HW 7d

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 9 summary: In 1997 about 35 million pounds of ground beef were recalled by Hudson Foods because they were infected with a strain of E Coli. By the time the beef had been recalled, 25 million pounds had already been eaten. Because companies feel the need to make a profit is more important then the safety of their customers, they tend to skimp on the health requirements that the government sets for them, not that they matter because the government holds no power over them at all. Our American government can not force a company to recall meat, much less shut down one of their plants for health violations. Just as typical to a big corporation, the rich get richer and everyone else suffers.

Chapter 9 Quotes: "Throughout the 1980's and the 1990's, the USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements." (p.218). "The safety of the food seemed determined more by the personality of the manager on duty than by the written policies of the chain. Many workers would not eat anything at their restaurant unless they'd made it themselves." (p.222).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the continuous bending and breaking of laws by these big companies show how once again, the government doesn't fully run this country, big business runs this country?
2. What i have noticed is how the author starts out on a mainly historical path explaining where the chains started from, and as the book progressed, he started to get more one sided against fast food and big business. He like the way mass production took place and found it inhumane. It is inhumane, but what would happen if they slowed it down so that they could control the diseases and the people wouldn't get hurt, what would happen to the supply and demand?
3. How does the speed of these slaughterhouses reflect our economy and how we have to be able to keep up with our outrageous demands, that not only put others at risk, but ourselves?
4. What does the powerlessness of the government in situations like these show the people, and how come they aren't as well informed?

Chapter 10 Summary: McDonald's opens about 5 new restaurants a day and about 4 of them open overseas. When they opened a McDonald's in Plauen, Germany, they didn't know what to expect. Now American chains have become a staple of overseas culture just like it is a staple in ours. It hasn't be met with completely open arms though. Protesting in countries such as India and Holland and China have destroyed restaurants who believe that these establishments are destroying or undermining their culture. In some aspect they are right though, with chains in over 12o foreign countries, not everyone is going to be happy.

Chapter 10 Quotes: "In Ancient Rome, the leaders of conquered nations were put on display at the circus. The symbolism was unmistakable; the submission to Rome, complete. Gorbachev's appearance at the Mirage seemed an Americanized version of that custom, a public opportunity for the victors to gloat." (p.239). "In 1996, Indian farmers ransacked a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Bangalore, convinced that the chain threatened their traditional agriculture practices. In 1997 a McDonald's in the Colombian city of Cali was destroyed by a bomb." (p.244).

Questions/Responses:

1. What connection do these fast food chains have with the people around them? How does an American fast food chain make or break in a foreign country?
2. What I've noticed as a reoccurring motif in this book is power, and who steals it from who. It started with everyone "building off of" everyone Else's ideas, and then to corporations buying each other out to build these huge multinational corporations that control, chicken, beef, pork, and corn markets, but can't maintain safety or health requirements. They have the power, so they make their own rules, then it ends with how they can go to other countries and make the people there embrace and become one with their own culture, all through their food. Their food is a drug that makes all those who ingest it want to turn into one of them. It is the power of food.
3. Is this power of food used for good or for bad? What importance does it mean if we can influence the entire world with our corporate mascots?
4. If we can turn people to our sides with fast food, then how can christian monasteries and UN "Peacekeepers" use "American Influences," such as these to do their job and convert the people around them to their mindset? What kind of power does this really hold?

Epilogue Summary: The Lasater Ranch occupies more then 30,000 acres of shortgrass prairie near Matheson, Colorado. It is a profitable working ranch that for half a century has not used pesticides, herbicides, poisons, or commercial fertilizers on the land. Meanwhile, 60 miles away in Colorado Springs, Rich Conway runs his own family restaurant called Red Top. They have 4 locations in Colorado Springs. They work on the same premise that the Lasater Ranch works off of. They use all natural meat that came from cows like the ones at the Lasater Ranch, they cut their own potatoes for french fries, and there isn't a big price hike for the improvement in quality. They want people to eat good, healthy food, and it shows by how successful they are. They refuse to buy from companies that give their cows growth hormones or feed them corn. Unlike Swedish and Dutch slaughterhouses, we are doing almost nothing to stop the spread of diseases. We don't slow down production or use different methods, we just look at what else we can do to the meat so it wont get tainted, they don't think to slow down. That's the beautiful thing about living in a fast food nation though, you can still choose to have it your way.

Epilogue Quotes: "Eggs are regulated by the FDA, but chickens are regulated by the USDA, and a lack of cooperation between the two agencies has hampered efforts to reduce the levels of Salmonella in American eggs." (p.264). "The low price of a fast food hamburger does not reflect its real cost - and should. The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by losses imposed on the rest of society. The annual cost of obesity alone is now twice as large as the fast food industry's total revenues." (p.261).

"Even in a fast food nation, you can still have it your way." (p.270)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the Lasater farm represent the dying breed of real farms in America, but how do they show that because of such a large demand for their product, it is often the most business savvy who succeed?
2. What i have noticed about the food industry, is that yes the major corporations are toxic both literally and figuratively, but they are a necessary evil. There is currently 310,534,895 people in the United States of America as of 12:53 a.m on Friday October 22, 2010 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html) and if all farms operated like the Lasater ranch did, then we would have major food shortage problems. We need to be able to keep up the supply to meet the demand, otherwise there would be massive inflation. So as bad as they may be, there is still going to be a need for them.
3. How do the necessary evil's such as McDonald's, and ConAgra, support our county and have the power to manipulate it as they please? What kind of system do we live in where the fast food corporations rule the country?
4. How does the final sentence of the book represent how the author wanted to leave us as though he was neutral, even though his goal was to make cracks in the pedistal that we put fast food on and waver our trust just enough so that we think for a little while longer before we go to Burger King or Wendy's? What does that show about him where he wants to leave a positive taste in our mouths even though he just put up a wall of hate against the fast food companies?