Fast Food Nation begins by discussing Carl Karcher, one of the fast food pioneers. He was born in 1917 in Ohio, where he worked on a farm. Later in life, Carl bought a hotdog cart which later turned into a drive-in Barbeque restaurant. The post world war II economy provided him with many customers. When he compared McDonald’s with Walt Disney, Schlosser pictured Ray Kroc as a perceptive businessman only concerned in expanding his business. Schlosser demonstrated how fast-food industries, which offers little nutrition in their foods, manipulates young minds into purchasing their products. They try to portray themselves as trusted friends of consumers and they prey on the schools who systems have declining income. Teenagers have been the bulk of fast food workforce because …show more content…
Schlosser interviewed high school students who said they work up to twelve hour shifts. They spend more time buying expensive and useless items rather than getting an education. Schlosser visits a Little Caesars, owned by NHL player Dave Feamster. He opened the restaurant after he got hurt playing hockey. To become a franchisee, Feamster had to pay $15,000. J.R Simplot grew up working in a potato house. He also invested in frozen food technology and began selling frozen French fries to McDonalds. Schlosser visits a Colorado rancher named Hank. Hank shows him his ranch, with the intent to show him the difference between what he does and what the fast food industry does. He takes many precautions, making sure his land and animals are well raised. Meatpacking companies combined allowing farmers to sell their cattle at competitive rates. Many farmers were forced to sell their cattle off and quite the business. Many farmers, including Hank, take their own life away. Iowa Beef Packers opened slaughterhouses using the same principles that McDonalds did with its fast food
Chapter four begins with a typical night on the job for a Little Caesars employee. The employee is driving to a customers house to deliver a pizza, he then collect the money owed, and drives back to the Little Caesars Pizza where he is employed at. The author then tells us about the local Little Caesars manager, Dave Feamster. He informs the readers on how Feamster was supposed to be playing in the National Hockey League, but an injury prohibited him from doing that. When a friend suggested that he become a franchisee of a fast food restaurant, he was a bit hesitant. Dave Feamster soon gave it a try and became and ended up becoming a franchisee for Little Caesars Pizza.
Schlosser examines how youths assume a crucial part in the workforce of the fast food industry. He takes note of around 66% of the country's fast food laborers are less than 20 years old. Rather than depending upon a little, steady, generously compensated, and well‑trained workforce, the fast food industry searches out part‑time, young laborers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the ideal possibility for these occupations, not just on the grounds that they are less lavish to procure than grown-ups, additionally in light of the fact that their young inability makes them simpler to control. Another part of strong throughput is strict regulation at fast food eateries. Organizations force strict guidelines on how an errand is to be performed and make undertakings so they require as meager aptitude as could be allowed. Subsequently, it is anything but difficult to supplant specialists with new contracts, affordably and productively. Schlosser assaults the business for gathering government endowments for representative preparing and utilizing the financing rather to make more advances to dispense with preparing for
Fast Food Nation covers two parts of the American fast food; the iconic and cultural domination of American fast food after WWII, and how the food that makes up the meals make it from farms to the dinner table. Author Eric Schlosser starts the book by talking about Ray Kroc, who is the leading force behind the domination of McDonald’s as the USA’s largest fast food restaurant. As an iconic part of the US, McDonald’s is better than any other; their logo, the golden arches, is recognized more globally than the Christian cross. After talking about how McDonald’s has spread all over the world, Schlosser describes the life of working as a fast food employee earning minimum wage. According to Schlosser, fast food joints have a culture like no
The fast food industry both feeds and prays off the young. Pioneers in developing marketing strategies to target children, the fast-food chains have even infiltrated the nation's schools through lunchroom franchises and special advertising packages that answer public education's need for funds; in every way possible, giving the children a loyal friend to rely on. In many franchises, teenagers are perfect candidates for low-paying, low-skilled, short-term jobs and constitute a large part of the fast-food chains' workforce; and often practically run individual locations, having more responsibility than most adults.
Eric Schlosser is one of the authors who describes the fast food phenomenon in his book Fast Food Nation. According to him, the biggest problem is the fast food industry that is increasing day by day. Fast food has affected not only the restaurants and the market, but also all the sectors of people's life, from the professional life to the personal one. This affirmation is sustained by Schlosser's statement: "Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. " ( Schlosser 3 ) The fast food industry has got into institutions and parts of the world that no one believed would be affected. Moreover, the power of fast food can be seen by taking a look at the American individual, who gives fast food different
Schlosser was able to partially satisfy the criteria that a nonfiction book should include relevant anecdotes that help the reader connect to the fast food industry that causes health risks for its workers. He started the book off with chapter one solely on the relationship of Ray Croc, the owner of McDonalds, and Walt Disney. However, he was unable to incorporate the importance of the relationship into his overall claim regarding the disregard of workers and consumers health by the fast food companies. After he finished with the overly drawn out anecdote, he began to provide relevant anecdotes from actual workers in different jobs associated with the business. First he started with Elisa, a sixteen year old McDonald’s employee that wakes up at 5:15 every morning and spends seven hours behind the counter on her feet, and when she gets home her feet hurt. (pg. 68) He uses Elisa’s anecdote wisely since his readers can easily connect with her story
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, is a stark and unrelenting look into the fast food industry that has ingrained itself in not only American culture, but in culture around the world. There is almost no place on earth that the golden arches has not entered. Aside from Antarctica, there is a McDonalds on every continent, and the number of countries that have fast food restaurants is growing on a daily basis. Schlosser describes in detail what happens behind the scenes, before the hamburger and fries come wrapped in environmentally safe paper and are consumed by millions of people daily
Schlosser also focuses about how the fast food chains market their products. "A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus. 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" (P.4). By this quote you can see who fast food chains marketed towards. They did this because if children went they also
1. Eric Schlosser chose the topic of fast food industry because he became quite inspired after reading an article about illegal immigrants in a strawberry field and how they a suffered in the process. The article was based on an investigation that was placed on the fields while they worked. It was also based on the immense impact that this industry had on society. Schlosser wanted to as said in his book “shed light” to the world on how successful hard working industry works. Also the way American industries portray and work in the diligent industry throughout the years . Since the fast food restaurants are known as one of the most active businesses which makes them a perfect example of what he was trying to convey.
Fast Food Nation: The Darker Side of the All-American Meal is very interesting and stimulating. The author, Eric Schlosser, makes excellent points in all his chapters, for example in the epilogue he describes how we can make a difference and that is by not buying fast food and by going somewhere else to eat. Also is chapter ten, he explains how the fast food industry is like a circus. However, not every chapter is as critical for people to read as chapter one. Chapter one is the most important chapter because it describes how fast food originated (the founding fathers), the chapter shows how corrupt and back-stabbing the fast food industry has become, and how gullible Americans can be.
Knowing what is in your fast food might make you think twice the next time you devour it. As the rise of the fast food nation in America has increased to an all-time high, so has the weight and waists of Americans all around the country. Not only has the United States grown to love the acquired taste of greasy golden fries and juicy burgers, it has also grown ignorant to the way their food is prepared. In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”(2002), by Eric Schlosser, he makes compelling points in his position against the fast food industry.
Eric Schlossers book Fast Food Nation is not only an expose of the fast food industry but also shows how the fast food industry has shaped and defined society in America and other nations as the fast food culture spreads globally. He connects the social order of society to the kind of food it eats and the way it eats that food, and relates fast food to other social processes and institutions. His facts are based on years of research and study, and are presented in and easy to follow narrative. Schlosser is so thorough and convincing in his argument, it's impossible to
The story of the fast food industry and its effect on the world is well told in the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Schlosser makes the claim that, what started out as a special treat for the kids eventually ended up defining a way of life. During a brief period of time, the fast food industry has helped transform not only the American diet, but also our countryside, economy, workforce, and popular culture. The book thoroughly describes how important the two factors of money and power are in today's society. The book clearly establishes the broader thesis that as consumers, we should know what we eat even if it makes us uncomfortable by the knowledge.
He wants to show a personal account of the difficulties that everyday people endure trying to accommodate different aspects of a fast food meal possible to the consumer. By stressing this, Schlosser also shows the need for the sanitation of fast food to be dealt seriously. He directs these ideas towards the less informed of American society. Schlosser wants to reach out to those that wish to become more informed of the fast food aspect of America, and to Americans, fast food has become a normal aspect of life. Even Professer Pothukuchi, of Wayne State University agrees that “fast food is destroying us: individuals, communities, work and family life, and indeed, our very connections with the world” (Pothukuchi 1). This book is intending the audience to steer away from what seems harmless, because fast food seems innocuous, when in reality is the opposite.
Eric Schlossers audience is the American consumers that spends all of there money on fast food. The text was written to warn the consumers about the dangers of eating a lot of fast food. Weight gaining, high chlestrol, and high bloodpressure comes from eating too much fast food. The writer