Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" is, first of all, "a fierce indictment of the fast food industry"
Everything ranging from the content of the food and the way it is made, to the lowest wages in all industries practiced in fast food outlets and to the 'burger culture', with everything this implies is thoroughly criticized in this book.

As a first criticism, one may notice that the author writes some 350 pages on the subject of fast food and the fast food industry finding almost no positive aspects whatsoever. It isn't much to say that, at the end of the book, you will be able to assimilate the fast food industry with some of the most criminal and degrading industries in the world, drug and human traffic, for example. It is not necessarily his vehemence (which almost doesn't exist throughout the book, as I…...

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Bibliography

1. Kakutani, Michiko. BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce. New York Times. January 2001. On the Internet at  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E2DD113FF933A05752C0A9679C8B63 

2. Review on Amazon, at  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395977894/104-8012339-9563948?v=glance 

3. The Bitter Truth About Fast Food. The Guardian. 2001. On the Internet at  http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/mcds/theguardian0704011.html 

Kakutani, Michiko. BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce. New York Times. January 2001. On the Internet at

Jungle and Fast Food Nation
The American meat industry has been a source of public contention ever since industrialization, periodically brought to the fore by investigations into and revelations of unsafe labor and food safety practices. In particular, Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle reveals the realities of the meat industry at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation reexamines this same industry nearly a hundred years later, finding surprisingly little changed. By comparing and contrasting the two books, it will be possible to examine the evolution of the America food industry as well as how the same problems can reappear a hundred years later if the root cause is not dealt with.

In order to understand the relationship between The Jungle and Fast Food Nation, it will be useful to examine each book's investigation of the meat packing industry separately, before comparing the results of either…...

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Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906. Print.

Schlosser emphasizes his point by recognizing Supreme Beef Processors, "one of the main suppliers of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program" ("Hamburger with Those"), as a company who repeatedly failed food safety testing and opposed further testing and regulations. In this case, the ultimate subjects of improper handling are children, who can have no control over (or even awareness of) the proper handling of their food, and who are also the age group most susceptible to illnesses caused by these pathogens. Compounding the problem was the Bush administration's "deference to the meatpacking industry" ("Hamburger with Those"). In the end, it became legal to sell tainted beef. In his closing arguments, Schlosser encouraged consumers to be careful of their handling and cooking of ground beef, at least while the industry continues to resist further regulation.
As a more comprehensive observation of contaminated meat, "Order the Fish" looks at dangers…...

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Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. "Hamburger with Those Fries? Buyers Beware." USA Today 10 July 2002: 11a.

Print.

Schlosser, Eric. "How to Make the Country's Most Dangerous Job Safer." Atlantic Monthly

January 2002. 21 March 2011.

Schlosser: Fast Food Nation
The fast food industry has been infused into the every nook and corner of American Society over the last three decades. The industry seen to have originated with a few modest hot dog and hamburger of Southern California have been perceived to have extended to every nook and corner of the nation, marketing an extensive range of food products to which affordable customers are found widely. Fast food is presently provided at restaurants and drive-through, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools and universities, on cruise ships, trains, and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and also at hospital cafeterias. As per an estimate the total expenditure of Americans on fast food during 1970 was about $6 billion. (Introduction: Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All-American Meal)

The expenditure had a massive increase to about $110 billion in 2000. Americans presently perceive to have…...

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References

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser: A Book Club Reading Guide. Retrieved from   Accessed on 25 May, 2005http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=769 

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser. Retrieved from   Accessed on 25 May, 2005http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/fast_food_nation1.asp 

Introduction: Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Retrieved from   Accessed on 25 May, 2005http://www.nytimes.com /books/first/s/schlosser-fast.html

Rosenberg, Matt. T. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. February 2, 2001. Retrieved from   Accessed on 25 May, 2005http://geography.about.com/library/misc/blffn.htm 

The meat comes from a local independent packing company that doesn't buy beef that has been injected with growth hormones; the buns are from a bakery in Pueblo, Colorado; and two hundred pounds of potatoes are "peeled every morning in the kitchen and then sliced with an old crank-operated contraption." The cooks make $10 an hour, and all other employees earn $8.00 an hour. hen asked why the Conway family provides health insurance for all full time employees, Rich Conway said, "e want to have healthy employees."
The author also calls for changes in the way the U.S. Congress oversees advertising, asserting on page 262 that Congress "should immediately ban all advertisements aimed at children that promote foods high in fat and sugar." The justification for that ban would be that 30 years ago, congress banned cigarette ads from TV and radio, because of course cigarettes were seen as a…...

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Works Cited

Robbins, John. (2001). The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our

World. Boston: Conari Press.

Schlosser, Eric. (2001). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York:

Houghton Mifflin Company.

Fast Food Nation
The Ramifications of Technology on Health Care and elfare of Animals and Meatpacking orkers in "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser

In the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, newfound information about the behind-the-scenes operations of fast food establishments such as the well-known McDonald's, had been discussed critically. In revealing the 'hidden operations' behind the production of merchandise associated with the fast food industry such as meat production, Schlosser was able to convey his message that technology had been more of a detriment than beneficial to consumers of these fast food establishments.

In arguing his position that the fast food industry was detrimental to consumers, he provided examples in which the technology of machinery had led to developments that only increased the chances of dangerous diseases to spread and thrive and worsened the conditions in which meatpackers worked. Moreover, these detrimental effects of technology had important ramifications on…...

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Work cited

Schlosser, E. (2002). Fast Food Nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. NY: Perennial Books.

Food Nation is the kind of book that you hope young people read because it demonstrates far better than any social studies class the need for government regulation, the unchecked power of multinational corporations and the importance of our everyday decisions.
USA Today

Despite international concerns with the Cold War and Senator McCarthy's accusations, the 1950s were an exciting change for many Americans. A large number headed out to the suburbs to newly designed housing. National roads started sweeping across the cities and towns. Soon, another change came about on these roads: the arrival of fast-food restaurants, which have epitomized America ever since. People just have to is drive up to the window and order their meals; within minutes they are fed and content. Yet, there are always two sides to an issue, especially when big money is involved. According to the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, fast-food chains…...

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Reference

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins, 2002.

Mass Culture and Popular Culture and Studying Bestsellers Books
This paper takes into account the differences in the best sellers written in the 1980's and in the 1990's. It also focuses on the themes of the best sellers from the two decades and what makes them appealing to the society.

Mass culture and popular culture and studying bestsellers books

In this day and age, books are being written with a motive to inculcate motives, teaching the readers a lesson every time they open the book.

Good books always serve as a constructive way to provoke idle thoughts. Women started writing as a profession back in the early 1800's. They started off writing articles for magazines, containing information on fashion, science, household tips, and covering other domestic issues. These magazines trained every woman with the proper code of etiquette, style and manner of dressing nicely even motivated women from the lower class to take up…...

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References

Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed

Dave Pelzer, A Child Called it

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation

Obesity is when a person has an unhealthy amount of body fat. It causes a person to be overweight in all aspects of the body. There is a lot of body fat due to being overweight. It is important for every human being to have some body fat. However too much fat can lead to a lot of health problems. There are a lot of factors which contribute to obesity. Experts believe that the high calorie diets of our time are to blame for majority of the cases. A lot of people eat food such as burgers, nuggets, ice cream, cake, chips, candy and other various types of snacks. These snacks are full of fats and calories. Eating fatty foods contributes to obesity. Obesity is also linked to the genetics of a body. It can occur if a person has obesity in the family.
Fast Food's link to Obesity

People think that…...

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Bibliography

1. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, 2000

2. Mayo Clinic: Obesity www.cnn.com/mayo

3. BBC Health: Why fast food makes you fat, October 2003

4. Overweight and Obesity, Healthy People 2010: Leading Health Indicators and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

S. is the world's leading producer of pornographic media. The Reagan dministration was obsessed with prosecuting pornographers, and eventually convicted one of the industry's earliest producers, a man named Reuben Sturman, on charges of tax evasion. Ironically, the dministration claimed to worship dam Smith and free enterprise -- except, of course, when it conflicted with its ideals of Christian morality.
Republican administrations have felt less uncomfortable with the prospect of illegal labor, as Schlosser's chronicles of the conditions of strawberry pickers illustrate. Children, men, and women work at the back-breaking labor for $6.75-$10 a day (Schlosser 2003, p. 92). gain, hypocrisy is evident -- the same right-wing advertisers who created the Willie Horton ad campaign that defeated Michael Dukakis have fought unionization of the migrant workers, and local authorities have refused to set up low-income housing (Schlosser 2003, p. 106). The market rewards only efficiency, Schlosser muses: "every other human value…...

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Attitudes about sexuality are even more hypocritical. For example, the United States has some of the strictest rules in the world about what can be said and shown on television, yet the U.S. is the world's leading producer of pornographic media. The Reagan Administration was obsessed with prosecuting pornographers, and eventually convicted one of the industry's earliest producers, a man named Reuben Sturman, on charges of tax evasion. Ironically, the Administration claimed to worship Adam Smith and free enterprise -- except, of course, when it conflicted with its ideals of Christian morality.

Republican administrations have felt less uncomfortable with the prospect of illegal labor, as Schlosser's chronicles of the conditions of strawberry pickers illustrate. Children, men, and women work at the back-breaking labor for $6.75-$10 a day (Schlosser 2003, p. 92). Again, hypocrisy is evident -- the same right-wing advertisers who created the Willie Horton ad campaign that defeated Michael Dukakis have fought unionization of the migrant workers, and local authorities have refused to set up low-income housing (Schlosser 2003, p. 106). The market rewards only efficiency, Schlosser muses: "every other human value gets in the way," in the case of these workers (Schlosser 2003, p. 108).

It is especially interesting to read this book in light of the recent failures of the free market system to regulate itself. Supposedly, the dangers and costs of illegal enterprises should be too great for the producers -- yet these industries remain wildly popular, and laws have proved ineffective in curtailing their growth. This is partially due to the powerful nature of the demand for drugs, sexuality, and money, but also because of the piecemeal nature of legislation designed to curb 'vices.' On one hand, big tobacco supports candidates in Congress, while Congress passes stringent laws regarding the drug trade in marijuana. On one hand, pornography is condemned and limited through zoning legislation, yet it is widely available on the internet. On one hand, businesses grow rich because of the low wages they pay illegal workers, yet the politicians who support tax breaks for those businesses are also vociferously anti-immigration. Schlosser selects three, seemingly unrelated industries and demands that Americans look at all of them through the same lens, and confront America's collective, blind hypocrisy.

" In one supreme irony, as McDonald's makes Americans less healthy, McDonald's as a company is dependant on poorly-paid workers who receive few benefits, including healthcare. The workers are disposable as the food and the packaging they assemble for McDonald's patrons. It is in the company's interest not to keep them employed for long, so they remain part-time employees without real healthcare. They learn no skills and do not improve their promotional prospects. And often the only food they can afford, lacking adequate facilities or time to prepare a meal, is a McDonald's meal.
The slaughterhouses where the processed meats that go into McDonald's hamburgers are just as mechanized as McDonald's drive-through, only the cows that move through their doors do not exit intact. Yet the fate of the human executors of these cows is almost as terrible. Working conditions in slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants are dangerous. The workers are often…...

McDonald's: Total ewards
Introduction to and purpose of the organization

Historically, the fast food industry as a whole has a very high rate of employee turnover. Employees tend to be quite transient in their loyalties to these organizations, in part because fast food corporations often make very little investment in their workers and strive to give employees minimal benefits and pay. McDonald's has struggled in recent years with criticism for how it treats its employees. "A reliance on cheap labor has been crucial to the fast food industry's success. It's no accident that the industry's highest rate of growth occurred during a period when the real value of the U.S. minimum wage declined by about 40%…The chains are willing to put up with turnover rates of 300 to 400% in order to keep their labor costs low. It doesn't really matter to them who comes or goes, since this system treats all…...

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References

Getting to know us. (2014). McDonald's. Retrieved from:

 http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company.html 

Interview with Eric Schlosser. (2012). Readers Read. Retrieved from:

 http://www.readersread.com/features/schlosser.htm

Offering benefits such as healthcare and even stock options to lower-level employees, a compensation strategy also pursued by Starbucks (a company both literally and figuratively 'green' in its image), is another example of a policy that can benefit both the company and employees -- employees enjoy greater security, while the companies reduce the high rate of workplace turnover that is endemic to the service industry at companies like McDonald's. In fact, as Eric Schlosser observed in Fast Food Nation, fast food companies have often deliberately made life unpleasant for lower-level employees, to reduce the need to offer them promotions, benefits, and higher pay, on the theory that it is easy to train a new worker to operate a cash register. "How can workers look to this industry as a career…when it pays them the minimum wage and provides them no health benefits" (Schlosser 2001, p. 88). hole Foods and…...

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Works Cited

"Benefits." Google website. February 8, 2010.

http://google.com/international/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/benefits/

"Careers." Whole Foods Market. February 8, 2010.

 http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/benefits_us.php

This is largely due to the fact that, despite the constant sense of rejection of western influence among the older generation, the young generation of Muslim teenagers is more and more interested in the American lifestyle and every product that suggests a part of American culture. Dahlia Zayed, Regional Marketing Manager for TNS Middle East & Africa supports this point in her article "Fast food still sells in Egypt" arguing that the mirage of the American culture has made the society change. At the same time however, it is pointed out that the main part was played by the campaigns that tried to promote precisely the idea that companies have oriented their products according to the special needs of the Muslim religion which rejects pork meat or different other spices that otherwise make the basis of Pizza Hut products. This adaptability is important in a world of competition because…...

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Bibliography

Barry Mike John W. Slocum Jr. "Slice of Reality: Changing Culture at Pizza Hut and Yum! Brands, Inc." Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 319-330, 2003.

Craig S. Smith. "The Market McDonald's Missed: The Muslim Burger." Clichy-sous-Bois Journal. The New York Times International. 2005. (4 March 2008)  http://www.nytimes.com /2005/09/16/international/europe/16halal.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Fenlon, Brodie. "China: Better Rich Than Red. Leashing the Economic Dragon." The Toronto Sun Toronto, Canada, Nov. 29, 2002. (4 March 2008)  http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/895.cfm 

FoxNews. "Pakistani Youths Set Pizza Hut on Fire to Protest Cleric's Death." Fast Food Jihad. 2006 (4 March 2008) http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/012274.php

decision to purchase, use or consume the product of a particular brand is not simply a utilitarian decision that focuses on what goods a consumer wants, it is also a matter of the consumer's self-image. The customer asks himself, perhaps subconsciously, is he "the type of person" who eats at McDonald's, or uses Bayer aspirin? From there, the customer makes a decision to use, or not use, the product. However, the answers to these questions are less than simple. They are intricately and intrinsically connected to brand image and perception. Consumers are willing to put more money and resources into things that make them feel good about themselves. Companies want to leave their customers feeling good about their purchasing decision, with a raised self-image. However, what makes a person feel good about herself changes as values and society change. More than any other industry, this may be true about…...

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References

Adamson, R. 3 May 2002. "Fast Food Nation." Salon Magazine. Accessed 23 February, 2011

Design Woo. (5 October 2010) McDonald's Redesign: a New Era for Fast-Food Restaurants. Design Woo. Accessed 23 February 2011

Gino F, Norton, MI, & Ariely D. (2010). The counterfeit self: The deceptive costs of faking it. Psychological Science, 21(5), 712-20

HEHER, A. 6 October 2009. Burger King plans "edgy, futuristic" remodel of restaurants. The Huffington Post. Accessed 23 February 2011