In Praise Of Fast Food Summary

In the prestigious documentary film, Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner and founded upon an Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, Mr. Kenner has an intriguing impact on the American consumers of many food products and industries. Throughout the film, viewers and everyday consumers of these various products, visualize what takes place behind the scenes in food factories, contrary to what they may see through forms of advertisement. The documentary generates an image of an “Agrarian America” in a naturalistic way to convey the message of what food production truly consists of. The film uses ethos, pathos, and logos as rhetorical devices to enhance the horrendousness of food production to its audience in multiple ways. Food Inc. provides not only a visual effect on the audience's emotion to portray its message, but uses a variety of commentary scenes from several experts and members within the food industry.

This paper looks to define and explore three books which are a crux to various food histories which in the last decade has become a scholarly journey as food history is becoming increasingly studied as a scholarly endeavor by historians where previously it was not seen in such a scholarly light. The three texts which are going to be examined are: Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffery M. Pilcher, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, and lastly To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Urban Food Culture in the Jim Crow South by Angela Jill Cooley. Each of these books seek to redefine how people see their perspective topics whether it be Mexican identity rooted in cuisine, the evolution of southern food in a racially divided south, or even the concept of the restaurant emerging from a revolutionary culture. These texts bring awareness to various topics which have both social, cultural, and economic stigmas associated with them.

Malcolm Gladwell’s article “The Trouble with Fries” is about a very invasive topic. Fast Food is killing us. Can it be fixed? Although his thesis statement isn’t exactly clear, he effectively uses evidence to convince his audience that a nutrition movement is needed especially for fast food. By discussing many factors with supporting evidence that is factual he shows why fast food is struggling to have a nutrition movement.

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.

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

Many people have grown up around school lunches without knowing much about them. With these people trusting the schools to serve healthy lunches to students, not many people care to worry about what they are eating. Growing up ignorant about food is easy to do, but why settle for convenience if it harms the body? In Melanie Warner’s novel, Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food took over the American Meal, she goes over the history and science of many well-known food companies and the products these corporations sell to individuals. Warner explains how food science became popular to study and how progressive America’s food technology has come. Pandora’s Lunchbox is a remarkable read through its personal stories and demonstrations. Despite her fruitless comments about the science of food, Warner’s approach shows that her writing style and personal testimonies connect with the reader.

In Don’t Blame the Eater, David Zinczenko composes his opinion on the fast food industry’s absence of nutritional information and more. Zinczenko starts his piece by giving his own life experience. He recalls his childhood trying to find food and that fast food was “the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal” (Zinczenko 462). By giving his own life experience, Zinczenko relates to the reader and grabs their attention.

This book discusses the fast-food industry and seeks to describe the impact of the industry on the U.S. economy and society. Also, it talks about the guys who has been investigating the fast food industry for many years. From his broad research, he has uncovered an abundance of little-known, frequently unsettling truths about the fast food industry.

The story of the fast food industry and its effect on the world is well told in the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Schlosser makes the claim that, what started out as a special treat for the kids eventually ended up defining a way of life. During a brief period of time, the fast food industry has helped transform not only the American diet, but also our countryside, economy, workforce, and popular culture. The book thoroughly describes how important the two factors of money and power are in today's society. The book clearly establishes the broader thesis that as consumers, we should know what we eat even if it makes us uncomfortable by the knowledge.

Knowing what is in your fast food might make you think twice the next time you devour it. As the rise of the fast food nation in America has increased to an all-time high, so has the weight and waists of Americans all around the country. Not only has the United States grown to love the acquired taste of greasy golden fries and juicy burgers, it has also grown ignorant to the way their food is prepared. In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”(2002), by Eric Schlosser, he makes compelling points in his position against the fast food industry.

He wants to show a personal account of the difficulties that everyday people endure trying to accommodate different aspects of a fast food meal possible to the consumer. By stressing this, Schlosser also shows the need for the sanitation of fast food to be dealt seriously. He directs these ideas towards the less informed of American society. Schlosser wants to reach out to those that wish to become more informed of the fast food aspect of America, and to Americans, fast food has become a normal aspect of life. Even Professer Pothukuchi, of Wayne State University agrees that “fast food is destroying us: individuals, communities, work and family life, and indeed, our very connections with the world” (Pothukuchi 1). This book is intending the audience to steer away from what seems harmless, because fast food seems innocuous, when in reality is the opposite.

In the story In Praise of Fast Food the author is arguing how much better industrialized food is then natural food. Most believe eating natural is the way to go and processed foods is not good for the body. To our ancestors natural foods were not good. “Natural often tastes bad. Fresh meat was rank, and tough, fresh fruits incredibly sour, fresh vegetables bitter.”(Laudan 332) Our ancestors had it much harder than what we do today. Food is now more convenient leaving us more time and giving us more options then what our ancestors had.

The New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is one of the most riveting books to come out about fast food restaurants to date (Schlosser, 2004). Fast food consumption has become a way of life for many in the United States as well as many other countries in the world. The author Eric Schlosser an investigative reporter whose impeccable researching and bold interviewing captures the true essence of the immense impact that fast food restaurants are having in America (2004). Beginning with McDonald’s, the first fast food restaurant, which opened on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois to current trends of making fast food a global realization McDonald’s has paved the way for many fast food

Food is very much a part of pop culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. Pop culture includes the ideas and objects generated by a society, including foods, and other systems, as well as the impact of these ideas and objects on society. For example, Mcdonald's is another of the thousands of fast food chains that populate our cities though they often use the term “popular culture” only to refer to media forms. Their popularity has also increased internationally. Although all humans need food to survive, people's food habits and how they obtain, prepare, and consume food, are the result of learned behaviors. Mcdonald’s, like other food chains, has made an effort to ‘localize’ its products so that they will be more successful in each different cultural context. These collective behaviors, as well as the values and attitudes they reflect, come to represent a group’s pop culture.

Known as the fast-food icon around the world, McDonald’s French fries have taken the world by storm. In Eric Schlosser’s essay, “Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good”, he uses the popularity of McDonald’s French Fries to begin his essay and to effectively capture his audiences’ attention to make them realize that there is a problem with our favorite fast-food meals. What is really put into the foods we eat and why it smells and tastes so good, specifically McDonald’s French fries, is effectively answered in Schlosser’s essay. The reality of what is really going on behind the scenes of fast-food restaurants is revealed through Schlosser’s facts, intricate detail, and personal experiences to effectively come to the conclusion that processed foods are