Fast Food Nation

"If economy in the last part of the 20th century depended on how internet redefined the way business is done , economy of the 21st century would be based on how businesses bring a balance between their profitability and amorality."Erich Schosser makes this assertion toward the end of his book 'Fast Food Nation' a tome about the dark side of American fast food culture.

This very engrossing book by Eric Schlosser is unputdownable. The book came out in 2001, but I read it recently. Ironically, I first saw the Indie movie 'Super Size me!' which was based on the findings of this book, and which drove me to buy this book from Amazon.com after failing to find it in several bookstores.

In this book, Schlosser has very interestingly told the story of evolution of American fast food industry and everything else associated to it. Startling the uninitiated, facts keep rolling out page after page while the author assesses the social, economic and emotional impact of current or recent practices in the food industry. Touching every aspect of the fast food revolution, the book skillfully relates the inhuman practices in slaughter houses and rendering shops to policy making over the last several decades.

The author uses real stories of ranchers and potato growers in the USA and elsewhere to make his point about how industry consolidation has impacted smaller 'farmers' and how discouragement of unionisation and deskilling of food-processing has led to the sorry state of workers involved. From there the writer goes on to illustrate the link between deskilled processes using unskilled immigrant labour and the spread of food risks from unhygenic ground meat. Schlosser also touches upon the challenges and risks posed by use of animal protein to feed poultry and cattle. In the 2004 reprint version that I read, more content has been added acknowledging the impending threat of 'mad cow' disease or BSE.

Some sections on how fast food is flavoured and colored provide insight into the huge yet less known industry that synthetic and 'natural' flavouring has become. Trivias such as those about what goes into the likes of Dannon Strawberry yogurt (almost a staple to me at the time of writing the draft) are especially suprising. These sections also provide light moments to the reader, even if it is disturbing to know that the term 'natural flavours' does not really mean that.

Schlosser also examines the international proliferation of American fast food giants, notably KFC and McDonalds and the impact of their practices on local economies and cultures. The lure and influence of fast food and pop-culture is exemplified in the episodes recounting the establishment of McDonalds in different countries. One of the qoutes by Den Fujita, the billionare who brought Mcdonald's to Japan is quite memorable and encompasses in it adoration, blind or otherwise, and the aspirational value of fast food in developed and developing countries alike.

Coming back to the qoute at the beginning of this passage- Schlosser raises the evergreen question about the role played by indutry leaders in shaping the ethics of doing business. The clout of giants makes them easy influencers on shaping of accepted processes and human resource policies.

Whether the power weilded by companies like McDonalds will be put to enhancing only the company bottomline or also be used for betterment of industry workers at large is something that only time will tell, Schlosser concludes.