Food Choices

p Fast Food Nation

Eric Schlosser explores the severe consequences of the rise of the fast food empire in America in his book Fast Food Nation . His thesis is blatantly displayed on the front cover of his book the Dark Side of the All-American Meal . After reading his work I have to agree that the fast food industry does indeed have a dark side . It is a well-known fact that fast food is unhealthy to consume . What is not commonly known is just how unhealthy it actually is and how the fast food

industry has affected our social construct in a most adverse way . Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food everyday without giving it much thought . they rarely consider where this food came from , how it was made , what it is doing to the community around them (Schlosser 10 . In today 's society fast food consumption has become synonymous with pop culture and pop culture is the result of mass media consumerism . Fast food has joined Hollywood movies , blue jeans , and pop music as one of America 's most prominent cultural exports . Unlike other commodities however , fast food isn 't viewed , read , played , or worn . It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer . No other industry offers , both literally and figuratively , so much insight into the nature of mass consumption (Schlosser 10 ) This quote eloquently conveys just why the take over of America by the Fast Food Empire is an issue that deserves immediate action . We are what we eat . And the consumer has a right to know just what they are eating . The fast food industry ominously threatens America 's health as well as its environment

A Fast Food Nation is Born

The history behind the vast and ever growing span of fast food chains throughout this nation goes deeper than any average consumer could guess . In the era of the rise of the automobile in America fast food pioneers jumped at the chance to make a quick and easy buck catering to the newly mobile working class . Since its onset the industry has won the favor of Congress and the Whitehouse in to protect its interests . Lobbying for laws that will oppose food safety and worker safety , one can 't help but wonder how a nation that boasts the safest food in the world ' can sleep at night . According to a study conducted by agricultural economist from the Organic Center in Greenfield Massachusetts "In four (other ) areas , the U .S . food supply would not rank in the top ten percent of countries , and maybe not even in the top one-third (Organic Consumers Association ) What is motivating our government and Food Safety administrations to turn a blind eye to the atrocities happening nationwide in the preparation and provision of fast food ? The answer is simple : pure unadulterated economics . Since square one fast food giant McDonald 's has been working effectively at buying the favor of White House . Ray Kroc , Chairman of the McDonald 's Corporation...