...Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is the well-written, New York Times best selling book by Eric Schlosser. Schlosser takes the readers on a journey as he digs up the contemptible secrets that hide behind the walls of the fast food industry. From exposing the rats and cockroaches found near the food, to the fake chemical flavorings added, to the torturing of cattle and chickens, Schlosser is able to successfully convince the reader to re-evaluate the option of going to a fast food restaurant. The use of real world examples along with relatable topics culminate into a book that is compelling and eye-opening. Schlosser goes into depth about revealing the downside of the fast food industry by using traumatic real-life stories...
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...There are many aspects of a nonfiction work that are important to the reader; however, one aspect is more important than the rest. According to Truman Capote, a famous author and actor, the most essential feature of a nonfiction novel is the timeless quality about the cause and events. Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction novel, Fast Food Nation, demonstrates this timeless quality because it documents serious issues that will continue to affect many people for numerous years. Since World War II, the United States has experienced a lot of change, and not all of this change has been good. The growth and expansion of the fast food industry, for example, has had quite a few negative effects on the lives of many Americans. Eric Schlosser documents these...
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...Eric Schlosser’s novel, Fast Food Nation, has shed light on how food manufacturing standards and American consumption have transformed since World War II. Schlosser illustrates this revolution by following numerous groups in association with the fast food industry: various fast food employees and lucrative executives at fast food corporations; major farming and ranching businesses; employees at meat-packing factories; potato farmers and ranchers in Colorado and its contiguous areas; and food scientists who are entrusted with developing innovative “natural” flavors for fast food products. Through the various investigative accounts that Schlosser exemplifies, Fast Food Nation brings attention to the varying unethical principles that the fast...
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..."A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the United States was spent to prepare meals at home. Today about half of the money used to buy food is spent at restaurants-- mainly at fast food restaurants (Eric Schlosser)." Fast food restaurants are spreading so rapidly that they are continually hiring more and more teenagers and foreigners to treat exceedingly awful, while also luring millions of people all around the world to indulge in their fake and artificial meals. Those meals that people are so addicted to, keep seducing them to go back to the fast food restaurants so they are forced to wallow in their obesity and make it worse. The novel Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser demonstrates how detrimental fast food is,...
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...Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me: a Comparison Do you like fast food? Do you know how many people have faced the obesity in American? Actually, fast food brings a new condition, which it has designed to taste good. And it’s also inexpensive and convenient. But it reflects American’s culture of obesity and the history behind. Eric Schlosser, in his book Fast Food Nation, takes a hard look at what’s behind the look-like chain eateries that dot the American landscape. A McDonald’s is not just a restaurant serving hamburgers to hungry patrons; it’s the end of along ripple of event that produces the food that millions eats every day. Meanwhile, with the first documentary, Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock used his own body to examine American culture of obesity. This film documents that lifestyle’s drastic effects on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence. Comparing between Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me, I found the different emphasis in the contents, but they both show the fast food has influenced people deeply and we must find the right way to build the right opinion about the fast food and health. In the Fast Food Nation, we find the Eric Schlosser’s book promises to tell the dark side of all-American meal. It’s covers much of fast food culture and he also discusses how it developed, how taste of food can now be manipulate, federal regulations , health issues, and the spread of fast food abroad. In...
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...the excerpt “Why the Fries Taste So Good” by Eric Schlosser, Schlosser deeply examines the process of one individual farmer and his process, not to mention takes it as far as going to the International Fragrance and Flavor facilities to see what truly does make the fries taste so good. He does a good job of hitting each individual appeal as a writer in order for us as readers to accept the information he’s handing out. Even in Ian Brailsford’s review of Schlosser’s excerpt, he finds little if any opposition whatsoever. At one point he even says, “By focusing on Ray Kroc’s empire McDonald’s – America’s biggest employer and real estate owner – Schlosser is covering well-travelled academic terrain” (Brailsford 118.) By giving a logical, pathetic, and ethical appeal within the excerpt, we as readers can verify his work as credible and learn from what he has taught us. All throughout the third page of Schlosser’s excerpt, he provides us with information that adheres to the logical and reasoning portion of the reading. He even adds a little bit of ethical appeal within the paragraphs. By telling us that he personally examined the facilities of the IFF and saw first hand the ingredients and recipes that went in through the manufacturing process from pilot kitchens and laboratories of numerous name brand products that we as readers would be able to familiarize ourselves with. Also, researching the importance of not just the taste of the food but the aroma around it and how 90% of it is...
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...Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation expose working conditions and animal slaughter in the food industry. Even though these texts were published years apart, they both share similar details and goals. Sinclair is a muckraker who exposed political and social problems during the Progressive Era, and Eric Schlosser is a journalist. Both of these excerpts express the problems that workers faced, mostly immigrants, and the gruesome details of animal slaughter in the food industry. Both publications share similarities and differences in their goals, details to prove their points, and effects of their publication when dealing with the hidden aspects of the food industry. Both excerpts’ goals are to produce outrage...
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...Paxton Tomlin Fast Food Nation Chapter 1 Summary Chapter one presents a historical look back at post-World War II America and how the fast food phenomenon we know today all began. The main theme of this chapter deals with the booming economy of the time and how people made their dreams possible. The dreams in this chapter, of course, deal with people owning their own fast food restaurant, and how their hard work payed off. Schlosser explains how the automobile industry, specifically in Anaheim, caused a demand for quality food made fast. The booming economy also played a role in helping people who visioned of opening up their own fast food restaurant, a possibility. One man in particular, Carl Karcher, was a man who dreamed of owning a hot dog cart and transformed that cart into one of America's biggest fast food chains. Schlosser states, ““When Carl heard that a hot dog cart was for sale…… he decided to buy it”” (15). After borrowing $ 311 from the bank Carl opened his first hot dog stand selling ““hot dogs, chilli dogs, and tamales for a dime each”” (Schlosser 15). Carl had strong opposition from his wife Margaret, but he still insisted on buying the cart and even kept his job at a local bakery to keep money coming in. Already you see an example of a young man who has a dream and is working his way up to make it a reality. Carl's constant commitment to his hot dog cart business and determination would pay off because by 1944, ““Carl Karcher owned four hot dog carts in...
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...English 101.3732/3772/MAT 096 Cluster—Public Health and Nutrition Spring 1 2009/ Andrew McCormick, Instructor Final In-Class Essay: Fast Food Nation Choose one of the topics below, and brainstorm, plan and write an argumentative, thesis-driven essay of at least 600 words. You may use your copy of FFN; you will have two hours. Your essay, as always, should: ✓ Provide a short, separate introduction that presents the issue and then segues into an explicit thesis with several concrete reasons to back it up. ✓ Develop each reason in a body paragraph that offers textual evidence (quotes and/or paraphrases) and your own analysis of the issue. ✓ Provide a conclusion summarizing your main points and leaving a closing thought. □ Don’t forget to proofread for grammar errors, as they can bring your grade down. Good luck! Topic A: Fast Food and Worker Safety In the Fast Food Nation chapter “The Most Dangerous Job,” Eric Schlosser describes the gruelling, exploitive, injury-laden, low-paying jobs of meat-packing workers who handle the cattle that eventually become hamburgers. Schlosser explains how—for different reasons—the OSHA has been unable to enforce effective safety regulations needed to protect workers. Based on this chapter, discuss why the OSHA must have stricter regulations for the meatpacking industry. How has the OSHA been disempowered? To what extent has this federal agency’s enforcement abilities been reduced, and with what consequences? How...
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...The Jungle and Fast Food Nation are both books that were written to expose the working environments and carelessness that goes into preparing packaged meat. These two books were written to do two things. One of the two things that they were intended for was to outrage the public about how the food was being prepared, and what it took to prepare the food. The second goal was to have reforms done about these processes. Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle in 1906 wanting the public and government to notice the unsafe and unsanitary working conditions and processes that went into making food that was being sold to them. Sinclair’s goal was achieved because the public took notice of the book and all the awful things that were done to the things and food being sold to them. This led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This act made sure that there were no other substances and drugs in the food sold to the public, hence the name of the act....
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...“Fast Food Nation” We all see the advertising and marketing for the big fast food chains such as, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s everywhere we go, it is hard to miss. A hefty majority of Americans continue to eat there a few times a week even though it is well-known this poor excuse for food is extremely unhealthy. It is just so convenient, they can be found everywhere, they have cheap prices, and the food tastes so good. It is a common misconception that these places are still acceptable to go to. Fast food has emerged into the most prominent symbol of American society, and that does not appear to be changing anytime soon. The McDonalds Corporation has become a powerful symbol of America’s service economy, which is now responsible for 90 percent of the country’s new jobs. In 1968, McDonalds operated about one thousand restaurants. Today it has about thirty thousand restaurants worldwide and opens almost two thousand each year. An estimated one out of every eight workers in the United States has at some point been employed by McDonalds. The company annually hires about one million people, more than any other American Organization, public or private. (Schlosser 5). As a nutritionist, this information absolutely baffles me. Something must be done to stop this vicious cycle. Fast food is remarkably unhealthy yet these chains just continue to expand and become more popular. McDonalds fries distinctive taste “does not stem from the type of potatoes that they buy, the technology...
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...In Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book, Fast Food Nation, on chapter two, “Your Trusted Friends”, he shines the light on how Ray A. Kroc (founder of McDonald’s) and Walt Disney (founder of Disney) both are similar yet have a complicated relationship and have profitable methods advertising their products to children. Since Kroc and Disney resulted to be extremely successful on selling their products to children, several other large corporations were influenced to aim marketing efforts at kids causing America’s young children to be target and analyzed. Kroc and Disney are both native Illinois men; born a year apart from one another, Disney in 1901 being the oldest, Kroc in 1902; did not finish high school; and together they both served in the...
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...The Changing of the Food Industry “In many respects, the fast food industry embodies the best and worst of American capitalism at the start of the twenty-first century – its constant stream of new products and innovations, its widening gulf between gulf between rich and poor” (Schlosser 6). In 2001 Eric Schlosser published “Fast Food Nation.” Eric Schlosser’s early 21st century muckraking text, “Fast Food Nation,” attempts to shed light on the consequences of the fast food industry on American society. The rise and growth of the fast food industry, like the meatpacking industry, illuminates the evolution of the American dream in post-World War II America. “Fast Food Nation” is a book about fast food, the values it embodies, and the world it has made. Fast food has proven to be a revolutionary force in American life; I am interested in it both as a commodity and as a metaphor. What people eat (or don’t eat) has always been determined by a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces (Schlosser 3). The fast food industry has been the largest industry to affect American society. It began as an industry with a few food stands here and there to an industry that has spread to every corner of America and wherever there are paying customers. The fast food industry has no limits. One can find fast food nearly anywhere nowadays in America. A person can find fast food at restaurants, zoos, stadiums, airports, malls, universities, trains, airplanes, Wal-Mart’s, gas...
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...Emily Andes Mr. Hardy AP English 3 Period 2 Literary Analysis Essay The Jungle and Fast Food Nation have become two worldwide known books for exposing the meat industry, and both were able to change the viewpoints of many people on what they eat. With the meat sales sky rocketing since 1961, our society can thank the inspections and production side of the meat industry. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was one of the first books to uncover the gruesome side of the meat packing factories. With this book the world was introduced to the exposed side of the meat factories in unsanitary conditions. Of course, Sinclair’s intention was not to write The Jungle in an effort to unveil the dirty side to the meat packing factories, but it was intended to be a love story between a young couple immigrating from Lithuania to the United States. Along with The Jungle is Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The statistical side of this book was also intended to expose the meat industry but by humiliating fast food restaurants and where their meat products were coming from. People were appalled by the facts this book gave, and they began having new perspectives on fast food. Overall, Fast Food Nation appeals to readers’ senses of ethos pathos and logos then The Jungle does. First of all, Schlosser does a much better job of convincing people to change their views on fast food products and all meat products in general. His diction choices are pedantic and factual, his details become emotional...
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...Typically, when an individual hears the term “farm fresh” they picture wide open spaces, with happy cattle and poultry, and hardworking farmers. A few decades ago this image would be true, nowadays this is no longer the case. In Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he lifts the veil from what is really happening behind fast food corporations such as McDonalds and the meat franchises which supply them their meat. American citizens need to be more informed on what is going on behind closed doors, and the USDA need to be more closely monitored. Ranchers who typically had their ranches passed down from generation to generation ran into financial hardships. The average farmer now borrows around $500, 000 and earns around $18,000. Farmers could not...
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