Fast Food a Multi Purpose Industry

One of the major learning points that the book talks about is that the man behind the frozen french fry business reinvented how french fries could be brought home, stored and eaten at a later date without going bad. That man was J. R. Simplot, he and a team of chemists came up with a way for french fries to be cooked frozen and then recooked and ready to eat. This all came about due to the fact that refrigerators started to have freezers built into them at the end of World War II. Once they had figured out how to achieve the freezing process of the french fry, he had control over the french fry business. Our team found it as a really good learning point because to us it shows that even something as small as the french fry can change the entire country. Like right now whether you agree with the political situation or not you can still fight for change no matter how small. And who knows what you are fighting for can change a lot in America, just like the frozen french fry changed the way they are eaten in an American household.

Another major key learning point that my group was able to find was that even though fast food might taste very good, it comes with a risk. And one of those risks other than gaining inches on your waistline is eating the bacteria known as E. coli 0157:H7, more commonly it is just call E. coli. E. coli while in your system it releases a toxin called “verotoxin.” The toxins attack the lining of your intestines and it cause you to evacuate your bowels. There have been reported cases where young children get E. coli from eating fast food and there bodies are developed enough to fight against it so it ends up killing them. This was a key learning point to all of our group due to the fact that it is a real world possibility that anyone of us can get E. coli. There is a real world chance that you the reader could go to a fast food restaurant or any restaurant for that matter and leave with E. coli without even realizing it. Be careful with where you decide to eat next time you get hungry.

The last major key learning point our group read about was that McDonald's is just taking over the United States it's taking over the entire world. The even started a marketing campaign called, “Global Realization.” They open approximately 5 new McDonald's everyday, 4 of the 5 are owned overseas, stated in “Fast Food Nation.” We thought about this and learned that no matter what you create if you market it right and get enough people on board you can make it into the world wide market.                                                                                

The Fast Food Problem of America

America, the global superpower, we have always been known to be the leaders of the free world and the home to the land of possibility. While of course this is still true America is also known as the home of obesity. When other countries think of this great country thoughts of freedom and prosperity, they are now diluted down and replaced with the thoughts of obesity, unhealthy lives, and the golden arches.

That is what the book “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser emphasizes. We as Americans are blinded and oblivious to the food we put in our bodies. We thoughtless put food into our bodies while unhealthy dietary, is also so ghastly and unhealthy for you based on the process in which the food on your plate is made.

We found that up to as many as eight cows can be in one burger increasing your chances of getting sick or even dying from E. coli. Can you as an honest American point to your food and tell me where it came from or even what it is? We are blindly eating food we know little or nothing about, this is what Schlosser tells us in his book. Schlosser quotes “The whole experience of buying fast food has become of routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is now taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping at a red light.”

The book explains fast food’s rise to power from it’s beginnings as drive trough's in Southern California, to when the McDonald brothers got ride of their carhops and shrank their menu to only items that could be eaten without silverware, and into the dominant force we know today that is more widely recognized than the cross from the bible. In the years that followed the drastic change in the fast food marketing that McDonald's started, hundreds of companies rose to fame after adopting what McDonald's had done. Because of this, not only has America seen the obesity epidemic that so many other countries see now, but every country has been infected with hundreds of fast food companies.

 The book describes thoroughly that the fast food stores marketing campaign is similar to Disney’s in which they present children with characters such as Ronald McDonald and hook them early on to make life long customers. "Fast Food Nation" really makes you think about what you eat on a daily basis and may make you think twice about the consequences of going to McDonald’s or Burger King next time you and your buddies are hungry.