast food and by going somewhere else to eat. Also is chapter ten, he explains how the fast food industry is like a circus. However, not every chapter is as critical for people to read as chapter one. Chapter one is the most important chapter because it describes how fast food originated (the founding fathers), the chapter shows how corrupt and back-stabbing the fast food industry has become, and how gullible Americans can be.

Fast Food Nation and The Jungle discuss the working conditions for workers in United States factories during the 1900’s. Both books talk about the shortcuts that were taken in the factory and in the fast food restaurants. Fast Food Nation mainly describes the employees working in the fast food restaurants and the demands for quick service. The Jungle mainly describes how meat packaging was not regulated and every part of the animal was packaged and sold for profit. No regulations were in place for wages or what meat could be packaged and sold at the time.

From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers.

Workforce and rural/urban land use seems to be the broad topic of the introduction of Fast Food Nation. It is economics because the author is well educated on the on how much people have started to spend on fast food restaurants. The definition of workforce is “the people engaged in or available for work, either in a country or area or in a particular company or industry”, and the author is writing about people engaged with fast food restaurants. He is also engaging with fast food by doing research and writing a book about it.

Proposal: Change in the fast food industry (we can take a specific restaurant like McDonald’s) to fight obesity