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?