Fast Food Nation Chunk 2

Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" informs us how the fast food is made. Schlosser explains how the flash freezing and packaging of the food makes it lose it flavor, so it has to be given an artificial taste so that the consumer will buy it. There are labs made just for developing flavors for food. Schlosser reveals the truth about these tastes. He tells us how these flavors are just volatile gasses made from chemicals. He states how "natural flavor" an "artificial flavor" are very similiar. How they are both made in the lab, but the only difference is that a in natural flavor, the chemical is taken out of something natural, and in artificial, that chemical is made by mixing other chemicals. He explains how in the end they are the same thing. Schlosser also gives details behind cattle ranching. He reveals that the beef industry is controlled by a few meat packing companies. They have develped "trusts", which is another word for monopoly, to control the meat industry. This forces small ranchers to either sell out to these trusts or to go bankrupt. Schlosser uses appeals in order to move the readers into seeing his point of view which is that in the end fast food is all proccessed and that it is causing smaller businesses to go bankrupt.


Tone: Provocative, Apppealing to Emotion

Discussion Questions:
Why are "trusts" allowed to control the beef packing industry and other industries?
Do you think the way the fast food companies take over other industries is fair?
If people know that the tastes are artificial then why do they still buy them?

Fast Food Nation Chunk 1

"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser discusses the development of the fast food industry. Through facts and details behind the lives of the"fathers" of fast food, he explains how fast food chains such as McDonald's and Carl's JR came to be as big as they are now. He gives facts such as how fast food began with Carl N. Karcher's hot dog stand. He lets us know that the "pioneers of the fast food industry" were hard workers, how they all began with meaningless jobs and turned them into something great. Schlosser also tells us about the beginnings of fast food as we know it. He tells us about Richard and Maurice McDonald's "Speedee Service". This prepared burgers in a assembly line way and made burgers a lot cheaper and faster to make. He tells us that the fast food chains succeeded because they had "uniformity". They made simple menues and offered the same items at all of their restaurants. This gave people a sense of familiarity which made them come back over and over. The fast food chains exploited the publics' fear of the unknown. He also points out that in order for a fast food restaurant to succeed they had to be creative and innovative. If they were the same as everyone else then they would eventually die out.


Tone: Informative, Neutral

Discussion Questions:
What is it about fast food that appeals to the public?
Were it not for the cheap prices, do u think that people would still eat fast food?
How has fast food shaped the way people eat?