Fries with that? I don't think so!
Written: Apr 26 '01 (Updated May 01 '01)
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Pros: A fascinating read that reveals the true evils of the fast food industry
Cons: Unfortunately the food still tastes good -- I can't stop eating it!
The Bottom Line: As much a study of globalization as a study of nutrition, this book is a gripping read. It has surely succeeded in making me think twice about fast food.
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| sulkn's Full Review: Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation Tie-in: The Dark... |
WHAT'S WRONG WITH FAST FOOD?
This book is about far more than most people assume. The hardcover's subtitle, "The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" instantly conjures up images of worms in beef patties and teenage kitchen staff spitting in milkshakes. Yes, greasy food is bad for you. Yes, as a society we are becoming increasingly obese, and fast food is a major culprit. However, Fast Food Nation delves beneath the obvious to reveal inherent evils of the fast food industry that you and I probably never considered before.
As much a study of globalization and commercialization as a study of nutrition, Fast Food Nation is a gripping read. The book held my attention in a way that only mystery novels and whodunits have in the past. Schlosser's writing style is crisp and fast-paced, and although the book is entirely factual, he explains his content in the context of interesting stories. He brings the human subjects of his writing to life, whether he's writing about Ray Krok, who turned the original McDonald's restaurant into today's mega-corporation, or Dave Feamster, an ex-NHL hockey player who owns five Little Caesar's franchises near Colorado.
So what's wrong with fast food? Plenty. Thankfully, Schlosser for the most part avoids sermonizing and sticks to the facts, although, he inarguably has an anti-fast food slant. The author provides plenty of convincing information to back up the potentially controversial points he makes. In general, Schlosser's observations lead to one conclusion: fast food is bad.
At risk of writing the longest Epinion ever, I've included some highlights below of some of the main points Schlosser makes in his book.
SUBURBAN HOMOGENIZATION
Again and again Schlosser points out how almost every neighborhood in North America is starting to look the same. As he drives down any highway, anywhere, the same clusters of McDonald's, Burger Kings, Pizza Pizzas, and Subways repeat over and over as if on a treadmill. Is this progress?
The bright neon signs of fast-food restaurants, designed to be clearly visible from nearby highways, are visual pollution. The clustering of restaurants just outside of residential areas, along with their drive-through windows, promotes our "car-culture" where driving is a necessity.
The sheer numbers of locations that franchises are able to open have put many older, smaller non-chain restaurants out of business. Soon, all communities may lose their individuality. Schlosser points out that many customers don't complain about this homogenization: often, they prefer the "known quantity" of a chain restaurant over the unknown.
MARKETING TO CHILDREN
Fast food restaurants openly target children, hoping to secure them as customers so that they will remain "loyal" to the brand throughout their teenage and adult lives. Schools, desperate for funds, have signed contracts with eager fast food corporations to give them sole rights to sell and promote their brands in the schools.
According to Schlosser, fast food corporations often make more money selling the toys that accompany children's meals than they do selling the food itself. The right promotion at the right time can increase food sales to children enormously.
Some fast food corporations have begun to write their own classroom lessons. They write textbooks and provide them to schools for free, and arrange for mascots such as Ronald McDonald to visit and promote the lessons further. Frighteningly, some of the lesson content is questionable and obviously biased: one corporation's lessons teach children that increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not lead to global warming, and is in fact good for the environment!
EXPLOITATION OF EMPLOYEES
It's not a coincidence that most of the people you see working in fast food restaurants are either young or newly immigrated to North America. The fast food industry thrives on a high staff turnover and inexperienced workers: these folks often don't have many other career options and will put up with the minimum wage pay and poor hours without complaining.
In fact, from an employer's view it's not profitable to keep the same employee for too long. The longer an employee stays the harder it is for a restaurant to avoid giving him a raise. Sadly, it's more economical to pressure an experienced employee until he quits and then hire a new 14 year old to replace him.
Fast food jobs are structured so that skill and experience aren't really valuable to the employer: unquestioning obedience and conformity is. Schlosser likens fast food kitchens to factories and observes that the food is "assembled" from freeze-dried parts, rather than cooked. Everything is connected to automated timers. As long as the employees obey the machine signals nothing can go wrong. Little training is required. Interestingly, however, American fast food restaurants often receive rebates from the government when they hire unskilled workers in exchange for "training" them to improve their careers. Fat chance they'll learn many valuable job skills in such an automated environment, however.
Schlosser documents how the fast food corporations often fight to have minimum wage levels reduced or eliminated. They avoid paying overtime by scheduling more workers less hours each, so that no single employee exceeds the number of hours that requires overtime. Sometimes, however, young workers are pressured into working overtime anyway, unpaid, or are compensated with food instead of money. Managers themselves are young and many have poor people skills and bully their workers. Employee theft is high. Attempts to unionize are quickly crushed, and in the few cases where unions have succeeded the restaurants have been mysteriously closed.
UNFAIR FRANCHISING
One might think that with such poor treatment of their workers, the owners of these restaurants must be reaping huge profits. Not so, says Schlosser. All major fast food corporations expand through franchising. In other words, independent business people pay fees to license a restaurant from the corporation and assume all risks if the restaurant fails.
The franchisees must obey all rules of the corporation, or they will be shut down. Often, for example, restaurant owners must buy all their supplies through "approved suppliers" even if they can buy the same products elsewhere much cheaper.
Creating a successful franchise requires an immense amount of work. Owners must dedicate themselves to long days of work for years on end if they hope to merely stay in business, never mind succeed. Corporations make the task harder by licensing multiple franchises very near to each other so they feed off each others customer base. If a restaurant fails it is the franchisee's loss: the corporation will simply license a new franchise to a new owner and receive a new round of franchising fees.
Schlosser humanizes the struggle of the franchisees by talking with several chain restaurant owners, and describes many of the unfair practices and daunting obstacles they must overcome to survive.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE CONDITIONS
The second half of Fast Food Nation is a little more traumatizing. If you are a vegetarian, don't read these chapters. If you aren't a vegetarian, this might make you reconsider (for the record, I am not a vegetarian -- yet!)
Schlosser's behind-the-scenes tour of a slaughterhouse, guided by a disgruntled worker, is eye-opening to say the least. Tales of workers tearing intestines from the insides of dead animals by hand, and hacking at dismembered carcasses in knee-deep blood abound. Working conditions are abysmal, with workers often injuring themselves or others as they swing sharpened blades in close quarters while frantically trying to keep up with the assembly line.
The cleanup crew seems to get the worst of the poor conditions, arriving late at night to spray the machinery with a deadly chlorine chemical mixture. The fumes make them nauseous and ill.. Sometimes they are overcome by the fumes and die; other times, they pass out and fall into still-running machinery where they are ground to pieces. Many of these workers are illegal immigrants, and injuries or even deaths go unreported.
WHAT IS IN THE FOOD?
The book becomes a little more technical here. Schlosser goes into much detail regarding the "natural" and "artificial" flavours that go into fast food. Due to the inherent tasteless nature of frozen and processed food, these flavours are necessary to convince our taste buds that we are in fact eating fresh and "real" food. However, they're all derived from chemicals. Also, don't be fooled, natural flavours are just as chemical as artificial flavours, and only technicalities in the laboratory differentiate them.
VARIOUS INTERESTING FACTS
- McDonald's french fries contain flavouring that is derived from meat products.
- For every large fries that is sold for $1.50 at a fast food restaurant, potato farmers earn about 2 cents.
- More American fast food workers are murdered on the job each year than police officers.
- Fast food restaurants make their largest profits from selling drinks: a large coke that sells for well over a dollar contains about 9 cents worth of syrup.
CONCLUSION
In this book Schlosser has surely succeeded in making me think twice about fast food. Some of the topics are quite complex, yet Schlosser makes them interesting and clearly understandable.
Anyone who eats fast food (at that's probably most of us) should read this book to gain a deeper understanding of how the fast food industry fits in to our society. If we know the facts, we can better make decisions for ourselves about what we want to eat, and what companies we want to support.
Recommended:
Yes
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sulkn
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Member: Gary
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
A 30-year-old web developer in Toronto, Canada.
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