Fast Food
Nation - The Dark Side Of The All-American Meal
Written By Nutriwonders
The New York Times graciously
reprinted the first chapter of an astounding book by Eric Schlosser.
Its title is Fast Food Nation. Its theme will either change the way
we have been eating for the last twenty years or demonstrate clearly
to history that we as a nation do not heed clear warnings of grave personal
danger. We will quote extensively from Mr. Schlosser's first chapter.
He sounds the warning as well as any.
"OVER THE LAST THREE
DECADES, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American
society. An industry that began with a handful of modest hot dog and
hamburger stands in southern California has spread to every corner of
the nation, selling a broad range of foods where ever paying customers
may be found. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs,
at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, and universities,
on cruise ships, trains and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations,
and even at hospital cafeterias. In l970, Americans spent about $6 billion
on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $ll0 billion. Americans
now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal
computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food
than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music-combined.
"...On any given day
in the United States about one-quarter of the adult population visits
a fast food restaurant.
"...The McDonald's Corporation
has become a powerful symbol of America's service economy, which is
now responsible for 90 percent of the country's new jobs.
"...The impact of McDonald's
on the way we live today is hard to overstate. The Golden Arches are
now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.
"...The industrialization
of the restaurant kitchen has enabled the fast food chains to rely upon
a low-paid and unskilled workforce. While a handful of workers manage
to rise up the corporate ladder, the vast majority lack full-time employment,
receive no benefits, learn few skills, exercise little control over
their workplace, quit after a few months, and float from job to job.
The restaurant industry is now America's largest private employer, and
it pays some of the lowest wages. During the economic boom of the 1990s,
when many American workers enjoyed their first pay raises in a generation,
the real value of wages in the restaurant industry continued to fall.
The roughly 3.5 million fast food workers are by far the largest group
of minimum wage earners in the United States. The only Americans who
consistently earn a lower hourly wage are migrant farm workers.
"...The typical American
now consumes approximately three hamburgers and four orders of French
fries every week.
"...The fast food chains'
vast purchasing power and their demand for a uniform product have encouraged
fundamental changes in how cattle are raised, slaughtered, and processed
into ground beef. These changes have made meatpacking-once a highly
skilled, highly paid occupation-into the most dangerous job in the United
States, performed by armies of poor, transient immigrants whose injuries
often go unrecorded and uncompensated. And the same meat industry practices
that endanger these workers have facilitated the introduction of deadly
pathogens, such as E. coli 0157:H7, into America's hamburger meat, a
food aggressively marketed to children.
"...Hundreds of millions
of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware
of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases. ...I've
written this book out of a belief that people should know what lies
behind the shiny, happy surface of every fast food transaction. They
should know what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns. As the
old saying goes: You are what you eat."
We at Nutriwonders suggest
that we all read Mr. Schlosser's book.
Good health!
