Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
The Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser inspected the effects of the fast food industry on the society as well as on the health of the people inhabiting it. Fast Food Nation is all about the effects of the fast-food culture that has expanded in the United States and has multiplied all over the world.
Each and every detail of the said culture has been examined and this includes the food, marketing, supply manufacture, effects on people who eats in fast-foods as well as on those who works for the fast-food industries which provides the needs of the fast-food strings, all of these among other things had been closely examined in the Fast Food Nation. Although fast-food is greatly appreciated by a large number of people, there is a dark side to he said industry which Schlosser tried to illustrate by means of great details in his book.
The fast-food business began in California and as these corporations and businesses developed and their achievements swelled they started to reach every side of the nation. This accomplishment has had a real effect on human culture and also, it is, to a certain degree, accountable for the way life is at the moment. According to Schlosser, we are an obese or overweight state. Fast-food is very fattening and they are sold in big bulks. The whole trade is very much planned. The food is fixed in taste laboratories and is intended to be very tempting, nearly (but definitely the same) likened to a drug.
The fast-food industries are engaged in marketing, for the most part to very young individuals, to get them fastened on their product because most of them taste good. However, tasting good and being good is not the same thing and thus, not simply because it tastes good it already necessarily follows that it is good. Past the taste of the product and marketing matters are a whole lot of other sections that are affected. The fast-food companies has a huge effect on meat production in that a great deal of the method on which the meat industry functions is an upshot of the influence of the fast-food industries in manipulating their providers.
The fast-food industries have a tremendous effect in salaries- keeping salaries low and misusing adolescents, immigrants and class minorities. Fast-foods also have huge effect on real estate and the way malls are constructed. Finally, the fast food companies are one of the founders in globalization and the expansion of the United State’s culture all over the world. Eric Schlosser is known as a very brilliant and exceptional journalist. He is renowned for his inclination to unearth America’s underground worlds and thus he went on to investigate black market economies, prison systems, and the like.
However, Schlosser is most well-known on his work Fast Food Nation and it is of no surprise that his work had been constantly compared side by side with Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. There are many people who admires Schlosser’ gut in uncovering the truth about fast food industries however, there are also those who showed great repugnance on his work, and while Sinclair’s The Jungle had been widely acclaimed even by those people he attacked, Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation had been greeted with great distaste by the fast food industries as well as by the meat packing business, among other groups of people.
I for one sees great promise on Schlosser’s work and I greatly admire the author in that his work was able to open my eyes to all sorts of truths which surround the fast food industry. If there is one thing I could fault him though, it is largely due to the fact that he offered only one side of the story. I commence the way Schlosser was able to make his audiences reflect that in one way or another, we are also partly to blame for the presence of such exploitations.
Surely, every one of us is guilty of going to McDonald’s and other fast food companies to eat our breakfast, lunch or dinner. We go there because the foods are quite delicious and the service is fast thus, adding another point for our convenience. However, Schlosser made us think that by doing so we are also advancing the exploitations of teens, immigrants and other destitute people.
I also remember doing a paper with regards to damage to environment and I remember reading something about McDonalds being one of the largest companies who are in constant need for disposable products which in turn advances the deterioration of our forests and I believe that regardless of what others attack Schlosser of, they could not really say that his writing regarding the fast food industries is without basis. In fact, if one would just stop for a moment and consider thing, most of the things Schlosser tried to tell us is nothing new for we are well aware of them through various discussions on class, watching news, and the like.
What Schlosser only did is that he thoroughly researched the topic, compiled them into one great work of literature, and added some new pieces of information to further enhance what we are already aware of and thus, I believe that those who attack Schlosser should first stop to consider these. There are those who claims that what Schlosser wrote is no longer true in that a great deal of change had already happened after Sinclair wrote about The Jungle, however, I believe that such is not the case and if one would just stop and mull things over then they would agree with me.
Sure, they may argue that Schlosser’s profession should not be always trusted for journalists are well-known for adding edge to the story, twisting some truths to better catch the audience attention and the like. However, did anyone stop to consider that the main reason why Fast Food Nation had been and still is a hit is because no one has yet been able to disprove the things Schlosser wrote?
McDonalds, KFC, and other fast food industries Schlosser attacked could easily disprove Schlosser’s version of the truth (and every one knows how much they want to) had they found one thing falsely written in the book, however, fact is, they did not, because Schlosser’s work is not based on fiction, they are wholly based on fact, from meticulous researches and study, all combined to produce a great masterpiece, and it is predominantly the reason why The Fast Food Nation is constantly used by teachers in their class, surely the book would not be seriously discussed in class if it is nothing but mere gibberish.
The author of the book, Schlosser began by recording or documenting how the fast-food chains started, what was the reason behind the sudden development, and the like. Schlosser gave a vivid description of fast-food and how the need started for fast, inexpensive, and unskillful labor. Advertising or promotion of the products is also investigated in such great profundity. Schlosser gave a description of the fame of McDonalds among young children all over the world.
Schlosser’s documentation and investigation gave us an insight on how promotion campaigns are directly intended for children; basically it is true that if children decided that they want to eat at McDonald’s then it is only logical to expect that the adults would also be there to eat with their children. Schlosser also set off some warnings tgo be heeded. American schools have begun to depend greatly for sponsorship from fast food industries, particularly those companies whose main products are soft drinks.
Under funding in education has ended in some schools exhibiting great promotion and ads signposts all over the school to obtain money which came from sponsorship. As a consequence, a considerable number of teenagers, particularly the male of the species, end up drinking at least 5 cans of soft drinks everyday. And each can hold at least 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is predominantly the reason why we end up getting fatter. Another part in the book informs us of the kind of individuals that are used for service on fast-food chains.
Most of those employed in these fast-food chains are made up of teens, parents allow their children to go work in the fast food industry without knowing how their children are being treated, and what kind of training their children have or no have to endure, or what would happen should their children decides to form or join a union. With a great number of teens being employed by the fast food industry, it is only a must that parents show interest in reading the Fast Food Nation.
McDonalds takes pride in creating foods which tastes the same no matter which country you are in, thus if you eat a Big Mac in the United Kingdom, it would be the same Big Mac you eat at the United States. What is of great interest to me was when Schlosser discussed the reason why home made fries simply does not taste the same as fries made in fast food companies. In the United States of America, up to the year of 1990, the potatoes were being fried in seven percent cottonseed oil and ninety percent in beef tallow, thus, one need not wonder why their fries tastes so good since it tastes of beef.
This regrettably provides their fries more saturated beef fat/ounce than one of the burgers they sells. In the midst of the criticisms regarding the quantity of cholesterol they allow people to take in, McDonalds made some modifications and it was then when they began putting in beef flavoring on the fries. Some countries or nations makes use of natural flavoring, however there are also those countries and nations which does not make use of natural flavorings because of the huge communities of the Hindus).
However, in Canada, Japan, Mexico, as well as on Australia, the fries are still being cooked on beef tallow, in these came about from the author’s meticulous research of the subject, on which Schlosser also made the people wonder if the vegetarians lot have any ideas what kind of foods they are taking in when they eat these fries and it was, I believe another strong points of the books. The vegetarians out there need to grab a copy of the Fast Food Nation in order to at least have some ideas on what kind of food they are consuming when they eat in these restaurants.
Also, a large part of the Fast Food Nation tackles the meat industry, which is one of the most alarming segments of the book, I believe. The way the treatments of the big boys in the said industry on established ranchers in the Fast Food Nation are nothing short of astonishing, and it worsens each day. The mistreatment of amateurish, and usually illegitimate, immigrants in abattoirs is very shocking and wicked.
The author unearthed the concealed truths on the way these people are being treated, the high risk of being injured or dying while at work is evident all throughout the book because of their unhealthy and perilous working conditions. The book also showed how such acts of violence are being concealed from the public. The Fast Food Nation was originally written by the author for Americans, and it is largely the reason why the United states system is under serious inspection in the said book.
However, I believe, that it does not matter much in which part of the world the said things occur, the gist of the story is easy in that they simply should not be permitted to continue to exist. Others who do not agree with me, should find a time to read the book because maybe, they do not know that a normal McDonald’s burger was made up of different meat from different animals. I believe that Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation is very much exceptionally written. The book, in spite of its numerous attacks on McDonald’s, is not an anti-McDonald’s movement especially since Eric Schlosser also mentioned other fast food companies.
The only reason why the McDonald’s materializes in the book so much is because it is the largest corporation as well as the most widespread all over the world, thus, Schlosser featured McDonalds in a much considerable manner than the rest of the fast food chains mentioned in the book. Another facet of the book I commence much is the way the author wrote the book in a very matter-of-fact way, thus eliminating whatever sort of biases or of giving his own opinion in the book.
There are interviews with certain individuals who found their selves in some of the mess Schlosser described all throughout his book. There is one segment in the book, which is labeled the “Notes” on which the readers could find a list arranged through page numbers, of assertions and accounts accompanied by the source from which the author took the claim from making the readers realize just how the book was very much written in a matter of fact and unbiased manner and this is mainly the reason why I do not believe the claims that the things he wrote about are nothing but falsehood.
They could not really make me believe it especially since I noticed through reading the book how very meticulous Schlosser is in backing up every claims and assertions he made in the Fast Food Nation, everything he mentioned or stated there are supported by hard proofs or evidences taken from credible sources. In fact, if there are things you find so astonishing to believe, all you have got to do is look for the “Notes” and he would give details on how he came about to that particular conclusion, a meticulous book indeed. One of the main purposes of this paper is for me to state how the Fast Food Nation influenced or affected me as a reader.
Basically, I have always been aware of the way McDonalds, KFC, and the like serves nothing but junk foods and yet I always find myself buying their products. In spite of the fact that I know very well how fattening those foods could be and how very unhealthy they are in spite of that I still could not help but eat their products for they tastes so good and they are so convenient to buy especially when one does not have but more than just a few minutes to spend on eating. However, reading Eric Schlosser’s masterpiece I realized that it is not only my body I am destroying while taking part in the fast food industry.
It made me realize how I am also to blame for the miseries others experiences by working in an unhealthy and dangerous places just for meager amount of pay. The fact that they gets richer and richer and yet they do nothing to better the circumstances of those people responsible for their success, the fact that they are having tons of money because of consumers like me and yet they do not do anything to take our health into consideration (for surely they could make foods which tastes nice and is good for the body) is enough to bring my blood to boil.
It was predominantly based on this line of reasoning that I could say that Eric Schlosser’s the Fast Food Nation made me think twice before eating again on fast food chains; in fact I may not find myself eating those stuffs in the near future. Just as the author stated, the foods they serves tastes good, inexpensive and they should be commence for the convenience they gives yet the real cost of those foods they serves the consumers could not really be found in the menu no matter how hard you search for it. References Schlosser, E. (2001). Fast food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal Houghton Mifflin.
Sample Essay of AssignmentExpert.com