91. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - Eric Schlosser

Eric Schlosser does an amazing, in-depth survey of almost anything you can think of that has to do with fast food: he shares history of the most of the core fast food restaurants, e.g. McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Carl's Jr.; he interviews the teenagers and immigrants who work at these restaurants; he uncovers secrets of the contemporary meatpacking industry; and he discusses marketing and globalization as it relates to fast food. He even explains how franchising fast food restaurants works: apparently the primary business of McDonald's isn't really fast food, it's real estate! The McDonald's Corporation owns the real estate of all of the 15,000 McDonald's restaurants in this country and it leases out the property to its franchisees. (Also, according to Schlosser, Subway is one of the worst companies of which you could become a franchisee.)

To understand just how much fast food has taken over our society:

[I]n 2000, [Americans] spent more than $110 billion [on fast food]. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music - combined.

The marketing strategies used by fast food establishments are amazing. The bulk of their advertising is directed toward children, since children are "surrogate salesmen" - they have the ability to persuade others, usually their parents, to buy what they want. Soft drink marketers try to get their products into elementary schools because children establish their tastes and habits early - and soda has the highest profit margins out of any product at fast food restaurants.
The part of the book that was the most disturbing was the part about the slaughterhouses and the meatpacking industry. It was basically a modern day version of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Did you know that American beef can't even be exported to most countries in Europe, because American cows are fed things that Europe has banned? They are given bovine growth hormone (banned in Europe) - and they're also fed ground up cows and poultry. Yes - cows, which are really supposed to be grain- or grass- fed, are now omnivorous. Oh - and if you are a vegetarian, you might want to reconsider eating McDonald's fries - part of what gives them their unique taste is that they're cooked in oil with beef tallow and beef extract.

This was a great book - I decided to read this book after it was quoted several times in The Hungry Gene. Schlosser really revealed a lot about the fast food industry ... probably a lot more than I ever wanted to know! Even though it won't prevent me from eating fast food, I appreciate having a better understanding of what McDonald's (et al.) is doing to lure me to eat its food and I appreciate knowing what exactly I might be putting in my mouth.