Book Review; Fast Food Nation

I was taken aback by the findings of the author in this book. First released in 2001, Fast Food Nation has brought up the dark side of large corporation in the fast food business and how it affects almost everyone in the society. The book goes on to explain the effect of advertising on adults and children, the conditions of the workplace, the creation of a large network of fast food restaurants, the conditions of the slaughterhouses and issues surrounding this, which in fact affects most countries in the world. Everyone knows McDonalds. The fact is, they are  the biggest culprit in the fast food industry. In this piece, I would like to divide and analyse the effects on different groups of people:

1. Consumers (adults and kids) are influenced by the advertisement to buy and consume cheap, but tasty food! Large portion of fries, burgers and toys induce most people to consider fast food as part of their diet, increasingly frequent these days. The effects are increasing obesity rates and growing trends of people infected by E.Coli and the mad cow disease. Consumers are also deceived as Mc Donalds use beef oil to fry their fries (which outraged the Hindu community).

2. Workers in fast food restaurants and slaughterhouses are paid minimum wages, not given proper health care, forces to work long hours(in terrible conditions in the slaughterhouse) and not allowed to join unions. Many are desperate for jobs. Teenagers are targeted to work at the fast food chains whereas immigrants and people who are illiterate are induced to work in slaughterhouses, with terrible working conditions.

3. Manager and higher ranking people in the coorporation are all driven by increasing profits by cutting the costs. This drives an unethical business where people strive to do whatever they can t keep the costs down.

4. US Government usually get a lot of taxes form these corporations. On top of that, they are lobbied by them(sponsor their campaign for election) and in return have to pass a bill that does not favour consumers. Some regi0ns allowed that companies disallow workers to join unions. The US government is also not very strict when it comes to food quality and safety compared to European countries.

5. Schools receive extra funding for books and equipment when they allow advertising for fast food to their students. This encourageds children to develop the liking towards fast food at a young age (a habit developed when young is difficult to stop).

Capitalism in the US has driven large corporations to act in a way that compromises their ethics and the well-being of their consumers and employees. Specialisation is helpful to reduce the cost, but over doing it comes as at a cost, which is only seen in the long run.

I highly recommend this book as it is a good read and reveals a lot of things that can be happening around us – makes us think about what goes on behind the scene and question ourselves : what are we feeding our bodies?