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Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation
Mar 27 2007 08:29

Notes from Eric Scholsser's (Fast Food Nation) talk on Sunday:

"10 years looking at our food industry has not left me depressed...it?s left me angry and looking for change"
Fast Food Mentality ? it?s important to see these problems as not problems that are solely due to the individual?this is about a system, a culture, a mentality. These problems are much bigger than any one person.
Impact ? landscape, workers, animals, environment?all of us spreading through globalization and all connected, "even if you are a vegan marathon runner in ideal health you are connected to this system"
Good food is a foundation of good health and a good food system is a foundation for a good society
Food industry is most important industry (without a food industry there is no other industry)
The food we eat in this country has changed more in the past 30 years than in the past 30,000 years. It?s a different thing ? an industrial commodity, manufactured in different ways and places. This has all happened without our knowledge ? the industry does not want you to know.
Society is at odds with itself ? body image ideal with advertising/media contradicting food choices
"I don?t try to tell people what to do. I let people think about what they?re doing."
Dare to know. Dare to think for yourself. (the basis for real, permanent change)
Sustainability is crucial. For agriculture, for society, for each one of us individually.
The opposite of sustainable ? disposable (fast food culture/mentality)
Southern California ? cars bring individual freedom, aerospace industry (technology & science bring limitless fate ? that we can conquer and control nature), and Walt Disney reinforced this tomorrow of the future through technology?the idea that nature exists for our profit and control
Freeways and roads in southern California brought about new way of eating ? "drive ins"
McDonald brothers were in drive in business and were getting upset by costs (short order cooks for long menus, car hops, etc) ? instead brought factory system, division of labor and technology "speedy service system"
Ray Crock discovered McDonald brothers and wanted to build an empire through uniformity, conformity, technology, and tough business practices (built new McDonald?s across street from original to put McDonald brothers out of business)
There are about a dozen companies now that control all the food we eat
Tyson ? largest producer of beef, chicken, 2nd largest of pork
Fast food & restaurant industry ? largest private employer in nation and biggest employer of minimum wage employees (deskilled, easy to control, interchangeable and disposable)
McJobs ? this employer mentality has spread to other industries (retail, meat packing, etc).
The way we raise livestock has been transformed in last 30 years to supply fast food industry ? 60-70% of all antibiotics are being given to livestock in their feed to prevent disease and also encourages growth
Poultry farms ? "flip over disease" where chickens get too fat and essentially have a heart attack
Anabolic steroids ? illegal for humans ? are being put into cattle to bulk them up
Average cattle produces 50lbs of waste a day?multiply through by large factory farms (100k+)
Factory farm and feed lots have become number one cause of water pollution (vats "lagoons" leak)
FDA has ruled meat from cloned animals is indistinguishable from regular meat and thus does not need to be labeled as such. Cloned animals = essence of uniformity and conformity and control?only 10yrs
Counterintuitive ? you would expect the more technology put into the food industry the safer, but actually the opposite
Fast Food Industry has changed our diets and eating patterns, mostly through children (Ray Crock inspired by Disney)
Neuromarketing ? young children put into MRI machines are shown junk food ads looking for part of the brain responsible for brand loyalty responding.
Soda is most profitable item in fast food restaurants
Obese children have been found to have more depression, risk factors for heart disease. The poor are suffering the most. CDC are estimating 1 out of 3 children will develop diabetes (1 out of 2 children in case of poor)
The good news - there is nothing inevitable if you look at history (Apartheid, Soviet Union, segregation) ? things don?t have to be the way they are.
After second world war, a differing movement to McDonald?s/Fast Food was developing in England ? organic movement

Heart of movement ? interconnectedness (esp through soil)
Reverence and humility of nature
Aware of the limits of science
Jerome Rodale brought this to America ? really took off in 1968 with back to the land movement, hippies (Vietnam war, distrust in politics)

First step ? educate and empower others, fight the dis/misinformation and lies propagated by the industry
Ban advertising of unhealthy products to children
Paul Sears ? "All renewable resources are linked in a common pattern of relationship. We can save any one of them only with measures that will save them all. We are part of the whole that must be saved."

Replies

1. nomoreexcuses
Mar 27 2007 14:09

His book really changed my life when I read it about 3 years ago.

After finding out that e coli comes from the fecal matter of cows and that it can get into the meat because of unsafe, unclean practices during slaughter (speeding up the production line and switching to non-union, less skilled labor, mainly) I decided right then and there that I would never eat another poo burger - ever. I don't care if it's cooked to a safe degree, I don't care if it's irradiated to kill the germs in the poo. I don't want to eat any poo, cooked, irradiated or otherwise!

:p

Sounds like it was a great seminar... you're so lucky you get to go to all these educational events!

Have you attended any classes or events about the slow food movement?

Thanks for sharing these notes with everyone. :)

2. clairelaine
Mar 27 2007 14:11

Thank you for sharing this with us. I've always been amazed at how uniformity sells. I'm remembering the first "Levittown" community here in PA, back in the 1950s. All the houses exactly alike, covering vast acres. They sold faster than they could be built.

It all makes me wish I could stll garden the way I used to. It's getting ever harder to find unadulterated food. I'm luck enough to live near Amish country and their organic farms.

3. nyadoio
Mar 27 2007 14:22

I read Fast Food Nation back to back with A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle. While tending my father-in-law after his quintuple bypass surgery.

0.0 hee hee hee!

We belong to a Community Sponsored Agriculture farm. We buy shares and get weekly distributions of produce grown by a family farm nearby. They also produce beef and pork, and make low-spray fruit, eggs, honey, and other artisanal food products available to us. If you can get into a CSA in your area, it is definitely worth the effort. Our farm prices items between wholesale and retail... and I usually end up freezing some of the bounty every week. It's an antidote to the factory farm, long-distance shipping of tasteless vegetables, and poo burgers.

4. m3lody
Mar 27 2007 14:49

Thanks for sharing your notes. I've been moving towards organic living, probably 75% of my intake is organic. I wonder.... We are LED to believe that organic food is much safer for us which I believe it is as it eliminates additives, perservatives and chemical crap. But, it too is now being propagated for profit. I'm ok with making a profit, but many times criteria is lowered to substandards to push for higher profit.

Really, we had it right when we depended on ourselves to raise our own food, but unfortunately thats not an option for most people these days.

5. laurielaurie
May 03 2007 00:05

Sometimes I just wish we could all move back to the farm and live off the land. Armed with the information we have now, of course, regarding trans fats, cholesterol, etc........but truly step off the "treadmill of convenience" that is seriously *bleeping* us up. Force us to realize that, WOW.....living in health really DOES feel good, doesn't it??

Y'know? LOL.

And that? Is my Dr. Phil moment of the day. :)

6. cckae
Jul 25 2007 10:06

OMG you went and saw him?! I'm so jealous.

I just realized that this post is super old but I can't believe you actually heard him speak.

I read fast few nation awhile back and realized just how much of a business it has become and how mischievously ingrained we are becoming to fast food. I also saw Modern meat (the movie) and of course, Supersize me.

But anyway, thanks for the post. I love additions to the knowledge that his book gave me.

7. cwiller
Organics
Aug 19 2007 00:39

Well done Erik!!! Nice read. I work in the AG business. Part of our business sector is organic vegetables and an organic dairy.

I grew up on a farm anywhere from bovine to swine. The evolution of chemically enhanced food has blown to epic proportions.

I have met many who say they consume nothing but organics. What many don't realize is the regulations put forth by the government (or lack there of) in certification of some organic products are subpar. (my opinion) Just last June, the USDA added 38 "non" organic items to the approved listing. This list comes in when an item is certified organic. If a label says it is "organic" (aside from others that say 100% organic) a processed food can contain up to 5%, by weight, ingredients that are non organic. The 5% must be on the USDA approved list. Two of the items on that list include casings for sausages and fish oil. Fish oil might can be contaminated with potentially dangerous chemicals. Sausage casings (intestines), from conventionally raised farm animals, is not something I would like to consume in any organic product.

Enough ranting..

I guess my point is most like to conform to societal trends regrettably carrying a plate full of ignorance.

Thanks for the post!!!

8. tatjanaturtle
Aug 29 2007 18:38

Unbelievable book. Changed my life. Good you posted.

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