Fast Food Nation
Sep. 7th, 2013 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThere’s a McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subway or Starbucks on every corner. How did they get there and why does it matter?
It’s a polemic, but I knew that going in. He has an aim, and that’s pretty much to tell you how bad the fast food culture is. While I’m sure nothing he says is false in the strictest sense, many things are presented in a sensationalist fashion without, perhaps, all of the relevant supporting details included. He harps on the deadly nature of a strain of e. coli bacteria (It’s deadly. It kills people. People die from it. Did I mention it’s deadly?) without ever putting the number of deaths into any kind of useful context. Which is deliberate—nobody’s going to get worked up over a food poisoning “epidemic” when the chances of it killing you are less than your chances of winning the lottery.
Most Americans are very insulated from their food production, and I can’t help but think that all of those 13-year-olds who become “vegetarians” the first time they hear about organ meats going into ground beef (The ones who were anal about gelatin in candy but didn’t like vegetables so they subsisted on French fries. Remember them?) grow up into adults who are equally ill-informed but still prone to manufactured outrage. I won’t say I’m never squeamish, but I’ve visited farms and seen animals in various stages of slaughter and, in my extensive time spent cooking, done a bunch of that cleaning myself. In today’s culture of dino-nuggets and prepackaged food, it’s easy to pretend that what you’re eating sprang from the ether, which means the realization that it doesn’t is shocking and terrifying to some people. Our food comes from animals, and it’s made by an industrial process that uses “chemicals” (a stupid scare word if ever I heard one), and that’s okay. Veggie burgers are no less industrialized and even more full of artificial flavorings.
The things that are actually upsetting to me—mostly regarding working conditions and big companies screwing over powerless workers—are things I already knew about, at least in a general sense. It’ll be interesting to see how the public sentiment towards labor organizing swings over the next decade or two. The “unions are so corrupt and lazy” sentiment that exists among a lot of the boomer generation doesn’t really exist with mine (because unless you live in a few specific places or work in specific industries, you never interact with a powerful union), and every single one of us has experience with employers screwing us over, to the point where it’s generally expected to be part of any job. We all know that CEOs make billions and that everyone else is getting poorer. Will someone actually manage to capitalize on that and get people organized? Maybe.
I do find it amusing how much the addendum chapter on mad cow emphasizes that consumer pressure, and therefore pressure from McDonalds, has changed supplier practices much faster and more effectively than the government has. You know why that works? Because McDonalds has strong competition that they need to stay ahead of. For all the monopoly practices of the meatpackers and produce suppliers, the overall fast food industry is very competitive. It’s in the industries where the direct-to-consumer company has no real competition (don’t get me started on health insurance) that Congressional Republicans are doing their best to keep us all fucked over.
Overall: He’s trying to scare a change into our culture. I can’t say that I’m particularly scared. This actually made me want to visit a meatpacking plant and some of the big industrial factories (I’ve been to places like the Herrs snack food factory—they’re fascinating), and gave me a craving for French fries.
It’s a polemic, but I knew that going in. He has an aim, and that’s pretty much to tell you how bad the fast food culture is. While I’m sure nothing he says is false in the strictest sense, many things are presented in a sensationalist fashion without, perhaps, all of the relevant supporting details included. He harps on the deadly nature of a strain of e. coli bacteria (It’s deadly. It kills people. People die from it. Did I mention it’s deadly?) without ever putting the number of deaths into any kind of useful context. Which is deliberate—nobody’s going to get worked up over a food poisoning “epidemic” when the chances of it killing you are less than your chances of winning the lottery.
Most Americans are very insulated from their food production, and I can’t help but think that all of those 13-year-olds who become “vegetarians” the first time they hear about organ meats going into ground beef (The ones who were anal about gelatin in candy but didn’t like vegetables so they subsisted on French fries. Remember them?) grow up into adults who are equally ill-informed but still prone to manufactured outrage. I won’t say I’m never squeamish, but I’ve visited farms and seen animals in various stages of slaughter and, in my extensive time spent cooking, done a bunch of that cleaning myself. In today’s culture of dino-nuggets and prepackaged food, it’s easy to pretend that what you’re eating sprang from the ether, which means the realization that it doesn’t is shocking and terrifying to some people. Our food comes from animals, and it’s made by an industrial process that uses “chemicals” (a stupid scare word if ever I heard one), and that’s okay. Veggie burgers are no less industrialized and even more full of artificial flavorings.
The things that are actually upsetting to me—mostly regarding working conditions and big companies screwing over powerless workers—are things I already knew about, at least in a general sense. It’ll be interesting to see how the public sentiment towards labor organizing swings over the next decade or two. The “unions are so corrupt and lazy” sentiment that exists among a lot of the boomer generation doesn’t really exist with mine (because unless you live in a few specific places or work in specific industries, you never interact with a powerful union), and every single one of us has experience with employers screwing us over, to the point where it’s generally expected to be part of any job. We all know that CEOs make billions and that everyone else is getting poorer. Will someone actually manage to capitalize on that and get people organized? Maybe.
I do find it amusing how much the addendum chapter on mad cow emphasizes that consumer pressure, and therefore pressure from McDonalds, has changed supplier practices much faster and more effectively than the government has. You know why that works? Because McDonalds has strong competition that they need to stay ahead of. For all the monopoly practices of the meatpackers and produce suppliers, the overall fast food industry is very competitive. It’s in the industries where the direct-to-consumer company has no real competition (don’t get me started on health insurance) that Congressional Republicans are doing their best to keep us all fucked over.
Overall: He’s trying to scare a change into our culture. I can’t say that I’m particularly scared. This actually made me want to visit a meatpacking plant and some of the big industrial factories (I’ve been to places like the Herrs snack food factory—they’re fascinating), and gave me a craving for French fries.
