However, as bad as the conditions may be working inside the restaurants, conditions in the meat-processing plants that provide the animal products used by the industry are far worse. Workers safety laws are ignored, and disease is prevalent. Schlosser reports a heart-rending tale of a young boy who died from E.coli bacteria after eating a tainted Jack-in-the-Box burger. It is difficult to track the source of an infection because "a single fast-food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle" (Schlosser 2004). . Despite the fact that cows are herbivores, they are fed scraps of animals to inexpensively fatten them up for slaughter. Cattle, chickens, and pigs themselves suffer under terrible, confining and unsanitary conditions to sate the insatiable appetite for beef, chicken, and pork of the major American fast food companies Schlosser's book is dark, even depressing at times, but his anecdotal style gives it a great deal of humor, as he demonstrates how the companies...

Schlosser pays a visit to a 'flavor factory' where he finds himself able to taste all of the flavors of burgers, fries, and other foods simply by smelling chemicals. This highlights how poor-quality beef and other byproducts are turned into cheap food to suit the palate.
Without explicitly calling for populist action, Schlosser's book urges the reader to become a more mindful consumer of fast food and commercialized agriculture in general. Even if the reader cannot make sweeping changes by him or herself, voting with one's dollars and not buying fast food is a first step to enacting change. Schlosser finds hope in the afterward to his book that smaller, regional chains with higher-quality food are eclipsing the dominance of McDonald's, and hopes that consumer pressure will cause all of the industry to adopt more sustainable practices.

Work Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002.