Editorial Reviews:
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 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 of 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.
On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat. Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 1427 total reviews (Page 1 of 286):
 What an educational and important read!
As a self-professed foodie, I love to read about foods, cuisines and cooking. So it is only fitting that I read Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation". I enjoyed this book because it is highly educational and enlightening. Schlosser looks at the fast food culture from its humble beginnings in the early 20th century to its present day form. He also took us step by step through the fast food processing chain, which can be quite unappetizing and off-putting.
It is especially important that Schlosser explored the human element of the fast food chain, ranging from the farmers and slaughterhouse workers to the servers we encounter when we patronize a fast food restaurant. Sometimes it becomes rather disheartening when reading about how an initially quality food business has descended to a greedy, 100% profit-based, inhumane industry. However, as the author mentions in the book, change starts from within and the individual has the power of the purchasing decision.
I enjoyed this book very much and the only shortcoming of this book is the constant blaming of the Republicans and conservatives for the current state of the fast food industry. A first-rate investigative reporter/journalist should know better than to simplify the the evolution of the fast food insdustry to pure Republican greed. Review for Ms. Burns' English 101 Class
In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser goes in to harsh detail discussing the problems that the American fast food chains are causing to the health of America. Schlosser states that the chains have been chemically enahancing their foods and points out the issues such chemicals pose to human health. Also according to Schlosser, the chain have been using "cheap" agricultural practices in competition to provide more product at a cheaper price. The book reveals the hidden secret of why fast food is so fast, so good, and so cheap. It really gets real to the reader when schlosser begins metioning the long term effects that foods like Mc Donalds and Burger King will evenutally have on the human body. Schlosser has a valid arguement in his book and it is must read for any who lives in America. It will definitely will change any readers view of fast food.  Review for Ms. Burns' English 101 Class
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser is an awesome book that covers a lot of true stories in conjunction with the fast food industry. Readers go behind the scene of the hard but unskilled workers and learn about the unhealthy and gruesome conditions at the slaughter houses. This book will help you understand why it is so important to carefully choose what you eat. As good as that double-double may taste, you get what you paid for in the long run, as you read to uncover some of the tragic stories of people that have been victims of tainted food. As Schlosser states in Fast Food Nation, "the real price never appears on the menu" (9). To better educate yourself about what you're eating when you hear that voice say "may I take your order?" pick up this book! You will be surprised to learn how dangerous one meal can really be. Read it along with Super Size Me
An excellent view on history of the fast food industry and how it is processed and eventually end up on places like McDonald's. When I first read the book I didn't make care so much as many others did. However, as I saw more and more people getting sick every year and not being able to afford their health care bills, I started waking up to this warning.
No matter how much money or resources the government or private corporations put into health care services, drug and therapy research, it wouldn't make much difference if people decide to continue their fast food eating life style. It is time for them to act up, learn how fast food culture is destroying not just our economy, but our health and children's future. So if you do not care about the issues that I have raised above, continue to do so and be ready to face dire consequences. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly side of Franchise Capitalism
This book gives the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the fast food industry. Once they reach a certain critical mass in size, the bad and the ugly then it seems, begin to far outweigh the good. Giant food franchises like McDonald's have not only literally changed the national landscape, but have also changed and seriously distorted our way of life: to wit, made us unhealthy individually and as a nation, undermined labor and pollution laws, further corrupted our politicians, our tax system and system of government subsidies, killed the family farm running single farmers off their land and into the cities, etc. In short, for whatever good giants like McDonald's have done, the bad and the ugly has long since far outweighed this good.
Thus, at its deepest level, "Fast Food Nation" points to the many prototypical unintended consequences of unbridled capitalism, which when left unattended and under regulated, tend to seek its own level: the outer limits of governmental economic controls. When it does this, it always goes well beyond its established mandate of serving the public good and the national interest. At this point of no return, it then, inexorably, becomes a national nightmare: a virtual cultural mime that has metastasized like a cancer in the cultural bloodstream of our nation.
On the good side, franchise capitalism, when properly regulated and carefully restrained can be a national good and can serve many useful purposes within our culture, as it did for many decades, not the least of which is to make many an industrious entrepreneur rich beyond anyone's imagination. Under these conditions, they then represented the ultimate capitalist "rags-to-riches" dream.
But when franchise capitalism is coupled with unrestrained greed, the corruption of political graft, lobbying and payoffs or unfair government subsidies, insider trading, lax tax laws and business regulations, anti-trust violations, and improper sweetheart side deals, it can acquire an unwarranted power that turns it into an ambiguous cultural monster. When this happens, that power becomes a form of vampire capitalism. In short it becomes a very negative tool that can seriously alter, injure, undermine and even take over an entire culture.
What this book tells us is that such has been the case with the giants of the fast food industry in the U.S and across most of the world where they operate. They have become the dogs that no longer serve their master: the public and the common good. They have become too large to "heel" to the national interest. As a result, franchise fast food capitalism has become just another clear case of the tail wagging the dog. Like Bernard Madoff and Haliburton, it is just another fine example of what can happen when important matters of public policy are abandoned by government and left to the whims of the self-interest of corporations and greedy individuals.
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