Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All American Meal

Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That’s a lengthy list of charges, but here Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

Schlosser’s myth-shattering survey stretches from California’s subdivisions where the business was born to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike where many fast food’s flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths — from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate. He also uncovers the fast food chains’ disturbing efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even while they hone their institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The true world of Fast Food opens before your eyes!
This book is truly interesting in that it explains a process that many consumers thought that they were already familiar with.

This book will explain why:

1) it always seems the person at the register is being “trained”.

2) kids flock to most fast food joints.

3) the fast food industry exploded with growth in the last 30 years.

4) This country needs an alternative to our current and growing feeding trends!

2 Stars Disappointing
I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t eat at fast-food restaurants. I thought this book was going to be an interesting expose of the fast-food industry. Instead, it was a series of meandering stories that weren’t all that compelling. I got about halfway through the book and realized there was really no point in finishing it.

I noticed that whenever someone was portayed negatively, the word “Republican” invariably cropped up. When one meatpacking company owner became less sympathetic to workers, Schlosser goes out of his way to let the reader know that he went from being a liberal Democrat to a conservative Republican.

It’s this kind of political posturing (Schlosser is obviously a liberal Democrat who can’t keep his disdain for Republicans out of his writing), along with the fact that Schlosser just isn’t that good of a writer, that helps to sink this book.

I kept wondering when I was going to learn something interesting that wasn’t obvious. All I learned was what I already knew. Fast-food is a giant industry that pays teenagers low wages and uses a lot of potatoes from giant agribusiness companies and beef from giant cattle companies. Oh yeah, and they use flavorings from companies in New Jersey.

Stop the presses.

5 Stars By the Author of Outstanding You
Outstanding You: Discover, Design and Achieve Ultimate Fitness

This book should be required reading at all American schools. The purpose behind this book is not to convert people to vegetarian/vegan diets, but instead to educate them about the disastrous state our food supply is in. Though I use this book for information to support my vegan/vegetarian diet, I found it incredibly detailed and thought provoking. Highly recommended for anyone seeking more information on where their food comes from.

Ron Betta

Author - Outstanding You

5 Stars highest approval
received the book quicker than expected. the book was in excellent condition. I highly recommend this seller

5 Stars One Fast Food National Under God ! ?
The author offers reader a book behind the fast food industry which mushrooms around the county with their joints which the majority of working class rely on for their quick meals.

His research on the growers, suppliers, processors, laborers, politics and health issue behind the smiling teenager order takers leads reader to the composition of the hamburger in blood, tears and sweat from thousands of cattle, handled by the chain of workers before going to your mouth. It also makes you wonder who is eating the steaks and leaving the “residue of fats, noses, ears, trims” grounded into a mixture enhanced with artificial favor - a virtue”100% beef”.

Does fast food industry cost you an arm and a leg? By eating the cheap fast food, we may pay a dear price for healthcare later!

This book illustrates the Tao of food: good and bad, healthy and junk, natural and artificial, slow and fast, traditional and modern, real and illusion.

Who program the population in acting “the allegiance to the flag of fast food industry, one fast food nation under God with franchises around 50 states in offering cheap hamburgers and freedom fries for all”?

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