On This: A Summary: Chew On This, By Eric Schlosser

Chew On This: A Summary For most millennials, fast food has been a major factor in their lives. Some don’t even know what a life was like without fast food restaurants around every corner. Whenever a quick meal is needed, a 5 minute stop at the nearest McDonald’s is typically an American’s first thought. While this industry is convenient, it has its flaws. Eric Schlosser exposes the flaws of the fast food industry in his book Chew On This. The idea of the hamburger was invented by a local meatball vendor at the Outagamie County fair. Charlie Nagreen sold meatballs at the town’s annual county fair to make a little money on the side. He noticed people at the fair were having trouble consuming the meatball while strolling around the fair. To
Two brothers by the names of Richard and Maurice McDonald combined the hamburger with a service system known as the Speedee Service System to create the fast food industry we have today. This system was perfected by Fred Turner. The restaurant the brothers formed was formerly named the Mcdonald Brothers Burger Bar. When bought by Ray Kroc, the restaurant was given the popular name, known by most Americans, McDonald’s. Kroc managed to spread the new idea of a fast food industry across America. Soon, a McDonald’s could be found nearly anywhere. The idea of a sameness was common in these fast food industries. The french fries had to be the same, the hamburgers had to be the same, all food sold at these restaurants had to taste the same so that customers would not conjure up a bad reputation from one restaurant and never return to another again. The fast food industry aimed their audience at young children. If children wanted to eat at a fast food restaurant, then so did their parents. This meant more income for the company. McDonald’s restaurants began to open near schools, and eventually inside of them. However, after seeing how fast food and sugary sodas could hinder a child’s growth, they have been boycotted and removed from inside of
Animals that are bred to be made into hamburgers and chicken nuggets live terrible lives with cruel deaths. They are often kept in crowded farms with no space to move or roam. They are fed the cheapest feed that will make them gain fat and are given hormones to boost their rate of growth. When chickens are slaughtered to be made into McNuggets, they go through a harsh process. First, they are stunned so they will be unconscious when moving on to the next stage. Next, their throats are slit open. Some chickens that have avoided the stunning of the first stage are still alive for the second stage, and sometimes even the third. The third stage is a boiling bath to help rid of the feathers on chickens. No chicken is known to survive this