Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is a 2001 book by Eric Schlosser.[1] First serialized by Rolling Stone[2] in 1999, the book has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair's 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle.[3] The book was adapted into a 2006 film, directed by Richard Linklater.
Background
Rolling Stone asked Schlosser to write an article looking at America through fast food in 1997 after reading his article on migrants in Atlantic Monthly.[4] He then spent nearly three years researching the fast-food industry, from the slaughterhouses and packing plants that turn out the burgers to the minimum-wage workers who cook them to the television commercials that entice children to eat them with the lure of cheap toys and colorful playgrounds. The experience enraged and appalled him.[5][6]
Summary
The book is divided into two sections: "The American Way" and "Meat and Potatoes". "The American Way" the first part, takes a historical view of the fast food business by analyzing its beginnings within post-World War II America while "Meat and Potatoes" examines the specific mechanisms of the fast-food industry within a modern context as well as its influence.
"The American Way"
The first section of Fast Food Nation opens with a discussion of Carl N. Karcher and the McDonald brothers, examining their roles as pioneers of the fast-food industry in southern California. This discussion is followed by an examination of Ray Kroc and Walt Disney's complicated relationship before ending with the consideration of the intricate, profitable methods of advertising to children. Next, Schlosser visits Colorado Springs, CO and investigates the life and working conditions of the typical fast-food industry employee, learning how fast-food restaurants pay minimum wage to a higher proportion of their employees than any other American industry.[7]
"Meat and Potatoes"
Reception
Rob Walker, writing for The New York Times, remarks that "Schlosser is a serious and diligent reporter" and that "Fast Food Nation isn't an airy deconstruction but an avalanche of facts and observations as he examines the fast-food process from meat to marketing."[13] Walker however does raise concerns about the data on which Schlosser bases his claims.[13] For example, Schlosser suggests that hundreds have died from E. coli infections as a result of eating fast food. However, as Walker points out, "[Schlosser] extrapolated his figures from an annual total in a report on food-related illness, which itself relied on a good deal of extrapolation. Moreover, that report doesn't address fast food specifically (and in fact Schlosser builds his numbers from figures including E. coli cases that are not even food-borne), which is relevant because fast-food outlets are hardly the only places where processed meat is sold."[13]
Julia Livshin, writing for The Atlantic, believes "Schlosser's book is not just a compendium of kitchen horror stories. In clean, sober prose packed with facts, he strips away the carefully crafted feel-good veneer of fast food and shows how the industry's astounding success has been achieved, and is sustained, at an equally astounding cost—to the nation's health, environment, economy, and culture."[14]
Chew on This
An adaptation of Fast Food Nation for younger readers titled Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know about Fast Food was published in May 2006 by Houghton Mifflin. Chew on This was first published in 2006, is an adaptation of the main work created by Schlosser and Charles Wilson for younger readers.[17] This book follows the general plot structure of Fast Food Nation, but simplifies its predecessor's original content to make it more readable for younger children.
See also
- The Corporation (film) — a 2003 Canadian documentary film critical of the modern-day corporation and its behavior towards society
- Labor rights in American meatpacking industry
External links
References
- Eric Schlosser. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal HarperCollins, 17 January 2001^
- Eric Schlosser. Fast-Food Nation Part One: The True Cost of America's Diet Rolling Stone, 1998^
- Upton Sinclair. The Jungle Doubleday, Jabber, & Company, 1906