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Fast Food Nation
The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Fast Food Nation shows how the fast food industry has massive consequences on many other aspects of our lives, including our education, health and working conditions. The book reveals the terrible methods and working conditions – caused in great part by the fast food industry’s focus on profit – that are used to create our food.
- Anyone who cares about their own health
- Anyone who wants to understand the wide-reaching implications of a single industry
- Anyone interested in human and animal rights
Eric Schlosser is an American investigative journalist. He is a contributor to TheAtlantic and has received several prizes for his writings including the National Magazine Award. His other books include Reefer Madness and Chew On This.
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Fast Food Nation
The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
- Read in 18 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 11 key ideas
Synopsis
Fast Food Nation shows how the fast food industry has massive consequences on many other aspects of our lives, including our education, health and working conditions. The book reveals the terrible methods and working conditions – caused in great part by the fast food industry’s focus on profit – that are used to create our food.
Key idea 1 of 11
American fast food owes its success to the McDonald brothers’ revolutionary adoption of factory production principles.
Like it or not, practically everyone has eaten at McDonald’s at some point or another in their lives. The company’s golden arches are the iconic symbol of fast food and American culture around the world. But what made McDonald’s and other fast food chains so successful in the first place?
First off, fast food was originally served by waitresses on roller-skates in Southern Californian drive-ins. In Southern California in the 1950s, drive-in restaurants, movies and even churches had become increasingly popular due to the availability of cars and the development of suburbs.
In this setting, the mix of cheap food, cars and pretty waitresses soon turned fast food restaurants into popular hangouts for teenagers.
Then the McDonald brothers came along – and revolutionized the fast food business.
Their main focus was on efficiency and speed: they served only a few simple meals that could be easily eaten without cutlery, packaged their food and drinks in simple, paper packaging, and stopped serving people in cars.
But, most importantly, they saved time and money by adopting the principles of a factory assembly line: each employee was assigned one easy-to-learn task – like flipping burgers or dressing salads – which reduced costs and optimized speed.
This new speed and affordability started to attract different kinds of customers. McDonald’s moved beyond a teenage hangout to a place where families could finally afford to take their kids to a restaurant.
These developments made the so-called “Speedee Service System” incredibly successful: between 1960 and 1973, the number of McDonald’s restaurants grew from 250 to 3,000, and was soon imitated by many other fast food chains.
Today’s major chains, like Burger King, Wendy’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken, all owe their success to quickly catching on to the McDonald’s model.
The success of the assembly line style of food production has radically transformed the way we work, eat, and live – in America and all over the world.
Key ideas in this title
- American fast food owes its success to the McDonald brothers’ revolutionary adoption of factory production principles.
- Fast food chains target children and teenagers as potential customers – even in schools.
- The fast food industry uses employment policies that exploit the weak.
- The franchise business model benefits corporations more than franchise owners.
- When you eat fast food, what you taste is not what you get.
- The fast food industry has had devastating effects on the lives of U.S. farmers.
- The meatpacking industry has ravaged American towns.
- The never-ending hunt for profits makes working in the meatpacking industry especially dangerous.
- Fast food production is largely responsible for the increase of foodborne illness in America.
- The fast food industry has conquered the world – literally.
- Final Summary
