Just finished Fast Food Nation.
If you have ever had just the slightest inkling of an idea that fast food was bad for you, bad for the environment, bad for society, etc. you may be further swayed by this book.
I starts out as an historical essay on the rise of the fast food industry in the 50's--informational, filled with interesting facts about Ray Croc and Walt Disney. (Did you know they were friends in the military?) It then turns to the demise of agriculture as we knew it and the evil world of slaughter houses, painting ConAgra and IBP out to be the inhumane, slave-driving, farm-killing, industry that we have today. Then, of course, how McDonalds and other fast food chains are slating an empirical takeover of the world, bring all civilized nations to the same level of fat, lazy, sloths that we Americans have become.
Eye opening? Yes. Disturbing? Yes. Entirely believable? No. He really had me until he started in on the little German town of Plauen, the Nazi hub of WWII; how it's an evil place and always has been and even since it was bombed to obliteration during the war it remains an evil place because McDonalds opened there in the 90's and is the only business that seems to be thriving (similar to Hitler's Headquarters during the war). That was a little over the top for me. It started making me think that this guy had a personal vendetta against McDonalds. Perhaps he was fired as a youngster, or they got his order wrong just one too many times. Whatever the case, it was truly enlightening, albeit extremist, and would be a good read. I do feel compelled to eat more fruits and veggies at home and to make sure my kids don't live on fast food. So the outcome was positive. Filled with tons of interesting facts though. For that alone it's worth the read.
3 comments:
The little German town of Dresden? I don't think I would call it little. And it's only struggling because it had to deal with the fall of the Eastern block of which it was a part. Talk about taking a hard left into obscure conspiracy theories.
Doesn't sound like a very balanced book and really tells you what anyone with a brain should know. A diet heavy on fast food isn't healthy. Everything in moderation.
I dislike conspiracy theories, would I dislike this book?
I really wouldn't call it a conspiracy theory. The author is definitely writing a one-sided, persuasive view, but I do have to say that it seems as though he's really done his homework and everything is based on fact. There's way more to it than just saying that fast food isn't healthy. That is the obvious. It is so full of social, ethical, and moral conflict surrounding the issue that it leaves one not even daring to put meat to mouth again. This, along with another great read, The China Study, will have us all vegetarians in no time.
Oh, and the town was Plauen. I couldn't remember the name of it when I was posting and didn't want to go look it up at the time. There is another McDonalds under fire in the book in Dachau close to the concentration camp which is now a tourist site.
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