Fast Food Nation

I recently came across this book and decided to read it. The book is written very well by Eric Schossler. It is based on how USA turned into the fast food crazy nation as they are today.

Eric starts with the chapters on the history of west coast of USA. He puts a picture of the lush green farmlands, agriculture era and the orange orchards from which it
got its name of Orange County. He then introduces you to the great McDonald brothers who used to run their restaurant business.
They gradually moved on to expanding their business by opening more outlets with a lot of manual dependency (waiters, chefs, etc).
The book explains the journey of McDonalds from being such a small chain to one the biggest chains in the world today.
It is also good to know how they transformed all manual jobs into machine made and process oriented.
How they came up with McDonalds university and recipes that the machines can run and produce the same french fries
any place, any hour of the day any month of the year.

You are then taken to the lesser known details about the McDonalds uniformity and that great burger. He touches upon lesser known industries of
the artificial flavor industry which has sprawled on the east coast, potato packing and the meat packing industry.

Your taste buds are aroused not by the flavor but by the smell of the food. Next time you see 'Artifical flavors added' or 'Contains nature identical flavors', you know where they come from.
This is needed to maintain that uniform taste of the french fries.

The most heartening out of all is the plight of those involved in the meatpacking industry. Eric shares his experiences with the meatpacking industry workers.
This industry is brutal to not just animals but also humans involved. Its sad to see the stories of how immigrants are ready to work in bad conditions at a cheap cost and how the fast food giants are exploiting them.

The book lists all the major epidemics and new pathogens like E.coli introduced by meat. These can turn out to be fatal and its sad that small children have been their victims too.

A lot is happening in the fast food industry. Its not all hunky dory behind the beautiful burger story.

I am glad to have read this book. I am not going to fall for any fast food. Thanks Eric for the wonderful eye opener !