Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Scholosser

The food industry has become a large part of the American lives by providing cheap, affordable, and fulfilling food. Now fast food has expanded globally creating a global phenomenon. In Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Scholosser, the books looks at the history of fast food and how it became a multi-billion dollar industry. Scholosser is an investigative journalist that seeks to uncover the truth about the fast food industry by researching its roots and exploring every aspect of the industry. Scholosser divided the book into two sections called “The American Way” and “Meat and Potatoes.” “The American Way” begins with the origins of fast food located in Southern California and how people such as Carl Karcher and the McDonalds brothers became the pioneers of the fast food industry. While the “Meat and Potatoes” explores the process, production and health issues concerning with the beef industry. He approached the issues of the fast food industry by interviewing teenage fast food employee, ranchers, franchise owners, meat packing workers, and people from Germany. Scholosser methods of dividing the book into two sections and interviewing workers from all part of the food industry help provide perspectives from all aspects of the industry to strengthen his argument. Scholosser argued that corporate greed and manipulation has made the fast food industry a danger to children and fast food employees.

Scholosser begins talking about the marketing tactics that the fast food industries have used over the years. One major target the food industries focused on is the children. During the 1980s, children advertisement had grown in the fast food industry. Scholosser focuses his attention on Ray Kroc, who was the...

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...s of the industries going as far to researching the roots of fast food and interviewing people from the industry. One weakness of the book is that Scholosser tends to focus on Colorado. While the examples he gave to support his argument in Colorado was persuasive, it might not represent America as a whole. Scholosser attempt to present one city as representation of all cities in America can be challenged. Still the book is great in confirming the realities of the fast food industry, painting it as a evil corporation. Any audience reading this book would gain knowledge on how the fast food industries have manipulated our perspectives with their marketing tactics and how the landscape of America has changed to support the fast food industries.

Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. 1st ed. Boston: Mariner Books, 2012.