Category: Fast Food

You may get junk food on virtually any street nowadays. Fast food and processed foods are everywhere you look, while the world is only creating more fast food shops around the globe. Fast food is much more accessible than other food sources; it’s also perhaps one of the most popular how to get dinner. Business workers are ordering in either for dinner or lunch, and this is generally from take-out places with drive-throughs. Junk food companies use chemicals within their food that aren’t exactly healthy for humans to consume on a basis that is regular. So, why should take-out companies be allowed to hide most of the chemicals and ingredients in their foods, as well as hide any of the negative effects that are included with eating that food?

The problem is that food that is fast isn’t healthy. Healthy foods don’t contain a number of the chemicals that fast food does, they don’t impact the body when you look at the way that is the same. Healthy foodstuffs come from wholesome ingredients and don’t have preservatives or any other pesticides or growth hormones inside them. We all know that that’s food ingredients are exactly healthy, but the majority of us failed to read the number of ingredients for our favorite menu items. This is why a lot of us lack the billet to understand how bad the food that is first consumed is.

Are you going to think that fast food comes with a warning as with any other product you bought? You wish to know precisely what’s likely to happen to your body, and the right is had by you to know that information. It must not be hidden from you, also it really should not be kept away as some company secret. Every person has got the direct to understand how that food shall affect their body. From then on, they can make their choices whether they like to eat it or not.

You’ve probably noticed the long-term effects of fast food on human health if you’ve looked at documentaries such as the McDonald’s documentary and other fast food documentaries. Fast food is not bad so long as you do eat it once in a while, however, many people decide to eat take-out each day. This isn’t an excellent approach to life and may find yourself causing you permanent injury to your body because of the chemicals you were introduced into your body each time you eat a junk food meal.

There are numerous individuals who don’t wish to know what’s in their food. But that is only a population that is small. Every person has the right to know how an item shall affect them. Just as the truth is on labels, such as pills, medications, and even products like workout equipment for scans. Many of these come with a warning on what could get wrong when you’re using it or eating it. So why should take-out be any different? Simply because a population that is small doesn’t want to know what’s in their food does not mean that the rest of the population should not at least have a warning sticker.

As you can see, we have the ability to know very well what chemicals and products go onto our food. People deserve to learn by consuming fast food what type of effects they ought to expect on the body. Many people think that junk food will simply affect their calorie consumption for the day, but this is not true. Junk food can affect a person’s brain, psyche, and body. This is the reason we believe junk food should come with a warning.

Fast food is the product of social economy and cultural development to a certain stage. The rapid pace of people’s life, the increase of working women, the reduction in family size, and the increase in disposable income are the main reasons for the emergence and prosperity of the fast food industry. There are many different types of fast food. Some of the orders have restaurants (KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc.), and others rely on mobile apps such as Meituan and Eleme in China, and Foodpanda around the world. In my opinion, the effects of fast food appearance on society are seen in four big aspects, such as food choices, job opportunities, personal health, and government measures.

The main reasons for the appearance and development of fast food are different. McDonald’s is the first fast food restaurant in the world in 1948, the main reason why fast food appear is that the pace of society is faster, and people’s lives get busy. The development of fast food is related to the Internet. The prevalence of social media in modern society is getting bigger, and people are accustomed to using social media to order food, take-out food started to quickly become popular, and this is also driving the sustainable development of the fast food industry.

Online ordering is so popular because food sellers post a variety of food and price through the Internet intuitively. We can only use the phone to order food five years ago, but the number of orders by phone and online has nearly switched, with online orders on track to surpass phone orders any minute now. Compared with originally ordering by phone, ordering through apps are more straightforward and convenient for customers. The other reason why this kind of ordering style is so highly regarded is that it is time-saving and extra charges are not included, such as transportation expenses or oil costs. Fast food was regarded only as a symbol of quickly producing food before, but now fast food is not only a pronoun of time-saving but also a meaning of delicious food. There even have some burger fanatics dedicated to finding the best burgers around the world. Thus, fast food provides customers with more choices in the manner of ordering way and food variety. “Fast-food outlets are abundant and, while fast food has a reputation for being unhealthful, a growing number of the big chains are adding more nutritious options to their menus” (Kandola, 2019). In the past, fast food was always regarded as unhealthy junk food. But nowadays, people’s demand increases and becomes more diversified, to meet people’s needs, fast food restaurants have created new models of food that are both healthy and fast, such as Subway, Taco Bell, and Chipotle. So, in general, the fast food industry is evolving and improving themselves.

The appearance of the fast food industry also has a positive impact on employment opportunities. The fast food industry provides two kinds of people a good place to find a job, who are teenagers and non-educated people. As a matter of fact, nowadays, fast food is taking on more and more weight in the workplace. In 2013, the median age of workers in the industry even became 28 years old. It is difficult to live in this highly demanded world with no education and no skills. To survive and support themselves and their families, these people need a job like working in the fast food industry. Teenagers who don’t have work experience also need this job to make them get used to some social rules, and working in fast food restaurant is not too hard or difficult for them. To be honest, it’s quite a suitable job for teenagers. Taking the above into account, no one can deny the fact that the fast food industry is now playing a very important role in providing job opportunities.

Recently, the effects of fast food on our health have been brought into focus, and this phenomenon has become a heated topic. According to a recent study (Fecyt, 2012), eating commercial baked goods (fairy cakes, croissants, doughnuts, etc.) and fast food (hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizza) is linked to depression. The study demonstrates that participants who ate fast food and commercial baked goods are more likely to be single, less active, and have poor dietary habits, which include eating less fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables, and olive oil. Smoking and working more than 45 hours per week are other prevalent characteristics of this group. It proves that fast food not only does harm to our physical health but also causes some kinds of mental problems, even ruining our daily lives. More seriously, fast food like burgers, French fries, and ice creams are all children‘s favorite food, but the nutrition loss and high calories make society worried about children’s health. The fast food industry is the most sensitive to the technology of the modern catering industry, with the introduction of technology, formula, equipment, and talent, the annual increase of more than 20% of the turnover in the rapid development. The wealth effect of technological innovation has greatly stimulated many traditional catering enterprises. Everyone is looking for safe, stable, green, and fast value-added cooking technology. Because people are concerned about health problems, fast food sellers are trying to figure out measures to settle them. From now on, fast food is not only a meaning of junk food but has many kinds of healthy food which can be quickly made.

Evidently, the appearance of fast food has both negative and positive effects. These troubles which cannot be ignored caused by fast food have attracted the attention of the government rapidly, and they did some measures about it. Some governments increase the tax on junk foods. At the same time, they lower taxes on vegetables, fruits, and other healthy foods to guide people to eat healthy. For example, this is how Navajo Nation did. Government can’t use the law to ban fast food production or not allow people to eat them completely, they can only use some measures such as advertisements and taxes to put an attitude to the fast food trend. The most effective means to solve this problem is that people need to realize that eating too much fast food really harms their own health, and self-control themselves to get a high-quality life.

It is difficult to say whether the appearance of fast food is good or not to society in general, as it depends very much on the situation of standpoint. From what has been discussed above, we may reasonably arrive at the conclusion that from a personal point of view find without eating fast food too much and too frequently, eating fast food occasionally is good for our daily life. The fast food industry also does good on food choices, and it helps many people to find jobs. Everything has its own two sides, no exception with fast food. For one thing, it makes our life more convenient and comfortable, for another, it makes us easily put on weight and lead an unhealthy life. But overall, I still believe if we treat fast food with the right attitude, it can do good for our society.

Wherever we go into the supermarket or convenience store, it seems easy to find those mouth-watering food which may not be considered as healthy food. We so called this kind of food as “junk food.” There are lots of reasons for why people getting more and more unhealthy, such as sitting all day long, seldom drinking water or without doing the exercise regularly, and one of them is because of eating too much junk food. We all know that it does not benefit our body while having junk food, but what are the common causes and effects if we eat too much junk food?

One of the common causes to why we choose to eat junk food is due to lack of sleep. According to the Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Food Desire in the Human Brain (Stephanie, Andrea & Matthew, 2013), sleep deprivation increases the desire to choose high-calorie foods, which might cause the later problem of fat accumulation. In other words, having enough sleep can reduce the brain endocrine hormones to suppress their desire and help restore health. Another cause to eat junk food is because of the pressure during the work environment. A research found that people who are in a highly stressed working environment tend to prefer junk food because it can relieve stress a little. (Chu-Hsiang (Daisy), Yihao, Junqi, Jaclyn, Yifan, Mo, 2017) Yihao Liu, an assistant professor then stated that “eating is sometimes used as an activity to relieve and regulate one’s negative mood, because individuals instinctually avoid aversive feelings and approach desire feelings.” This result can be observed while our friends are enduring loss of love or high stress in class, etc.

As for the effects of eating junk food, one of the common effects is that it will lead to heart diseases. It is said that most of the junk food contain lower nutrients but higher in calories, sugar, and salt. Such as potato chips, French fries, and some other kinds of fried and full of carbohydrates food contain large amount of salt and sugar, which will increase the burden of metabolic toxins in the kidneys and cause high blood pressure. Besides, according to the American Heart Association, “Eating foods that contain saturated fats raises the level of cholesterol in your blood. High levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.” And saturated fats is often found in baked goods and fried foods, which means the more you consume from the fried food, the higher chance of you getting the cardiovascular diseases.

In addition to heart diseases, type 2 diabetes is also one of the chronic diseases that people might get if they have a problem with the diet. As the previous statement had mentioned, junk food usually contained high quality of sugar, which will let the blood sugar “doesn’t get into cells to be stored for energy,” and “when sugar cannot enter cells, a high level of sugar builds up in the blood. … This leads to the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.” (American Diabetes Association, 2018) When people get diabetes, they will greatly increase the chances and risks of getting other complications. Therefore, the proper intake of salt and sugar, especially in the consumption of junk food, requires more attention and care.

Moreover, nutritional deficiencies would somehow be a serious problem for people to notice, and we know that junk food had few efficient nutrients. According to Dr. Victoria J. Drake, a research associate at the Linus Pauling Institute, any lack of nutrients affects the immune system and increases the risk of illness and infection. She also stated that once the body lacks the nutrients it needs, people are prone to feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability. This result made me think of just a few weeks ago, I was suffering from anxiety, and at that period I indeed absorbed fewer nutrients than a person should take in one day. From then on, I patiently talk to myself every day that it is better to eat just a few healthy food than consume junk food as a formal meal, and it will gradually let my skin become better if I get rid of the junk food.

People eat junk food for many reasons, whether it is because of the sleep deprivation or work in the high pressure environment, it seems that this kind of “tasty” food would not disappear immediately as well as our desire for it, even though there is a high risk of getting some heart or chronic diseases, weight gain, and nutrients deficiencies. For me, I am still trying to reduce the amount of taking junk food and take more valuable food instead, I think it will be a long journey to do.

It was not that long ago that local farmers produced and sold to the local restaurants in their area but today, due to globalization, there have been major transformations because of urbanization and people no longer living close to where the food is grown. Globalization is the process by which businesses develop international influence and/or start operating on an international scale through ongoing processes where economies, cultures, and societies are being increasingly integrated with aspects of one another (What Is Globalization? 2016). Globalization has a significant impact on food choices and the health of populations all over the world.

The world we live in today has accepted and adapted globalization of the fast food industry into customs all over. However, there are several risks associated with this globalization. Traditional food is becoming harder to find because such places are being overrun with fast food restaurants and are becoming the people’s option because of the availability, cheap prices, and convenience compared to natural and traditional foods (Chavez, 2018). Some parts of the world feel at risk of losing their local culture because Western-style fast food becoming more easily and economically accessible. Another risk is the allure of unhealthy eating by advertising that has successfully diminished the natural food culture of many countries (Chavez, 2018). Everywhere one looks, there are fast food commercials for restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway just to name a few. Commercials, billboards, and coupons all influence individuals to eat at any fast food restaurant, which has become quite addicting (Chavez, 2018). Fast food means ingesting more calories and fat from processed foods which has a poor effect on health in the form of obesity and diabetes. One of the most critical risks is the fact that there is no real regulation around the globalization of the fast food industry, which has led to the exploitation of labor due in large part to extremely lax child labor laws all over the world (Schlosser, 2001).

While there are several risks associated with globalization, there are also many benefits. One significant benefit is that it helps many poor communities by providing employment opportunities that in turn improve the local economy which has reduced diseases and hunger (Chavez, 2018). Another benefit to the globalization of fast food is the increase of fruit and produce demand to save on the importation of these goods (Schlosser, 2001). This has provided a boost to local farmers in the regions which has had a boost to the local economies. Another benefit is bringing a “taste” of Americana to the far reaches of the world that probably would not experience it otherwise. Also, companies, like McDonald’s are starting to offer local favorites like paneer in India.

The globalization of fast food is not showing any signs of slowing down but it is good to see that these companies are starting to do more for the foreign markets that they are entering.

In, The trouble with Fries, an article written by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about how fast food is killing us. Reading through this article, Malcolm tries to show the audience through facts on how simple, delicious items like french fries are unhealthy and the health risks you can have on eating fast food. He also explains alternative ways how fast food chains can reduce these health risk and provide healthier options on their menu.

Malcolm states that an average person in the U.S. eats about thirty pounds of french fries a year. In the late 1900s, there was a serious health risk in the way french fries were made. McDonald’s and other fast-food chain’s use vegetable oil to fry french fries. But to make “…vegetable oil suitable for deep frying, it is subjected to a chemical process called hydrogenation, which creates a new substance called trans unsaturated fat.” (Gladwell, 2001). Malcolm mentioned that every two percent a woman consumes trans fats, it increased the risk of getting heart-disease by ninety-three percent. Malcolm did some research to find an alternative oil that can reduce health risk and found Olestra. Olestra is said to be a type of oil that has fats that cannot be absorbed by our bodies. Frito-Lay’s chips are fried with Olestra oil, and they claim it has no fat. No oil is good; even Olestra has some minor drawbacks. But, it’s way healthier than any other frying oils out there with fewer health risks.

Another finding Malcolm found was a research done by Auburn scientists. They wanted to make a healthier burger patty. They produced AU Lean. It consisted of seaweed, protein, water, five percent fat, and a specific type of flavoring for taste. The scientists did a blind test with their AU Lean patty up against a kind of patty McDonald’s would use with a test subject of 100 families. They found that AU Lean patty won hands down. The Auburn scientist suggested McDonald’s to make a burger out of their AU Lean patty. So, McDonald’s came out with McLean Deluxe sandwich apart of their healthy choice options. This was finally a choice to make people eat something healthier. Sadly, it was shortly removed because no one was buying this sandwich and the way it was marketed it didn’t take off. Also, when people think of healthy food, it doesn’t taste as well, especially with kids.

What I agree with Malcolm in this article is that the way the McLean Deluxe sandwich is marketed. The name of it was unappealing to the public. A name he suggested was “Burger Supreme” or “Monster Burger”. If I walked into McDonald’s and saw the McLean Deluxe sandwich on the menu, I would not have gotten it. McDonald’s should’ve also come out with an advertisement like Burger King did about their new plant-based burger and the customer reactions. What I disagree with Malcolm in this article is that he’s trying to make fast food places healthier. That’s never going to happen. The world we live in is all about making money. Fast food chains don’t care about if you’re healthy or not. You can choose if you want to eat healthy or not. It’s that simple!

Imagine driving to your normal 9 to 5 job. On the way, you observe that many people are going to the local Taco Bell. Since you are a little early, you decide that you could just grab a bite, except that your dietician has told you to hold it off for a while. You ignore the guilt, order a full-course meal, and gain 5 more pounds. The temptation to eat out is very common, and almost everyone does so at least once a day. But who should be held accountable for the impulse? The fast-food companies who do not advise on the amount of calories, or warnings in advertisements on that delicious, lip-smacking yet harmful Big Mac, or ourselves who have full control over what we decide to consume every day? People say that fast-food chains are very cheap and a lot easier to find than healthy food and are very convenient. It is very controversial and David Zinczenko expresses his thoughts on this debate in his article ‘Don’t Blame the Eater’. In my essay, I am going to critique his argument as I believe that we have to be held responsible for our own bodies. In my opinion, Zinczenko is biased in his article, and the government can use its energy effectively and productively, rather than blaming it all on fast-food chains.

We all know the consequences of eating out. It causes obesity, has economic issues, and can cause disorders like stress and depression. In his article ‘Don’t Blame the Eater’, David Zinczenko makes a point that “make fun if you will of these kids launching lawsuits against the fast-food industry, but don’t be surprised if you’re the next plaintiff” (649). I personally do not agree with that because even if you do sue fast-food chains, it will not help in the long run. In my opinion, it is more of a waste of time since people can open more franchises for junk food or create more fast-food industries if they want. It is better to focus on yourself and take care of your body than to relieve that stress on to someone else. The best way to alleviate the obesity ‘public health’ crisis is to remove obesity from the realm of public health. A person’s body should not be of any relation to the government because after all you can choose a healthy lifestyle and the government could put itself to other uses as well. It not only gives an excuse for people with obesity to keep on eating, but other people also have to pay for the repercussions of his/her actions. There are many restaurants, but it is up to you to choose or ignore going out. A person’s impulses to eat are his/her impulses, and they have to be held responsible for them because using excuses such as fewer warnings does not make a wrong thing right.

Some people might say that Zinczenko is very sympathetic in his essay, but I think that Zinczenko is very biased in his essay. The author is biased and does not rebut his counterargument wisely, which makes him more geared toward personal management in his article, even though he argues that fast foods are to blame, and it makes his article seem as if it has no point at all.

Last but not least, the government can use their energy and efficiency in other ways. A person’s choice should not be the reason for government interference. The responsibility and guilt of being overweight should not be lessened by the government taking measures. This does not give people a reason to put down junk food because again, the government can fix it. Instead, the government can use its money, energy, and time to benefit society in other ways. They can help overcome obesity by not blaming fast food but on individuals themselves. This will not only give motivation not to go inside Burger King, but it also could increase more acknowledgment about what to eat, where to buy it, and how it can help the economy grow to be a more positive world. By using a different approach, the government can help fight obesity.

It is often argued that fast-food chains are the main reason for obesity because they never mention any warnings of calories in advertisements and other than the Internet, not many people talk much about it. There should be increased awareness and consciousness in restaurants. Shouldn’t they make their food less harmful to the public by adding veggies or fruits? Fast food is also very cheap and affordable. This is why some people might agree with Zinczenko’s article. They might also think that there are already so many branches of fast food everywhere and it is very convenient. It is hard to go back to find veggies after seeing McDonald’s and Chipotle many times. They also serve large portions of calories at a discount, so people get more tempted to order it.

While I agree with Zinczenko that fast-food restaurants can be a factor in obesity, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that it is the root cause. It is true that because of larger portions, convenience, inexpensiveness, and less knowledge about the harmfulness, it is a huge part of obesity. But in my view, personal management is more important, because even if a person does keep on eating, at some point in life that individual will have to stop and reconsider his/her choices. Healthy food might be more expensive to buy, but it will have a better environment and affect us positively in social and economic ways. It also gives fewer calories and can be very tasty. There are also many magazines and articles on how to stay healthy and how to take care of our diets. There are a lot of stores that offer healthy alternatives to food. Healthy foods will always be an option and in the long run personal responsibility will always be to blame.

In conclusion, the controversial issue of fast food vs. personal responsibility is very debatable. ‘Don’t Blame the Eater’ by David Zinczenko discusses whether individual accountability is the reason for obesity or whether fast-food restaurants are the culprit. I don’t support his argument because I think we should be taking care of our own bodies. After all, it is our own body after all. In my opinion, Zinczenko is tremendously biased because he does not rebut his counterargument properly, and the government can use their time and energy productively by blaming personal responsibility instead of blaming fast-food restaurants. Not only will this make us better people, but it will also help us to influence other people and ultimately change the world!

Work Cited

1. Zinczenko, David. ‘Don’t Blame the Eater’. They Say/I Say, 4th ed., edited by Geral Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 647-649.

Many decades ago the world was provided with a curse, the curse penetrated our universe invaded our nation, robbed our banks, altered our cultures and poisoned our minds; Being the world’s busiest and most successful nation, Americans need to be kept fed and with a busy schedule, the food needs to always be available, cheap, tasteful, and filling and the eternal curse manages to accomplish the task quite successfully. revealed in a book by eric schlosser’s ¨ Fast Food Nation¨ In 1970 Americans spent about $6 billion on the curse; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion.; and the number keeps increasing rapidly, I’ve always known fast food was bad for you but I’ve never really thought of it as downright evil until now. It has become as American as an American flag.

The start of the fast food industry is parallel to the era when driving cars became common. In the era of the 1950s, America was a top world power that was flourishing economically. There were new houses, industries, and cars. With the invention of the car, people started to want things faster and on the go. The car changed the pace of America, everything needed to be faster and that included food. It all began with drive-ins, specifically Carl’s Drive-In Barbeque in Anaheim, California. Customers were able to park their car and honk their horn while someone would come out to take their order and then deliver it.

Eric Schlosser begins his account of the American fast food industry by focusing on one region of the United States in particular: Colorado’s “Front Range,” or a group of cities including Denver, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins, just east of the Rockies. Schlosser believes that this expanding, suburbanized region of the Mountain West is an emblem of late 20th-century economic growth and the problems that go along with that growth. In Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser discloses quite a startling problem. His points of view are substantiated with more than adequate research and statistics, but the most compelling factor in his evidence is the common use of examples. By putting a “human-interest” factor in the book, Schlosser makes the reader understand his arguments. These examples are more than mere anecdotes used to catch the reader’s consideration. By putting a face to the issues presented in the story, Schlosser illustrates the values—and lack thereof—in American culture. This paper will focus on the use of personal examples that Schlosser employs throughout the book by taking a look at how he uses these examples in each chapter to support his points of view.

Many people do not realize that the jobs in the fast food industry are very dangerous. These are the jobs that no one realizes what it’s like behind the scenes. The workers face high rates of injury in the factories and in fast food restaurants, so we feel like we shouldn’t support the fast food industries. In chapters three and eight of “Fast Food Nation,” Eric Schlosser uses pathos to highlight the fact that fast food jobs are difficult as well as dangerous. Schlosser sneaked into a slaughterhouse at night to watch employees working within inches of each other, standing ankle-deep in blood, hacking away at carcasses. Sometimes the blood is their own. In addition, to stab wounds, there are incidents of lost fingers, lost limbs and death. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that one out of three slaughterhouse workers suffers an injury or illness that requires more than first aid and Schlosser thinks that many injuries and illnesses go unreported.

Slaughterhouse workers toil in subhuman conditions, animals are turned into cannibals (cattle are routinely fed to each other to promote faster growth, The claims may be shocking but Eric Schlosser’s measured tone and thorough research are extremely convincing. Schlosser talks about how meatpacking is the most dangerous job in the United States. He says “The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate of a typical American Factory” (172). Every year more than forty thousand meat packing workers get injured (beyond first aid) in the US alone. That is a lot of people getting hurt for just doing their jobs. Some of the injuries that get reported are fatal, but “thousands of additional injuries and illnesses most likely go unrecorded” (172). The workers who apply for such jobs tend to be illegal immigrants who try to earn some money to send back home to their families. Because these immigrants do not “exist”, there would be no problem if one might get into an accident and died, Too bad that, other than a few fringe groups, customers don’t seem to really care.

Fast Food Nation, written by Schlosser, lets the reader come up their own conclusions, but he does give a fair warning to those reading his book. The book is all about the “dark side of the All-American meal” (cover page). Schlosser points out that “over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of the American society” (page 3). Unfortunately has become reality, nowadays there is usually a fast food place within a ten-block radius, especially near high schools. Kids are obvious targets as customers see that a “typical American child spends more time watching television than doing any other activity except sleeping” (page 46) that leads the fast food industries; to put more commercials as well as cooperate with sports teams, cartoons, movies, and anything that can lead to a kid want to buy food.

The fast food industry is aware of the risks of consuming fast food but blames consumers’ eating habits. Defendants of the fast food industry claim that food cannot be good or bad. It is the diets of the consumers that matter. The industry is aware of the negative consequences but places the burden of those consequences on the eating patterns of consumers. Their position is that the customers are well aware of the nutritional values of the food, yet still choose to eat it. The fast food industry is something that is familiar to everyone. Living in the United States, you can usually only go a few miles without seeing a multitude of fast food restaurants popping up. The bright neon lights flash and entice all to come and have a quick, easy and cheap meal. Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, points out, “Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music – combined.” Without the fast food industry our country would be significantly different, it has changed the nation environmentally, economically, and culturally and has done many beneficial things for the United States in the form of philanthropic works, building up the economy, and making things more convenient for the American people. However, the industry has focused more on gaining revenue than the satisfaction and health of its customers and has done more harm than good.

Critical Analysis

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. HarperCollins, 2002, 288 pages

We all love fast food. It is a guilty pleasure. Almost forty percent of Americans consume fast food on any given day. Most of them know that junk food is bad for them, and in that same way, some of them do not care. Eric Schlosser in the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal exposes the inconvenient truth that what we are putting in our mouths has a dark story behind it. This book informs readers about how fast food has completely infiltrated our culture and changed the way that we live.

Important points were brought out.

Schlosser writes on many perspectives. He writes on the real estate development of fast foods, and how franchises can be bought. He writes about the meatpacking industry, and the manufacturing practices of potatoes, and beef. He explains the business aspect of the fast-food industry, all the way from CEO to line cook. He even adds in a small biography of a lot of the founding fathers of multiple fast-food restaurants. All these perspectives only served to broaden the amount of data present and thus contributing to the success of the book.

Schlosser goes behind the scenes of some of the biggest corporations in the fast-food industry. He goes into detail about the history of the world’s largest fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s and Burger King, explaining their increasing struggle with US legislation, the USDA, and the USHA. He discusses the impact of flavoring factories not only on the fast-food industry but also on commonly used processed products.

Our relationship with fast food starts way before we are conscious of it because these companies are marketing to children. They are not looking at a general consumer populous, they are focusing on kids. The goal is not to make the parents buy the product, but how to get the children to nag the parents to buy the product. This marketing tactic is used by fast food restaurants all over the globe. “Sophisticated mass marketing techniques were for the first time directed at small children, and when federal agencies created to protect workers and consumers too often behaved like branch offices of the companies that were supposed to be regulated”. (p. 8) All of the mascots like Ronald McDonald, Wendy, and Jack from Jack in the Box, are all designed to appeal to children. “Fast food is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children. This is an industry that both feeds and feeds off the young.” (p. 9). Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, was a friend of Walt Disney

Authors Intent

Schlosser’s motivation was not to prevent individuals from eating fast food, but to reveal insight into a generally hitting piece of the cheap food industry.“I do not mean to suggest that fast food is solely responsible for every social problem now haunting the United States. In some cases, the fast-food industry has been a catalyst and a symptom of larger economic trends.” (p. 9) The book is intended to advise the readers about what truly goes on behind the counters of our preferred drive-thru restaurants. The writer was attempting to accomplish an amusement factor alongside a descriptive angle when making Fast Food Nation, which is obvious when you read the book.

Schlosser did this by utilizing more straightforward facts alongside facts that would truly intrigue the reader. An example is: “ This year Americans will spend over $110 billion on fast food—more than they will spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined.” (p. 3) This helps keeps the reader engaged and also helps keep the reader wanting to learn more facts.

Lessons to be learned.

The lesson to be learned from reading is related to customer awareness. As individuals buying the food these corporations put out, we should be aware of the necessities, like health, that these companies sacrifice for money. Schlosser repeats again and again how critical it is to make sure these companies stay accountable for the goods they produce. His main argument is that the industry is unhealthy, greedy, and takes advantage of the people, mainly children.

He exposes how low quality the meat is, and how willing we are to eat it just because it tastes good. “Here lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: there is sh** ”(fecal matter)“in the meat.” (p. 197). He warns us as consumers to stay vigilant about the food we consume “It has also been made possible by a widespread lack of awareness about how many Americans suffer from food poisoning every year and how these illnesses actually spread.” (p. 197).

Appraisal

One thing about this book that was enjoyable was that it had a good amount of key information and the author integrated a narrative feeling into it. The informal way that this book was written contributed immensely to how interesting and engaging the book was. It helped me stay engaged, and I feel like I learned a lot from this book. So on the one side the book is great because he talked about a lot of different things and was interesting. But on the flip side the book is spread out all over the place, and the transition between ideas is very sloppy so reading the book feels like the author is throwing more information at you without connecting it to the previous information. He does not focus on one argument either. You can tell what the book is about by the subtitle “The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”, but unfortunately he does not remind you of that.

Some of the information in the book is also outdated. The book was originally published on January 2001, and all of his research is from the late ’90s so if you do the math, that ends up being over 20 years ago. So much has changed since then that his research is almost not relevant to this day and age. The book was still a very good source of information about the different practices and everything for that time, but unfortunately, the book would not go very far when compared to this day and age. If Schlosser had done a ten-year out afterward exploring the impact of his book, that would be interesting to see. But otherwise, the book is very behind the times.

One thing that he should have included was a well-defined call to action for the readers. A lot of what Schlosser asks of change is the big guns like the people who run these companies or are in congress but that, unfortunately, does not apply to most readers. His only real recommendation for everyone reading this book is to not buy fast food. This does seem like a great initiative at first sight, but you realize that he just says “Do not buy fast food” and he does not explain what we should do instead. So for me, that was not a very actionable call to action for me to help solve the problem.

Integration of the 5 major themes of geography

There are 5 major themes of geography. They are described as movement, regions, human-environment interaction, location, and place (commonly referred to as Mr. Help). Movement is defined as “the travel of people, goods, ideas, and political events from one location to another.” The movement was a key idea in Fast Food Nation. Though Mcdonald’s was the first fast food chain to use the assembly-line-like system, White Castle was still the first official fast food chain. Soon after White Castle’s founding in 1921, Mcdonald’s took their idea for food and made it faster using the assembly line method in 1955. That is an example of the movement and development of ideas from one person to another.

Another major theme that was present in this book was human-environment interaction.

Beef is the main ingredient in many of the biggest fast food chains. Most of this meat is produced in factory farms which contributes to global warming immensely. The whole chain of production affects the environment, not just the chemicals. So that is an example of humans interacting in the environment to create fast food, lets look at an example of the environment adapting to the changes in our behavior.

Deforestation is another effect of the fast food industry. Restaurants compete to provide the best beef products, resulting in millions of cattle being slaughtered. Many corporations like Burger King import rainforest beef, which led to Amazon deforestation. In response to this, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) started boycotting rainforest beef, mainly honing in on Burger King. “Deforestation causes climate change, animal extinction, and destroys the homelands of Indigenous people. Scientists are concerned that if more rainforest is cleared, there will be less rainfall in the rainforest, combined with climate change, which could worsen drought in the rainforest.” (Lael Goodman, “Deforestation, Cattle, and Fast Food”, UCSUSA). These are all indirectly a result of fast food.0

Conclusion

Since the development and advancement of the fast food industry, our country and nation has never been the same. In light of the advancement of drive-through joints, America’s economy, well-being and ways of life have been strongly influenced in different ways and angles. Eric Schlosser exposed the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of the fast food industry. This advancement in food making has made some positive and negative effects on the American way of life, well-being, and economy, in many ways throughout the continent.

Bibliography

1. Molina, B. (2019). More than 1 in 3 Americans eat fast food in a given day, CDC finds [online] USAtoday. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/03/americans-eat-fast-food-daily-cdc-survey/1507702002/ [Accessed 1 Aug. 2019].
2. Schlosser, E. and Linklater, R. (2001). Fast Food Nation. 1st ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Many people have died left and right due to the alarming many different types of diseases from all around the world. Because not all are equivalent to the damage they may inflict, it would be unreasonable to compare some of them side by side. In the book Fast Food Nation written by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, he dives into further detail about the local and worldwide impact of the fast food industry that resides in America. One of the subjects he scrutinizes is the regulation of food safety which was not up to par. A momentous incident he explains to highlight the issues that needed to be resolved was the recall of nearly 19 million pounds of tainted beef at an American food packaging corporation called ConAgra. As a result, Schlosser effectively advocates for the safety of meat consumption by explaining the terror of E. coli, however, his need to compare this bacteria to AIDS is uncalled for as it is overwrought and serves its purpose to inflict pathos in the audience.

Because food contamination within the meatpacking industry is such a vital issue that requires attention, the author also tackles the safety of the meat itself that is being produced. Schlosser mentions how E. coli, one of the most common bacteria in meat, releases a strong toxin that damages the intestine’s lining. The various outbreaks of this bacteria during the previous decades show how beef is not totally safe as the process of how cows are handled throughout the whole operation allows for an environment where

can spread. He thoroughly explains that logically, it is very hard to keep track of the bacterium’s source in America as the government overlooks the production of an abundance of meat is low. The writer remarks how “the Reagan and Bush administrations cut spending on public health measures and staffed the U.S. Department of Agriculture with officials far more interested in government deregulation than in food safety” (Schlosser 206). Because the entire system is complex, it creates difficulty in determining the cause and effect of the situation. The inadequate strict policies within the meatpacking and fast food industry carried the responsibility for the downfall of regulations that were placed during Reagan and Bush’s administrations. With that said, deregulation can be the most efficient treatable case of these food-borne diseases in the United States. Schlosser wisely included the fact that this problem scaled to an even bigger platform as it was brought to attention on a federal level because it brings an alarming amount of awareness and strength into his argument. He continues to successfully break down the process of health procedures in the meatpacking industry and highlights the flaws as he goes along which helps the reader understand what is happening behind the scenes and why this method needs to be fixed. We are not living in a utopian world where meat would be perfectly kept and not contaminated with the security of not having fecal substances making their way through the process. Because that is not how it works, we must ensure the absolute safety of the meat as best as possible for the consequences will be detrimental as is shown in this case with the spread of E. coli. Despite the high number of cows being placed in these facilities, taking the time and effort to load them should not be ignored as it contributes to keeping them cleaner for butchering. Schlosser also makes another valid point that even with the inspectors on-site in a plant completing their job, it does not guarantee that they will manage to discover everything down to perfection and therefore, need to include an adequate amount of workers for this task. Because we are human, we are expected to make mistakes and it so happens that this error can lead to the contamination of tens and hundreds of pounds of meat customers will consume. His appeal to logos throughout this chapter grabs the audience’s attention with reasoning. He heavily relies on this tactic of drawing his audience as he plays with their intellect by treating them rationally. The clarity and connection of principles and convictions to factuality and proof that Schlosser brings to his argument make it quite compelling.

While discussing the defects of processes occurring in the meatpacking industry and how they can result in E. coli, Schlosser feels the need to compare this bacteria infection to AIDS which is unnecessary. Although there are some similarities between the two diseases such as how they both have the ability to contaminate from one person to another and can lead to death, they contain more differences that do not make it reasonable for them to be compared against each other. Schlosser’s goal was to impose frightful emotions within readers since there is an assumption that his audience will be already familiar with the concept of AIDS and as a result, there will be hopes to enhance the fear within people. He goes about pointlessly commenting on how “like the multiple sex partners that helped spread the AIDS epidemic, the huge admixture of animals in most American ground beef plants has played a crucial role in spreading E. coli 0157:H7” ( 204). The issue with this comparison is that the number of people that have been killed by E. coli does not compare with AIDS, nor is it filled with the same social and political background. Moreover, the way these diseases are spread is completely dissimilar to the deviation of unsafe blood transfusions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the top national public health organization in the United States under the Department of Health and Human Services, CDC approximates that E. coli leads to 265,000 illnesses, 3,600 hospitalizations, and 30 deaths in the United States. However, an online resource for the entire United States HIV and AIDS sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Public Health and Science, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs called HIV.gov stated that since 2016, there being 15,807 people in America who were diagnosed with AIDS that have died and estimated that 1.1 million people living in the United States live with HIV today. As the statistics show, the drastic differences between these two diseases are incomparable and should not be used to merely trigger pathos amongst the readers. The author tried to affect his audience by making a historical analogy as he alludes to data and facts, but the purpose of including this contrast proves futile as there is not a solid foundational link between the two to strengthen his argument.

Regardless of achieving a valid and logical argument about diseases concerning meat, Schlosser unsuccessfully attempted to amplify the dangers and fear of the potential damage E. coli can do and how it can be easily slipped into the meatpacking industry through its process by making an illogical differentiation with AIDS. The two illnesses may pose life-threatening dangers to society, but in unalike ways that cannot measure within the same ballpark. If Schlosser had perhaps approached this topic by comparing another disease or concept to E. coli, his argument would have been stronger as the relevancy of the subject will make sense.

Cheyenne Mountain sits along the eastern slope of Colorado’s Front Range, quietly standing above the city of Colorado Springs and its vast prairies. From a distance, the mountain appears placid, dusted with a rocky layer of snow and scattered with ponderosa pine, oak, and blue spruce trees. However, the mountain is hardly pristine. Deep within the walls of Cheyenne Mountain, one of the most important military installations exists, carrying out top-secret operations. Amid the medical and fitness center, chapel, and barbershop, trash cans are filled with empty pizza boxes, crushed soft drink cups, and bags from miscellaneous fast food joints. Even in the most high-security and unknown places, fast food seeps through changing the way people live (Schlosser 1-2).

Over the last couple of decades, the fast food industry has cemented itself within every city in America and in foreign countries, but name-brand companies have not always been seen by the public eye. The industry began in the late 1920s as a couple of small-scale hotdog and hamburger stands in southern California. As people like Carl Karcher, Glen Bell, and the McDonald brothers realized the number of profits they gained each month from selling these foods, they began naming their stands and selling distinctive menu items to attract more customers. After World War II, most fast-food joints had migrated across America and new fast-food restaurants popped up in states that did not yet have one to visit. By the Eisenhower era, the “hamburger and french fries became the quintessential American meal… thanks to the promotional efforts” of fast food chains (Schlosser 6). Now, fast food is seen everywhere; airports, zoos, malls, gas stations, grocery stores, hospitals, cruise ships, and schools. The popularity of the fast food industry has masterfully influenced many aspects of human life.

The fast food industry has imprinted core values of harmful health on society creating corrupt mentalities and an influx of body issues. In today’s culture, people regard what is easily accessible over the quality of hard work and management. These increased behaviors from frequent consumers negatively reinforce immediate gratification and unrealistic expectations (Ernest and Kelloff 2). A person’s natural response, when stressed and hungry, is to attain something fast to eat, rationalizing that the productivity gain is worth the nutritional risk. When a person continues to satisfy this response with immediate gratification, the framework for complex decision-making decreases dramatically. The lack of this ability can result in constant dependence on service recommendations, failure to comprehend activities, present no personal investment, and passing off responsibility (Ernest and Kelloff 2).

Within the fast food culture, there are trends of unrealistic expectations in the relationship of quality, quantity, and price. Most enjoy the idea of fresh, sustainable foods however, are unwilling to pay a fair price for it, and with the unfamiliarity behind the transportation of food from farms to plates, peoples’ reliance on fast food grows. Knowing that fast food restaurants provide less expensive options, gathering ingredients from supermarkets seems ridiculous especially when the price is almost double (Ernest and Kelloff 4). As a growing Populus, “it is important to identify the fast food behaviors… so remedies and a re-engaging of health values can be applied” before the complete destruction of intellectual mindsets (Ernest and Kelloff 7).

The rise in fast food has created a profound effect on the physical health of individuals. According to “13 Effects of Fast Food on the Body”, fast food has been specifically designed to taste pleasant by being loaded down with carbohydrates, added sugars, fats, and sodium (1). In addition to containing high amounts of calories and little to no nutritional value, the foods served in these restaurants lead to chronic illnesses and diseases. Obesity is the number one ailment due to fast food, but it can also cause respiratory, digestive, and cardiovascular issues as well as disrupt body functions.

Respiratory problems are associated with obesity and “may cause shortness of breath or wheezing with little exertion” and “plays a role in the development of sleep apnea and asthma” within adults and children (“13 Effects of Fast 2”). These diseases prohibit not only children and adults from exercise lead activities but also restrict them from a normal circadian cycle. The digestive system is responsible for breaking down carbs into glucose and releasing it into the bloodstream to feed the cells of the body however, with the excessive intake of large levels of carbs, the spike in blood sugar starts altering the normal insulin response. This abnormal response contributes to insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes (“13 Effects of Fast 1”). Added concentrations of sodium from these dense foods help advance cardiovascular complications. Sodium helps retain water causing general puffiness and bloating, but continual consumption may result in high blood pressure, enlargement of the heart muscle, congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease (“13 Effects of Fast 1”). Without proper care, these illnesses can turn progressive leading to an untimely death. While most of these ailments take a long time to process through the body and develop, fast food has immediate negative effects as well. According to Dr. Rachna Pandey, a specialist in internal medicines, states “one tends to feel drowsy after consuming fast food as the only meal… and while being deprived of the nutrients, one can feel depressed or angry without reason” because of altered brain chemistry (“Why Fast Foods Should 2”). For the normal processes of the body to occur, the right amount of regulated chemicals must be registered in the brain, but fatty foods can deflect these activities from happening. For instance, when fats reach the brain, it slows down the cognitive level thus, slowing down concentration, learning, and remembering things.

The fast food industry transformed culture into an era that lives off child marketing, creating new technology, and changing the family dynamic during meal time. Fast food sought out advertising to children in the late 70s in the hope that once children become familiar with the happiness they received from the company, they would become lifetime customers (Schlosser 43). This idea sparked fast food companies to manufacture commercials tailored to children’s interests. It was important that most commercials consisted of bright colors, toys, cartoon characters, playgrounds, and children like them enjoying themselves to increase their likelihood of visiting their establishment. For example, Taco Bell’s talking chihuahua ad was the most popular commercial in the late 90s among kids because the comedy was for their age group (Schlosser 41). Though these commercials brought in plenty of customers, they also made other non-kid-friendly companies target children as well as bring on bad behavior. In 1991, the Joe Camel ad campaign used a cool cartoon character to sell cigarettes, and “nearly all of America’s six-year-olds could identify Joe Camel, who was just as familiar to them as Mickey Mouse” (Schlosser 42). Around twenty-five years ago, “only a handful of American companies directed their marketing towards children” though, today they are targeted for everything including phones, oil, automobiles, and clothing influencing their choices, good or bad (Schlosser 42).

Commercials are not the only way fast food chains are reaching children. Fast food chains are not “shy about plans to infiltrate kids’ lives through the educational system” with teachers and standardized testing (Joiner 2). For years, McDonald’s has been holding controversial teacher nights in which teachers serve kids their dinner to raise money. Children respect their teachers and find them trustworthy so by having teachers work at these restaurants the chains are hoping kids will believe that eating out is a good thing. Fast food places are also using school mornings to promote free breakfasts before testing to teachers and children who attend third grade to high school (Joiner 2). In addition, most fast food restaurants that offer breakfast have extended their breakfast times into an all-day event so kids can still buy their favorite items from the morning after testing. Josh Brolin, the executive director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, states that “to leverage that to sell kids junk food is preposterous and egregious” to today’s standards and should not be allowed (Joiner 2).

As the fast food industry has grown, so has technology. Fast-food restaurants have perfected the way they select sites for new buildings. In the 1980s, fast food chains became “ one of the world’s leading purchasers of commercial satellite photography” to predict the best open places from outer space (Schlosser 66). Though for a while this tactic did work, chains sought out other more effective ways to find first-rate sites before their competitors. Mcdonald’s developed a computer program called the Quintillion that selected sites with maps, demographic information, CAD drawings, and profits from existing stores (Schlosser 66). Once the corporation details were leaked, many found it uncanny to be spied on by a business however, many retailers still use this system to select sites today despite the controversy.

One of the most important cultural changes undergone by the fast food industry is the switch in family dynamics. Traditional family dinners at home “promoted unity, affection, self-expression, discipline, emotional health, and nutritional eating habits” which in return helped the maintenance of each person’s personality and manners (Burd 2). However, with the abundance of food after World War II, attitudes were shaped to think that convenience was more important than waiting for dinner with the family. To help progress this idea, the mass media began to manipulate realities with advertising by delivering “nostalgic and romantic images of the family to create a desire for corporate commodities” (Burd 2). Yet, this dining experience falsely simulated traditional family dinners. People no longer had to dress up, plan, and have manners to eat and children could enjoy distractions from parents’ control with playgrounds, coloring, and toys. Fast food “re-creates an image of the past”, but could not be farther from it (Burd 3).

Factory farming “is an industrial process in which animals and the products they generate are mass produced” to keep up with the intense demand from the fast food industry (Factory Farming 1). In the eyes of farmers, factory farming is just another business, yet the animals that live on these farms live a tremendously appalling lifestyle. Farmers cut costs by “feeding animals the remains of other animals, keeping them in extremely small and soiled enclosures, and refusing to provide bedding” as well as force-feeding them drugs and denying social interaction (Factory Farming 1). Chickens, such as broiler and layer, are bred to be so heavy that their own bones cannot support the weight often resulting in broken legs. Moreover, these chickens live in wire cages that… For the maximum amount of profits, American farmers have expanded themselves within other countries According to George Bernard Shaw, “We are living graves of murdered beasts, slaughtered to satisfy our appetites… how can we hope in this world to attain peace” when animal cruelty is part of our lives every day (Factory Farming 7).

The fast food industry has not only impacted the way animals are raised but questioned the future livelihood of the environment. For years, packaging waste from this restaurant has created a serious problem for the ecosystem. According to “McDonald’s Environmental Issues”, fast food outlets “use tons of unnecessary packaging every day” to maintain convenience and portability for customers (2). To combat backlash from environmental enthusiasts and government-sponsored organizations, many corporations have tried to reduce the waste they produce though, their efforts cause significant environmental pollution and health issues. In Europe, over “50 million tons of packaging wastes are produced every year”, yet burning this amount of waste releases harmful chemicals into the atmosphere resulting in global warming (McDonald’s Environmental Issues 2). Global warming is the root problem for the rising temperatures in colder regions, extinction of animals, and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, and with the continuation of these problems, the Earth will be forever changed for the worse. Landfills, likewise, pollute and kill underground animals and marine life thus, polluting humans that consume them (McDonald’s Environmental Issues 1). Additionally, many joints buy their meat from privatized farms. These farms cause deforestation among foreign rainforests due to building space, agriculture production, and livestock grazing….

The economic factors constructed by the fast food corporation shaped business competition and caused the decline of American Ranchers. Because of the rise in fast food’s message on convenience, the recession of supermarkets began. To resist extinction firms like Hyvee, Koo Koo Roo, Kenny Rogers, and Boston Market promoted fully prepared carry-in and carry-out meals that advertised a home-cooked image (Jekanowski 2). These meal choices often contained a multitude of vegetable and fruit choices that provided a higher nutritional balance for the body as well as being affordable and convenient, qualities fast food outlets lacked. In 1997, supermarkets were estimated to make 7 billion dollars to 14 billion dollars a year on their meal plan, just 6 billion dollars under the fast food industry income, which would soon “become a major competitor to traditional fast food” (Jekanowski 3). This lifestyle adjustment not only saved supermarkets but added a new economic boost to a slow economy and changed how shoppers spend their time while browsing.

Home-owned businesses do not have the same luck as supermarkets. Due to the sizable success of the fast food industry, many other outlets began to adopt centralized business methods. Ray Kroc, one of the founders of the McDonald’s franchise, argues “customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown ” therefore, reassuring the fact that they believe their organization to be more trustworthy than that of an independent business (Schlosser 5). The steady increase of uniformity corporations in recent years has opened the mindset that nonconformists are less worthy of being on the market to sell products and in time will destroy small-time businesses.

With the growth of fast food’s use of the meatpacking industry, the economic situation for American ranchers has drastically been remodeled, hurling them into a life of struggle. Over the past twenty years, “about half a million ranchers sold off their cattle and quit the business” due to stagnant prices, increased shipments of cattle from Mexico and Canada, and health scares about beef (Schlosser 136). Farmers that remain within the business lose independence from larger corporations conforming to losing land and becoming managers for absent owners who in return personally profit greatly unlike them. Rural towns “are losing their middle class and becoming… divided between a small, wealthy elite class” and the working poor (Schlosser 8). Towns that were once revered as big competitors in the business are facing major repercussions, turning into ghettos where crime rates are high and suicide rates are climbing.

For generations, fast-food restaurants have treated their employees unfairly encouraging the early sexualization of women and a powerfully violent environment for young teens and adults. During the early 40s, fast food joints sought out a new way to attract customers to their doors. Most stores “could no longer afford to be subtle” so they “tended to be gaudy and round, topped with pylons, towers, and flashing signs” where motorists could see them passing at high speeds (Schlosser 17). Though the nature of the building appealed greatly to consumers, outlets soon turned to women and automobiles to fully accomplish their goals. Women were not wanted because of their ability to compose a friendly manner towards customers, but to lure men into the restaurant with their bodies. These waitresses, known as carhops, often wore “short skirts and dressed up like cowgirls, majorettes, and Scottish lasses”, outfits that at the time for young girls were outright skimpy and sexy (Schlosser 1). For these carhops, jobs were not always safe. Women often received unwanted attention from vulgar, obsessed men who harassed, raped, and killed them because of the nonexistent …The relevance of women and sexualization is still prevalent in today’s society. Commercials, billboards, and radio ads still use women to…