|
Photo
Albums: |
Fast
Food Nation Eric Schosser's Brilliant Expose of the Fast Food Industry This book takes the ctitique of the fast food iundistry so much further than issues like poor nutrition working conditions - if they weren't bad enough. This is an expose of a whole system of production and marketing and the economics that underpins it. A rationale that lets us feed chicken manure and pig offal to vegetarian animals like cows and one that exploits the human taste for salt, fat and sugar to the absolute detriment of our health. Critics promise on the book sleave that this will: '..make you never eat a burger again....' '...wipe the smirk off that happy meal...' '.tell you more than you want to know when chomping through that burger...have a nice day? - you should live so long.' Ruthless business expansion, vertical and lateral integration, very few huge corporates extracting huge buying power over smaller producers - maximising profits and cutting corners at every possible turn. An agresssive marketing campaign aimed at the youngest and most vulnerable members of society has seen obesity and diabetes sore and food scares begin to undermine our trust in the whole food production process itself. I trust Eric and his publishers will not mind if I just put the final paragraph of the book here as it is so wonderfully optimistic and points to a sensible, attainable future, one that I believe most people will recognise as one they too desire. "Future historians, I hope, will consider the American fast food industry a relic of the twentieth century - a set of attitudes, systems and beliefs that emerged out of post war southern California, that embodied it limitless faith in technology, that quickly spread across the globe, flourished briefly, and then receded once the true costs became clear and its thinking became obsolete. We cannot ignore the meaning of Mad Cow disease. It is one more warning about unintended consequences, about human arrogance and the blind worship of science. The same mindset that would put 4-methylacetophenone and solvent in your milkshake would also feed pigs to cows. Whatever replaces the fast food industry should be regional, diverse, authentic, unpredictable, sustainable, profitable - and humble. It should know its limits. People can be fed without being fattened and deceived. This new century may bring an impatience with conformity, a refusal to be kept in the dark, less greed, more compassion, less speed, more common sense, a sense of humour about brand essences and loyalties, a view of food as more than just fuel. Things don't have to be the way they are, despite all evidence to the contrary I remain optimistic." Junk Food Links
|
