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Eric Schlosser
Penguin, 2002, £6.99
(paperback)
ISBN: 0141006870
Rating: *****
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The
golden arches,” Atlantic Monthly journalist Eric Schlosser
claims, “are now more widely recognised than the
Christian
cross.”
But
the sterile plastic world watched over by a McHappy Ronald McDonald
conceals dirty hidden truths that Schlosser attempts to expose. His
thorough investigations reveal alarming statistics that are illustrated
by colourful vignettes—covering everything from the
meat to the marketing.
His work has to be precise and carefully
researched to avoid strongarm legal tactics by the all powerful fast
food corporations. The fact that Schlosser has avoided a lawsuit like
the “McLibel case” suggests that he really has lifted the
lid on the fast food industry.
The
exposé is peppered with tales about exploitation of workers and
consumers alike. Marketing methods aim to brainwash parents and
children into believing that McDonalds is a “trusted
friend” who “cares about me.” At the same time,
Schlosser says: “The fast food industry has worked closely with
its allies in Congress and the White House to oppose new worker safety,
food safety, and minimum wage
laws.”
He argues that the fast
food industry has influenced our diets, landscape, economy, workforce,
and popular culture and that: “A nations diet can be more
revealing than its art or literature.” Its a meaty claim,
but he manages to find enough evidence to support his
standpoint.
But Fast Food
Nation is not just a damning analysis about the global
pervasiveness of the American fast food industry; its a lesson
in public health too. And the health scares go beyond the
sensationalist one-off news stories about rats tails in
burgers and deep fried chicken heads. The horrors of the big
meat-packing plants that regularly flout health and safety
regulations, laboratories growing new strains of bacteria found in fast
food and the burgeoning levels of obesity may mean that “the
American Way” is just the unhealthy way.
But its a way of life that has won over the
British. Schlosser points out that, between 1984 and 1993, the number
of fast food restaurants in the United Kingdom doubled and so did the
obesity rates among adults. The British consume more fast food than any
people in other European country do, and theyre the
fattest.
After reading Fast Food
Nation, you may be able to resist opening the glass doors to Ronald
McDonalds Hamburger McHell.
