I've rarely (and I mean RARELY) eaten fast-food in the two years since I watched Supersize Me and Fast Food Nation has only added to my lack of desire to ever step foot in a fast-food "restaurant" again. From the very beginnings of fast-food (who knew Disney was involved?!) to how the industry is run today, Fast Food Nation will make you think twice before buying that Value Meal the next time you're feeling hungry.

Personally, I think the book gets a little off-track in some spots and seems to be pushing a Vegetarian agenda, but maybe that's just some of the vibe I get because I still enjoy a good steak or homemade burger. Still, the book has made me look at the kinds of beef/chicken/other foods I'm buying and how they're being manufactured as Schlosser does a good job of trying to maintain some measure of objectiveness on a very divisive topic.

If you're already not eating fast-food, this will just confirm your beliefs. If you're still eating fast-food, you should read this book and know what you're putting in your body. Even if you read it and continue eating fast-food, you'll at least have a better idea of what you're doing to yourself.

I think schools across the nation should have a copy of this book available in their library, if not make it mandatory reading.

This book was the first step I took toward beginning to question my eating habits both from a nutritional perspective, as well as an ethical one. I grew up on fast food and cheap meat, but eventually you come to a point where you have to realize that when you always try to get the cheapest product possible, your 'savings' are translated into sometimes horrific costs to the environment, as well as to the workers whose livelihood depends on the production of that food; not to mention the nutritional aspect as well. Great book that is written in a manner accessible to almost anyone. One piece of advice though; don't watch the movie, its boring.

This product was exactly what I was looking for. My only concern was finding a portable casette player for my car!

This book made me sick. Literally. And figuratively. Figuratively, while reading about sweetheart deals between some members of a certain national political party who are in bed with (literally, in the case of former Texas Senator Phil Gramm and his wife) food processing companies and manufacturers (and yes, food is manufactured, just like any other industrial product), my blood seemed to boil.
Literally, while I was digesting the chapters on slaughterhouses, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow disease) coursed through my body. (Perhaps hypochondriacally, perhaps not.)
Author Eric Schlosser follows in muckraking writer Upton Sinclair's (The Jungle, 1906) muckraking footsteps, and what a lot of muck there is to rake! The book covers such a broad range of issues, political, scientific, and sociological, that there are enough topics for any reader to order from a menu (with more choices than you'll find at the local McDonald's) and find a selection sure to enrage. Dead-end career track for fast-food workers? Check. Obesity in America? Check. Union busting? Check.

Wait, whatever happened to unions? In the earlier part of the last century, unions protected laborers and acted with one voice to speak for many. Now food processing companies are forming conglomerates to stifle the voice of the individual worker, demanding greater productivity at cheaper wages, and union-busting techniques are simply business-as-usual.

Back to our menu. Inspiring stories of young mavericks like Carl Karcher of Carl's Jr. restaurants, and J. R. Simplot, of Idaho potato fame, give a glimpse of what some remarkable individuals with grit, gumption, and not much else, were able to achieve. It's only when we reach the 1960's when the spread, through franchising, of fast-food chains throughout the country (and later the world) that we see nutrition disappearing from America's dinner tables (and car seats!) as healthy foods are replaced by chemically-processed fake foods.

But by far, the slaughterhouse descriptions are the most revolting chapters of the book. Do you care about unskilled laborers working with barely any protection from OSHA? About the accident rate among those workers? About the poverty levels of the workers? If you don't, that's OK, because I wasn't referring to that. I'm referring to the blood and guts of the animal slaughtering process. And I'm referring to the hamburgers that the public has been eating. I have eaten my last hamburger. On page 197, line 22, of the paperback edition, you will find out why.

In this best seller, Eric Schlosser uses the kaleidoscopic history of the evolution of the Fast Food industry in an attempt to portray the methodical process of losing individuality in American society. He tries to answer the questions related to the root causes of the crumbling ethical standards in American business practices and the ways they impact the fabric of American society.

Schlosser's main purpose is to expose profit driven business practices of the fast food industry that grossly undermines consumer health and interest. He attempts to jump-start the everyday consumer's rational thinking. He re-traces American business history of the last few decades. Schlosser also takes the opportunity to explore the cultural effects of these businesses. His case study is America's Fast Food Industry. The underlying message in his book expands beyond the scope of the Fast Food Industry. Schlosser tries to render the true nature of capitalism without checks and balances that take full advantage of exploitation, oppression and social hierarchies in human societies.

Schlosser's tone is mostly critical. He presents himself as a culture critic. Even though his tone is often slightly glazed with hyperbole, he doesn't seem to portray himself as a lone crusader or an angry jihadist against the big bad American fast food corporations. His arguments are rational and wisely backed up by intelligently written premises filled with factual and historical phenomenon.

The recipe of the enormous success of the fast food industry throughout the postwar era was the idea of homogenization process of the consumer's appetite. Through some of the revolutionary marketing and business practices, the founding fathers of the fast food industry successfully assimilated American consumers into their business process. Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" unearths the untold American cultural history where conformity reigned and individualism slowly diminished. I remember being fascinated as a young boy by the popular TV series Star Trek's Borg collective and their bone-chilling sermon, "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated! Resistance is futile". As a grown up now I find myself living in a consumer society where the fast food industry has successfully manufactured a brand of consumerism that exploits our appetite, stimulates the growing disparity between and the haves and have nots and indirectly promotes American cultural imperialism throughout the globe. Interestingly enough, I find striking parallel between the fast food industry and the biological and technological terror known as the Borg Collective that made its television debut through a fictional backdrop into my childhood fantasy world.

Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonalds corporation, envisioned an American culture through uniformity and conformity by saying "We have found out.. that we cannot trust some people who are nonconformists.... The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization." (Schlosser 5). Ray Kroc's vision became reality through the success of the McDonald Corporation. But the ideas of uniformity and conformity escaped the realm of fast food industry and penetrated the fabric of our society. Communities throughout the American landscape have been assimilated into the idea of conformity. The success of the fast food industry stimulated enormous growth of other industries whose paths to success was to undermine American individualism. Many of the founding fathers of the fast food industry who chose the path of consumer conformity were originally the iconoclasts. That's the irony of this particular brand of Americanism. The revolutionary ideas of fast food franchise spawned across the nooks and crannies of our society. Eric Schlosser attempts to draw a parallel between the cultural changes of an all American Community Colorado Springs and the path to success of the fast food industry. <