Overview of “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser

When do you think of fast food which restaurant comes to mind? Most of you thought of McDonald’s, wonder why? Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, goes in-depth about how famous fast-food chains began to be, such as Burger King, Carl’s Jr., and Wendy’s. Moreover, exclusive insights of how each food item is prepared, the ingredients used, and the merchandise that makes you coming back for more. You are what you eat, so what are you? Fast Food Nation is written by an investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, and it was published in 2001. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a publishing company that helps Eric Schlossler published his first book Fast Food Nation, which encouraged to start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. I believe that this book was targeted for general readers because the book describes the local and global influence of the United States’ fast food industry and how American eating and food-production patterns have changed since World War Two.

Eric Schlossler is an award-winning journalist and author known for investigative journalism. Eric Schlossler was born in Manhattan, New York; he spent his childhood there and in Los Angeles, California. Eric Schlossler is an Author, Journalist, Film director, Film Producer, and Activist. Eric Schlossler graduated from Princeton University with a degree in American History. Eric Schlossler is known for his ground breaking-books, which reveal the secrets which influential government officials and bureaucracies don’t want you to know. Eric Schlosser’s major achievement was his first book, Fast Food Nations. Schlossler was asked to write an article looking at America through fast food in 1997 by Rolling Stone. Schlossler spent nearly three years researching about the fast-food industry from slaughterhouses to packing plants that turn out the burgers to the minimum-wage workers who cook them to the television commercials that attract children to eat them with the bait of cheap toys and colorful playgrounds. Fast Food Nation of America started as a magazine article and turned out to be one of the world’s bestseller. Yes, I believe that Eric Schlossler is qualified to talk about this topic because this book has several good points to it and many of which I had never thought of before. The points he talks about in the book led behind the scenes and helped to expose the problems and issues with the fast-food industry as well as revealing the dirty little secrets that get people thinking. The author intended to convince readers that he viewed the emerging fast-food industry as a threat to independent businesses. In my own words, the author’s thesis meant that the fast-food industry is going to be a threat moving forward due to the economy dominated by giant corporations as a homogenizing influence on American Life.

‘Fast Food Nation,’ by Eric Schlossler, begins by pointing out the after-war ascendance of fast food from Southern California, surveying the effect on individuals in the West by and large. The next half takes a gander at the item itself: where it is made what goes into it and who is mindfully Mentioning a progression of objective facts about McDonald’s that he has obtained over time. Such as, the organization works around 28,000 eateries around the globe. It’s the United States, the largest buyer of beef and potatoes, and the number one proprietor of retail property. The organization is one of the nation’s best toy merchants and its biggest private administrator of play areas. The McDonald’s image is the most acclaimed and the most intensely advanced on the planet. ‘The Golden Arches,’ Schlosser proclaims, ‘are presently more generally perceived than the Christian cross.’ obviously,

McDonald’s isn’t the only one. ‘The entire experience of purchasing fast food,’ he composes, ‘has turned out to be so standard, so altogether unexceptional and ordinary, that it is currently underestimated, such as brushing your teeth or ceasing for a red light.’

Yet, Schlosser, a journalist for The Atlantic Monthly, wrote the book to reveal to the reader, this is not as it ought to be. With this book, Schlosser’s mission, created from articles composed for Rolling Stone, is to compel his readers to stop and ponder about the consequences of McDonald’s and its kind (and, progressively, worldwide) – to mull over ‘the dim side of the all-American supper. There are many major themes throughout the book, one’s one diet, nutrition, and food Safety and greed, corporations, and ‘The Bottom Line’ relate heavily to what we have discussed in the lecture.

As I noted earlier in the text, Schlosser takes note of how fast food was initially an idea having a place with a specific place, Southern California, which was the focal point of auto culture in America quickly after the Second World War. We touched base on this in the lecture when we discussed trade policy. The farm economy began to overproduce in alignment with the increased vehicles and the uprising of pesticides and chemical use. Both the trade policy discussion and the book are in agreeance that post-war the economy took a turn, and power began to shift from the farmer, and ‘regional businesses became a fast food industry, a major component of the American economy.’ In fact, the NAFTA lecture explains as well the negative effects of the large corruption hold on US agriculture. The increased production due to the increased demand by fast food industries caused a ripple effect. As the dumping of petroleum and pesticides into crops heighten, people become sick, produce production decreases, and gas prices rise. With this analysis alone, it is fair to say the Schlosser’s argument is supported by History, employees of McDonald’s and meat-processing industries, and others who have done the research as well.

Although, ‘Fast Food Nation’ is a successful factual and read it is motive driven and in return did receive some backlash from some articles, the fast-food industry itself, and the corporate meat market as well. It is described as an uncalled-for portrayal of the industry. Terrie Dort, leader of the National Council of Chain Restaurants, discharged this announcement about Schlosser and his book: ‘Tragically that Mr. Schlosser’s book, ‘Fast Food Nation,’ arranges the whole fast-food industry in such a negative light. The eatery organizations that contain the business give work to a huge number of specialists the nation over and offer purchasers a wide assortment in menu alternatives and costs. We protest the portrayal in this book.’ But one has to hear this a wonder is it not simply a biased opinion against strong sound facts.

Nevertheless, Schlosser’s most profound shock is coordinated not at fast-food administrators but rather at their partners in the meat industry and what he calls their longstanding protection from governmentally commanded nourishment security hones. ‘I have never experienced any business that works so deceptively and is so unrepentant,’ he states straight. It is understood the way the meat industry feels because of the way he describes them in the text. is striking portrayals of the disgusting conditions in the feedlots and slaughterhouses he went to, and additionally of the lives of the migrant laborers, have been contrasted with Upton Sinclair’s 1906 exemplary, ‘The Jungle.’ That book so repelled President Teddy Roosevelt that he, in the end, prodded Congress into passing the country’s, to begin with, though powerless, nourishment wellbeing enactment.

Schlosser contends that the meatpacking business’ underlying reaction in 1906 hasn’t changed considerably finished the century: ‘The industry has repeatedly denied that problems exist, impugned the motives of its critics, fought against federal oversight and sought to avoid any responsibility for outbreaks of food poisoning.’ While the meat-packaging industry is in outrage, Schlosser understands that the power lies in the consumer. This is because the meatpacking business has such solid partners in Congress, and customers may have a quicker, much more capable device: If they quit purchasing fast food, the industry will be compelled to change its ways.

Several qualities of the book and its mission to bring reform to the fast-food industry, but more importantly, the meat packaging production, reminds me of the 2004 documentary ‘Super Size Me’ by Morgan Spurlock. The film is about a Morgan Spurlock’s examination of the consequences of living only on McDonald’s fast food for a month straight in which he also, whenever asked by the cashier, had to super-size his meals. The documentary made a huge impact and shined a light of the negative effects of consuming fast food. In fact, McDonald’s removed its super-size portions from the meals shortly after the film aired. Spurlock and Schlosser are all in all getting people talking about an issue in America and globally.

Eric Schlosser’s bolting ‘Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,’ gives a rich and point by point guide to the beginnings of the fast-food industry, and the move it made on our way of life, lifestyle and dietary patterns. Part history lesson and part guide to the future, Schlosser weaves a definite, wakeup call about sustenance, and the ventures we nourish, when we take a chomp of that quite tasty burger. Fast Food Nation is anything but difficult to peruse, and quick-paced, however, in the event that you cherish McDonald’s, be cautioned. Schlosser The book, at the very least, makes it challenging continuing eating fast food in happy numbness. Although, the underlining the message that ‘Fast Food Nation’ condemns is the free-advertise eagerness that has made saints of the burger fans Gates and Buffett, the last of whom has broadly been a noteworthy McDonald’s investor. The book, all in all, is a great read, and I look forward to reading some of his other work.