Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser. Perennial of HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. 383 pp., $13.95.
³As American as a small, rectangular, hand-held, frozen, and reheated apple pie.² (p. 3)
Far from being a run of the mill expose on calories and fat grams in fast food, Fast Food Nation is a hard-hitting critique of the industrialization of America¹s and, later, the world¹s food supply. The consequences of this industrialization have far-reaching effects on working people around the world. Fast food chains are at the pinnacle of a giant food-industrial complex that controls the nation¹s food supply.
Schlosser begins with some thumb nail sketches of fast food¹s ³founding fathers.² None of today¹s fast food giants were started by large corporations. They were all started by people of very modest means. Harland Sanders is a good example. He ³left school at the age of twelve, worked as a farm hand, a mule tender, and a railway fireman. At various times he worked as a lawyer without having a law degree, delivered babies as a part-time obstetrician without having a medical degree, sold insurance door to door, sold Michelin tires, and operated a gas station . . . . and at the age of sixty-five became a traveling salesman once again, offering restaurant owners the secret recipe¹ for his fried chicken. The first Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant opened in 1952 . . . . Lacking money to promote the new chain, Sanders dressed up like a Kentucky colonel² (p. 23).
But despite the modest beginnings of Harland Sanders, William Rosenberg (Dunkin¹ Donuts), Dave Thomas (Wendy¹s), Thomas S. Monaghan (Domino¹s) and others, they have created giant empires that brutally exploit millions of underpaid workers across the globe.
Next, Eric Schlosser describes how McDonald¹s and others market to children. Many of these companies have ³¹cradle-to-grave¹ advertising strategies.² Apparently, ³¹brand loyalty¹ may begin as early as age two.
³As American as a small, rectangular, hand-held, frozen, and reheated apple pie.² (p. 3)
Far from being a run of the mill expose on calories and fat grams in fast food, Fast Food Nation is a hard-hitting critique of the industrialization of America¹s and, later, the world¹s food supply. The consequences of this industrialization have far-reaching effects on working people around the world. Fast food chains are at the pinnacle of a giant food-industrial complex that controls the nation¹s food supply.
Schlosser begins with some thumb nail sketches of fast food¹s ³founding fathers.² None of today¹s fast food giants were started by large corporations. They were all started by people of very modest means. Harland Sanders is a good example. He ³left school at the age of twelve, worked as a farm hand, a mule tender, and a railway fireman. At various times he worked as a lawyer without having a law degree, delivered babies as a part-time obstetrician without having a medical degree, sold insurance door to door, sold Michelin tires, and operated a gas station . . . . and at the age of sixty-five became a traveling salesman once again, offering restaurant owners the secret recipe¹ for his fried chicken. The first Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant opened in 1952 . . . . Lacking money to promote the new chain, Sanders dressed up like a Kentucky colonel² (p. 23).
But despite the modest beginnings of Harland Sanders, William Rosenberg (Dunkin¹ Donuts), Dave Thomas (Wendy¹s), Thomas S. Monaghan (Domino¹s) and others, they have created giant empires that brutally exploit millions of underpaid workers across the globe.
Next, Eric Schlosser describes how McDonald¹s and others market to children. Many of these companies have ³¹cradle-to-grave¹ advertising strategies.² Apparently, ³¹brand loyalty¹ may begin as early as age two.