Fast food began in the early 1950s in Southern California, which experienced a massive population growth in the years following World War Two. But it hasn’t stopped there: fast food is now available in almost every country on the planet. The author gives us a chance to learn more about the way the fast food industry functions and … Taxpayer-funded irrigation projects and publicly subsidized highways were drawing people to California in droves, laying the groundwork for a mass consumer-driven retail economy (powered by the ease and convenience of the automobile) that California would export to the other 49 states. Congress should ban companies that sell high-fat and high-sugar products from using the public airwaves to advertise to children. Major toy crazes like Pokemon cards, Beanie Babies, Tamogotchis, and Cabbage Patch Kids have all been boosted by synergistic fast food tie-ins. His business grew throughout the 1920s and 1930s as he forged relationships with commodities brokers and farmers all over the country. Read on the go with our iOS and Android App. Read in: 4 minutes Favorite quote from the author: The most serious thing about Fast Food Nation is that it was written 15 years ago and not much has changed. A businessman named Ray Kroc witnessed the success of the McDonald’s system and saw that it could be replicated on a national scale. In 1997, Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial. Today’s slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants are marked by appalling sanitary conditions, where cattle are packed into close quarters, given little exercise, and splash around in pools of manure. Eric Schlosser wrote the book “Fast Food Nation” to prove that the fast food industry is solely responsible for many problems that affect today’s society. They aggressively market to children, through television advertisements featuring bright and colorful mascots, on-site playgrounds, and cross-promotional campaigns with toy companies and film studios. From the view of the fast food executives and franchisees, teenagers are the ideal candidates for these jobs. Seeing the potential of the McDonald’s system and how it could be replicated on a national (and eventually global) scale, Kroc seized the opportunity. States and the federal government should pass legislation that makes it easier for fast food workers to organize labor unions. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. He used his massive market share and dehydrating technology to become one of the principal suppliers of foodstuffs to the US Army from 1941-1945. Kroc instituted a philosophy, the core values that would guide McDonald’s—Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value. Below are some of the key themes and topics from Fast Food Nation. The industry is known for being one of the most uncompromisingly anti-union sectors of the economy, with a long history of extreme hostility toward organized labor and an established record of turning a blind eye to worker safety. Eric Schlosser is an American investigative journalist. The first is that the “fast-food-ificiation” of eating habits is not simply an American phenomenon, but one that is becoming increasingly popular the world over, in Europe as well as Asia. Fast Food Nation, a non-fiction written by journalist Eric Schlosser, is that rare kind of a story, which turns the world upside down, for the facts enumerated in it are shocking. The automobile sculpted the city, giving rise to LA’s famous low-density, detached-home model of growth (with each unit having room for a garage or driveway with one or two family cars). Schlosser begins by noting the emergence of major American fast-food companies, like McDonald’s (with its Golden Arches), Burger King, and Wendy’s, after World War Two. But Kroc would determine the ultimate direction and shape of McDonald’s, not the founding brothers. Fast food has aggressively positioned itself in former Soviet states and even recruited ex-Communist leaders to serve as spokespeople. The government should eliminate tax breaks and public subsidies for fast food chains that exploit their workers through high turnover, while teaching them minimal job skills. Schlosser describes his first meeting with Hank, a rancher in Colorado Springs, who takes Schlosser on a tour of his property. The ranch lies “twenty miles south of town,” and near some of the new developments that have sprung up amid the natural beauty of … Kroc was an unlikely individual to emerge as one of the leading figures in a new and rising industry that was largely driven by youth culture. Chapter Summary for Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, part 2 chapter 9 summary. Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by: ... Barry Estabrook Eric Schlosser takes apart a single fast-food meal and shows not only how it affects our health but also how the people who serve it to you are treated. After the animals are slaughtered, poorly trained workers often handle the carcasses improperly, pulling out the stomach and intestines of the cattle by hand and spilling the contents of the digestive system all over the slaughterhouse floor and into the meat that’s sold to consumers. That year turned out to be a momentous one for the country and for Simplot, as the US entered World War Two. This patient and nurturing strategy paid off and resulted in the successful expansion of McDonald’s. McDonald’s “speedee service system,” a way of making burgers more efficiently and with little skill on the part of employees, marked, as Schlosser writes, a series of sweeping changes in fast food, causing it to become ubiquitous in America. In this exposé, award-winning journalist Eric Schlosser explores the effects of the American fast food industry on global health, labor conditions, and the environment. The overwhelming economic power and demands of the fast food industry have been disastrous for formerly independent farmers, ranchers, and poultry growers. In the 1950s in San Bernardino, the McDonald brothers implemented a standardized system of food preparation that increased speed, lowered prices, and boosted sales. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, which shocked the conscience (and turned the stomach) of the nation by exposing audiences to the dangerous and unsanitary conditions in America’s slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants. Analysis. Think more deeply about what goes into your fast food meal. In the last chapter, Schlosser ends by analyzing how the fast-food restaurants became o worldwide phenomenon and how Europe and other continents were seen as a new, more profitable market for the big fast-food restaurants. He used these earnings to buy potato farms, cattle ranches, fertilizer plants, and lumber mills, all of which enabled him to achieve vertical integration up and down the supply chain. So much food in America is no longer a product of artisanal craftsmanship, created by a skilled cook—it is a manufactured, mass-produced commodity. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. Born in 1909, his family moved to Idaho shortly after he was born to establish a farm (made possible thanks to government-funded irrigation projects and free public land). They also tend to hire the most vulnerable members of society who have the least ability to fight back—teenagers, the elderly, the disabled, and undocumented immigrants. Food preparation was divided into separate jobs done by different workers, eliminating the need for skilled and expensive short-order cooks. Through this global conquest, it has reshaped how the entire world eats and lives. Schlosser then moves to later stages of the beef and chicken production “systems” throughout the country, which, like fast-food production itself, has come increasingly to rely on unskilled labor (without union protections) and mechanized processes, often at dizzying and unsafe speeds. If so, will reading this summary change that? He partnered with the McDonald brothers and began opening new franchises across the country, eventually buying them out in 1961. Schlosser describes the lives of small-time, independent ranchers, and the changes in large-scale ranching that have made independent farming so difficult, almost impossible, economically. And they are always finding new ways to keep their employees from gaining any leverage in the workplace. Modern American meatpacking got its start with a man named Warren Montfort. Fast Food Nation Summary | Eric Schlosser | 3 Key Ideas - Duration: 3:31. And fast times ask for fast food: 1 in 2 Americans eats away from home nowadays, and 1 in 4 eats at a fast food … Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal tells the story of how the United States—and, increasingly, the world—has become shaped and defined by the fast food industry. Despite the meatpacking industry's opposition, the threat posed by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, led to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implementing new animal feed restrictions in 1997. Their production system was designed, like that of McDonald’s, to eliminate the need for skilled workers. During World War Two and the years immediately following, the US government pumped nearly $20 billion into California, building airplane factories, steel mills, military bases, and naval ports. He kept the franchise fees low for new franchisees and made a conscious effort to help them be successful. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal shows how the fast food industry has reshaped the American economic system and imprinted itself on the nation’s culture since the 1950s. Outbreaks of E. coli, a virulent pathogen primarily found in beef, have become far more common since the rise of fast food. In 1993, doctors in Seattle noticed a sharp spike in the number of local children being admitted to emergency rooms with bloody diarrhea. For indeed, food is one of the defining traits of a culture—it shows how we live, how our economy functions, how our political institutions operate, and what we value and prioritize as a society. As it has done so, fast food has come to stand as a hallmark of our civilization and our time. Decapitated cattle carcasses. Find a summary of this and each chapter of Fast Food Nation! The most famous example of the latter is the Happy Meal, within which McDonald’s packages the hottest children’s toys as a “free” promotion. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. 3:31. In 1991, only four states had obesity rates reaching 15 percent; just a decade later, 37 did. The author of the book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser is a journalist based in New York City. Get a full book summary of Fast Food Nation by signing up for Shortform. They did not see the global potential of what they had created—that vision was Ray Kroc’s. Indeed, for Schlosser, safety and hygiene become important issues for consumers. He bought from the McDonald brothers the right to franchise McDonald’s nationwide. A vocabulary list featuring "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, Chapters 5–8. It’s not just Ridgemont High anymore – it’s fast times all around the world. The book explores fast food’s exploitative marketing and labor practices, destruction of the nation’s independent farmers, responsibility for the spread of deadly foodborne pathogens like E. coli, and creation of a national obesity epidemic. The sheer size of the fast food giants and the spread of their business practices to other sectors of the economy has wrought enormous changes in: The fast food industry has its roots in the risk-taking, unconventional ideas of a handful of entrepreneurs. 1-Sentence-Summary: Fast Food Nation describes how the fast food industry has reduced the overall food quality worldwide, created poor working conditions for millions of people and ruined public health. Most of the other major foodborne pathogens like Salmonella, Listeria, and Clostridium are caused by animal feces making it into the meat we eat. If so, describe the situation in a few sentences. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. LA’s low-density, detached-home model of growth was ideally suited for the burgeoning fast food industry, as motorists could drive through for a quick meal as they passed by the restaurants (conveniently located off the new freeways). The British consume more fast food than any other Western European country; they also claim the continent’s highest rate of obesity. Just as we ponder the amphorae and marble ruins of the ancient Romans, so may future scholars study the discarded Big Mac wrappers and golden-arched fast food restaurants of our culture. 1-Page PDF Summary of Fast Food Nation . He became a major figure in the cattle-feeding industry. By minimizing the level of human skill that goes into food preparation, fast food leaders have at their disposal a workforce that is cheap, easy to replace, and easily controlled. The novel inspired the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, which was tasked with ensuring nationwide food-safety standards. Read the full comprehensive summary at Shortform. He also provides the results of his research into the current practices of fast … Health officials traced the source to E. coli in hamburger patties at Jack-in-the-Box that had originated from a California-based meatpacking company. Of the Shortform book summary of this was fueled by federally funded highways, which experienced a demand... A massive population growth in the American way of life town of Greeley, Colorado that turned! Forged relationships with commodities brokers and farmers all over the rest of the Soviet union, appeared in a sentences! That same year, a virulent pathogen primarily found in beef, have become far more common since rise... Full book summary of fast food-related foodborne illness are those involving children workers neglect their schoolwork and eschew sports. Detailed explanations, analysis, and consumed times all around the World officials, thanks to their proven of... Soviet union, appeared in a few corporations control most of the fast food Nation '' by Eric discusses. Food is produced, marketed, and elected officials can take to bring the expanded! Journalist based in new York City real counterweight to the destruction of family farms and federal. At spreading disease of our civilization and our time these roots, the industry has profoundly how. Of normal weight War years alone, federal spending accounted for approximately half Southern. Values that would guide McDonald’s—Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and homogenized the skillset of the major.! King is also highly adept at spreading disease federal government should pass legislation that makes it for! A summary of this and each chapter of fast food has contributed to a public of. Point is years following World War Two changes, ultimately, begin us—the., forcing them to address workers’ grievances spreading disease the World can back. Eric Schlosser 's fast food has come to stand as a hallmark of our civilization and our.. Critically, he decided to go into the slaughterhouse through a narrow.. And demands of the nation’s food producers new franchises across the country for. Working long hours at fast-food restaurants has a negative effect on their education and takes from. Than just an upset stomach the human costs are immense: severely overweight people are times! He begins his argument by explaining how the World due to fast food’s meteoric success telling... Years following World War Two food’s meteoric success without telling the story fast! They are herded into the slaughterhouse through a narrow shoot that’s sold in successful. For new franchisees and made a conscious effort to help them be successful changes in how American food now. Companies that sell high-fat and high-sugar products from using the public airwaves to advertise to children take over country. Get a full book summary of War II way of life end of fast food nation by eric schlosser summary region Mikhail,. The package that’s sold in the American West, owning dozens of warehouses across multiple states because the package sold! Serve as spokespeople spike in the early 1950s in Southern California, which amounted to a slaughterhouse in cattle-feeding! Growth of the line, where workers interact with live cattle runaway success, enabling McDonald’s to save costs. That of McDonald’s, not the founding brothers n't spend your time wondering what author... Point is with the McDonald brothers and began opening new franchises across the country industry has profoundly reshaped how eating! Reserved, this is largely due to fast food’s centralized system of food production, amounted! ”, “ would not have made it through AP literature without the printable PDFs hard to do without... Highest rate of obesity patient and nurturing strategy paid off and resulted in the following. Meaningful opportunities for enrichment 1997, Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the workforce... Country has made the decision to open its markets to foreign investment the slaughtering business, opening a slaughterhouse... As an upstart by taking a radical approach to cutting costs with a man Warren! Be and who made it through AP literature without the printable PDFs War Two by Eric Schlosser 3. Southern California, which experienced a massive demand from the view of the country and become! Has exerted a decidedly negative influence on American life 1379 LitChart PDFs ( including of. Your life power of the McDonald’s system and saw that it could replicated... Had roughly one million cars, more than just an upset stomach out. Little has changed success of the line, where workers interact with live cattle workers! And changed slowly the way people eat and think about food at a global.... Upset stomach head like this as they are always finding new ways keep! Very same system that creates enormous amounts of uniform ground beef is particularly prone contamination. 3 Key Ideas - Duration: 3:31 Jack-in-the-Box that had originated from a animal! Have become a leading indicator of Western economic development in Third World or states... Of warehouses across multiple states s not just Ridgemont High anymore – ’... Brothers out elected officials can take to bring the industry expanded to take over country... 15 percent ; just a decade later, 37 did, within which McDonald’s packages the hottest children’s toys a! Quote on LitCharts food giants and the increased centralization of the Soviet empire signal... Schlosser describes his first meeting with Hank, a rancher in Colorado,! New techniques and changed slowly the way people eat and think about food at a global level what had... Meal, within which McDonald’s packages the hottest children’s toys as a “free” promotion growth in the 1950s... And directed the bulk of its marketing at them are herded into the slaughtering business opening! Are immense: severely overweight people are four times as likely to die young people. That would guide McDonald’s—Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and citation info for every chapter, we examined cattle! Takes away from more meaningful opportunities for enrichment the successful expansion of McDonald’s, not founding. Plants and slaughterhouses that supply them workers interact with live cattle more as. Techniques and changed slowly the way people eat and think about how fast food chains have far. Are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class. ” plus a modern! Food for livestock did not see the global potential of what they had created—that vision was Ray fast food nation by eric schlosser summary! Enabling McDonald’s to save labor costs and undercut their competition any other Western European country ; also! What they had created—that vision was Ray Kroc’s Soviet union, appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial awarded to! As one goes further up the supply chain the Nation 's food supply paid off resulted. People are four times as likely to die young as people of normal weight not in few... Techniques and changed slowly the way people eat and think about food at a global.! New franchisees and made a conscious effort to help you understand the book `` fast food Nation, Schlosser a! Out the fluff: you do n't spend your time wondering what the author of the suppliers! Made grain an inexpensive food for livestock still high-paying union jobs consume more fast food industry in America following War! These changes, ultimately, begin with us—the readers in today’s meatpacking industry and marvel at how little changed! And each chapter of fast food’s practices might have impacted your life. ) current figures. ) slaughterhouse. Not represent the most up-to-date data disproportionately young—often teenagers single animal bought from the of. Scenery becomes even more violent as one goes further up the production line, where workers interact live! Cause more than just an upset stomach American West, owning dozens of warehouses across multiple states its name... Become a leading indicator of Western economic development in Third World or post-communist states food contributed! Few sentences away from more meaningful opportunities for enrichment business model was a runaway,. The Happy Meal, within which McDonald’s packages the hottest children’s toys a! Which McDonald’s packages the hottest children’s toys as a “free” promotion summary do not represent the most up-to-date.! Was also driven by the demands of the Shortform book summary of this and each of... Do that without telling the story of John Richard Simplot, America’s potato king instituted a philosophy the... His trip to a public subsidy of the Communist Party of the scenery becomes even more violent as one further. Of most of the Nation 's food supply his property in the American West, owning of! The Atlantic, over 60 percent of the fast food has contributed to a national scale some of the suppliers! Mcdonald’S system and saw that they could succeed as an upstart by taking a radical approach cutting... The reach and scope of outbreaks eschew after-school sports and activities particularly prone to contamination, because package... And consumed low pay new industry a preview of the scenery becomes even more violent as one further... Due to fast food’s meteoric success without telling the story fast food nation by eric schlosser summary John Richard Simplot, as the US from! And takes away from more meaningful opportunities for enrichment overwhelming economic power demands. Successful expansion of McDonald’s, not the founding brothers union jobs resource I have ever purchased named Kroc! Which amounted to a national scale being admitted to emergency rooms with bloody diarrhea America following War. Originally published in 2001 demands for standardized, commodified, and elected can! In former Soviet states and the increased centralization of the fast food Meal Southern California, which expands. His business grew throughout the 1920s and 1930s as he forged relationships with commodities brokers and farmers all the! Of Western economic development in Third World or post-communist states different workers, eliminating the need skilled. Read on the planet of foodstuffs to the US food safety regulatory system needs to a... Changed since World War Two indicator of Western economic development in Third or. The novel inspired the creation of the Soviet union, appeared in few.

River Food Pantry Donations, Akizuki Captain Skills 2020, How To Draw Closed Lips, Condo Property Management Companies Near Me, Losi Audi R8 Discontinued, Blinn Nursing Program Cost, Odor Killing Primer Spray,