Fast Food Nation Essay

The overview of the book and a reading reaction.

The research-based, interesting and non-standard book is dedicated to the uprising of fast food industry and the following development of low-cost and quickly prepared meals. The first part, “The American Way”, which presents the roots of the American “Fast Food Nation” in the period after the World War II, while the second – “Meat and Potatoes” - addresses the specifications of mechanisms used within the industry, such as creation of specific for food flavors, chicken and cattle mass production, real working conditions for workers of beef industry, the danger produced by meat eating for human organism and the meaning of fast food in global dimension as an image of American social culture. The author begins the observation of creation of American fast food industry with the interview of McDonald’s founders, Carl Karcher and McDonald brothers. This is followed by the detailed observation of slaughterhouses and the mass production of meat that is one of the most dangerous production processes nowadays. In the end, Schlosser discusses the issues of fast food becoming the image of American nation in the world after the end of the Cold War and the mass spread of this tendency that is followed by the rapid growth of obese people in all part of our planet.

Answers on the Questions about the book.

This book seems to be provocative and even frivolous, although this is non-fictional work. The main difference between non-fictional book and a novel is that Fast Food Nation is a report of real events that took place in real life without the number of literary elements, such as rising action or exposition. This book contains real data and interviews that support its reliability and high importance. The book is extremely revelatory as it tells the truth about the contemporary food production within the United States and the real effect it produced on American citizens, their life and health. The book has to be considered as the reliable evidence of destructive influence of fast food and the potential danger produced on future generations in all parts of the planet. Therefore, it has to be studied and analyzed with serious attention and the argument Schlosser proposes to the reader has to be regarded as the guidance for the future change of our lifestyle and eating habits. The main question that has to be put forward is whether these social tendencies can be stopped and what means can be used to prevent the spreading of inappropriate fast food culture within the other countries.

Summary of the epilogue “Have it your way” and the Afterword “The Meaning of Mad Cow”.

In the epilogue “Have it your Way” Schlosser comes back to Colorado to demonstrate that his research ends in the place it has began. The final part of the book is dedicated to the main issue: what can be done about the problem and how to do it. . The epilogue starts with the return to Colodaro Springs where the Red Top small family restaurant is working for more than twenty years. Schlosser shows it an an example of the places that have not been infected with the virus of fast food industry and that still serve healthy meals to their clients. This observation is contrasted by the In-n-Out Burger family restaurant of Harry and Esther Snyder. This fast food restaurant does not search for a compromise within the products qualilty or prices in the menu. In the main part of the epilogue Schlosser observes the rancho of Dale Lasater that produces organic beef and behaves with cattle in traditional way, leaving maximum to nature. The author underlines high necessity for government to ban all advertisements that try to make children involved in fast food eating habits that will stimulate restaurants to offer healthier meals to the nation. "The Meaning of Mad Cow" afterword section has been added to the book in 2012 as Schlosser found it necessity to observe recent changes in global system of mass food production connected with mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease that supported the interest towards the book but were not the reason of its popularity. The author formulates multiple reforms that have to be adopted by the Congress to stop propaganda of fast food industry towards youth. The scientific researches that support the poor quality of the products used in fast food restaurants and the series of illnesses and bacteria found in slaughterhouses demonstrate the possible disastrous outcomes of the increased dependence on such system of food consumption. As Schlosser underlines himself, he believes that the times are changing. This statement is the one that has to be the most trustworthy because it deserves to be so.