Today we are talking about the final section of Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation"; including chapter 10, the epilogue, and the afterward. In these chapters, Schlosser finishes up his book by telling us what we can and need to do about the fast food industry. I hope we can learn something to help us make a difference in the world of fast, bad for you food to make us healthier.
Global Realization
In the end of his research of the fast food industry, Schlosser traveled to Plauen, Germany to see the fast food companies international influence. "Plauen ", according to Schlosser, "has been a battlefield for these competing ideologies, with their proudly displayed and archetypal symbols: the smokestack, the swastika, the hammer and sickle, the golden arches." (226) Plauen was the birthplace of the Hitler Youth and was considered the most Nazified city in Saxony. However in 1944, American bombers appeared in Plauen and destroyed the city, leaving it in ruins (Schlosser, 227). It wasn't until the fall of the Berlin Wall that a new building was finally erected in Plauen: the very first McDonalds in East Germany (Schlosser, 229).
As the fast food industry grew more and began breaching the international waters, companies like The McDonald's Corporation began using a new term to describe its hopes for foreign conquest: "global realization" (Schlosser, 229). The chains grew quickly overseas into over 120 foreign countries, taking with it the values, tastes, and industrial practices of the American fast food industry and continuing to export it to every corner of the globe. Through this, they hope to create a homogenized international culture, referred to sociologist Benjamin R. Barer as "McWorld" (Schlosser, 229). According to an anthropologist, "in the eyes of Beijing consumers, McDonald's represents Americana and the promise of modernization" (Schlosser, 230). In addition to the fast food companies taking their businesses overseas, they have also taken their major suppliers with them; such as ConAgra, Tyson Foods, IBP, and J.R. Simplot (Schlosser, 230). Like in America, these companies continue to target children for their main marketing strategies, focusing on the generation with the fewest attachments to traditions (Schlosser, 231). To others, the companies promote their products as making the consumers more Americanized. Some even say that they will help to make the consumers taller, whiter, and blonder (Schlosser, 231). Of all the countries that the fast food industry has infiltrated, Germany has become the most Americanized. Germany, like America, has a strong passion for "science, technology, engineering, empiricism, social order, and efficiency" (Schlosser, 232). They have also begun to abandon their traditional restaurants and high labor foods to the American fast food. According to Schlosser, "McDonald's Deutschland, Inc., is by far the biggest restaurant company in Germany today, more than twice as large as the nearest competitor" (232).
Schlosser believes that a city like Las Vegas provides a perfect example of the social and economic trends sweeping from the American West to the far reaches of the globe (234). It is "an entirely man made creation, a city that lives for the present, that has little connection to its surrounding landscape, and that cares little about its own past" (Schlosser, 234). However, Las Vegas also shows an interesting contrast to the rest of the world's expansion: while the world is busy building Wal-Marts, Arby's, Taco Bells, and other outposts of Americana, Las Vegas has spent it's time recreating the rest of the world (Schlosser, 235). In Las Vegas, conventions are often held where the fast food executives get together to discuss things like labor-saving machinery, the prospects of employing a workforce that needs "zero training", among other things (Schlosser, 236). In December of 1997, one such convention was held in the Mirage hotel. One of the first speakers stood to hail the progress of the restaurant industry and pointed out that, "as if things weren't good enough, consumers also dropped all pretense of wanting healthy food" (Schlosser, 237). When the keynote speaker, Mikhail Gorbachev appeared on stage, he was greeted with a standing ovation. Gorbachev was the man who helped to end the Cold War, he brought political freedom to hundreds of millions of people, opened vast new markets, and was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize (Schlosser, 238). His speech was all about how he desired for Americans to come to know more about Russia, to help support his people, and to support the government of his country (Schlosser, 238). While Gorbachev talked passionately about his country, many of the convention participants fell asleep or just didn't care what he talked about. Schlosser tells us that he feels the purpose of Gorbachev's appearance was symbolic of an ancient Rome practice, where the leaders of a conquered nation would be put on display at the Circus in order for the victors to gloat (239).
According to Schlosser, "By eating like Americans, people all over the world are beginning to look more like Americans, at least in one respect. The U.S. now has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation in the world. More than half of all American adults and about 1/4 of all American children are now obese or overweight. Those proportions have soared during the last few decades, along with the consumption of fast food." (240) Medical literature today classifies a person as obese if they are at a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher - this measurement takes both weight and height into account (Schlosser, 240). "Although the current rise in obesity of complex causes," says Schlosser, "genetics is not one of them. The American gene pool has not changed radically in the past few decades. What has changed is the nation's way of eating and living." (240) This includes our increased portion sizes and lack of exercise in our daily lives. Many fast food companies have realized that it is much easier to sell us fatty fast food that we find ourselves addicted to than to promote healthier food. The only fast food chain to actually work to promote healthy food today is Subway (Schlosser, 241). The obesity epidemic that so plagues the United States today is now spreading into the rest of the world. This rise in obesity has not been shown to have a direct relationship with the rise in fast food consumptions, however, "wherever America's fast food chains go, waistlines start expanding" (Schlosser, 242). Seeing that the fast food is causing some physiological changes, many countries have begun to push for a banning on commercials advertising directly at children, hoping to reduce the encouragement children get to eat diets high in sugar, salt, and fats (Schlosser, 243).
While many fast food critics and groups appeared over the years, one group received a lot of attention: the London Greenpeace Organization. In 1986, the group decided to target McDonald's, explaining that the company "epitomizes everything we despise: a junk culture, the deadly banality of capitalism" (Schlosser, 243). After passing out some leaflets that called McDonald's names like "McDollars, McGreedy, McCancer, McMurder, McProfits, McGarbage", McDonald's decided to sue five members of the group for libel, claiming every statement was false (Schlosser, 245). Unlike the libel laws in America that asks the accuser to prove allegations are false and defamatory, under British law, "the burden of proof is on the defendant. Allegations that may harm someone's reputation are presumed to be false" (Schlosser, 245). Three of the accused decided to offer public apologies to McDonald's, as had many critics that McDonald's had sued over the years for criticizing the company and frightening them into silence (Schlosser, 246). However, two of the accused, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, decided to fight back. After 3 years, the case ended in McDonald's favor and fining the two 60,000 pounds. Steel and Morris did not give up though, they immediately appealed the decision, which ended up coming back as having to pay McDonald's 40,000 pounds instead of the 60,000 (Schlosser, 249). McDonalds was not going to collect the money because they just wanted the case to end, however Steel and Morris did not want to give up. They did not only want to challenge the validity of the verdict, but also of the British libel laws. As of Schlosser's writing (published in 2002), the case was going onto its 12th year (Schlosser, 249).
Epilogue: Have It Your Way
In his epilogue, Schlosser begins by talking about some businesses who are truly trying to make a difference in the quality of food that is produced and served to Americans. In Matheson, Colorado, a rancher by the name of Dale Lasater and his family run a ranch that occupies about 30,000 acres of land (Schlosser, 255). They do not use any pesticides, herbicides, poisons, or commercial fertilizers on the land, has not killed local predators such as coyotes, has not administered growth hormones, anabolic steroids, or antibiotics to the cattle (Schlosser, 255). Rather, they run their farm with the philosophy that "Nature is smart as hell", deciding to let nature do the work (Schlosser, 255). The Lasater ranchers believe that the current ways of raising cattle is unethical and unsustainable. Furthermore, Lasater finds it hard to justify the feeding millions of tons of grain to cattle when there are millions of people starving in the world (Schlosser, 257). Today, Lasater has set up a company to sell his organic, free-range, grass-fed beef. This meat is much lower in fat content than grain-fed beef and has a much stronger, more distinct flavor (Schlosser, 257).
In Colorado Springs, another family started their own family restaurant in 1944 called Conway's Red Top. The restaurant prides itself on offering health insurance to their full-time employees, on offering fresh foods (fresh ground beef from GNC Packing, buns from a bakery in Pueblo, and hand-peeled potatoes), and on their business being run by family members (Schlosser, 258). The family is now debating how to expand their business but they do not want to compromise their values that have become responsible for their success (Schlosser, 258).
In 1948, another business was started by Harry and Esther Snyder that followed it's own path like Conway's called In-N-Out Burger restaurant. The restaurant pays the highest wages in the fast food industry: $8 an hour, offer a benefits package to all of their full-time workers, pay their restaurant managers an average of $80,000 a year, and also offer fresh foods every day (Schlosser, 259).
According to Schlosser, "there is nothing inevitable about the fast food nation that surrounds us - about its marketing strategies, labor policies, and agriculture techniques, about its relentless drive for conformity and cheapness." (260) Schlosser fears that while the 20th century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power, the 21st century will be dominated by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power (Schlosser, 261). The U.S. has gone too far in one direction and has weakened the regulations for safety of workers, consumers, and the environment (Schlosser, 261). Schlosser believes that the fast food companies need to show the real cost of their food products in their prices. That the low price of a hamburger does not reflect its true cost - a cost to health that will later be paid by the consumer (Schlosser, 261). In fact, Schlosser believes that the fast food chains need to assume responsibility for their business practices and minimize their harmful effects (262).
So what do we do to make a change in our food industry today? Schlosser believes there is a lot that needs to be done by government in order to better protect the health of it's people. He says that "congress should immediately ban all advertisements aimed at children that promote foods high in fat and sugar" (262). Schlosser continues by saying that "a ban on advertising unhealthy foods to children would discourage them from eating habits that are not only hard to break, but potentially life-threatening. Moreover, such a ban would encourage the fast food chains to alter the recipes for their children's meals." (262) In addition to advertising, Schlosser also thinks that congress needs to eliminate the tax breaks that reward chains for churning through their workers and keeping job skills to a minimum", to "pass new laws to facilitate union organization in order to encourage the fast food industry to treat workers better and listen to their complaints", to serve meat at school cafeterias that is "safer to eat than what is sold at fast food restaurants, not less safe", to enact tougher food safety laws and create" a single food safety agency that has sufficient authority to protect the public health" (Schlosser, 263). Finally, Schlosser tells us that we need to find a way to protect both meatpackers and ranchers; through slowing down production in order to reduce injuries, to demand higher OSHA fines as well as mandatory plant closures and criminal charges for negligence for these injuries, to allow labor unions and anti-trust laws, and to get rid of libel laws like the veggie libel laws (Schlosser, 266).
So Schlosser helps us in seeing what needs to be done in order to make a change, but he also tells us that this is not going to happen so easily. According to Schlosser, "the political influence of the fast food industry and its agribusiness suppliers makes a discussion of what congress should do largely academic." (267) These companies, however, are under the pressure and want to please one specific group of people: the consumers. If we, as the consumers, were able to apply the right pressure to these fast food companies, they would be more than willing to make the necessary changes (Schlosser, 267). In the past, companies like McDonald's has made sudden changes to their products based on consumer complaints or even the anticipation of consumer anger; such as demanding ground beef free of lethal pathogens and refraining from buying genetically altered potatoes to make their fries (Schlosser, 269). Schlosser brings up the point that nobody has to order fast food. He believes that the first step toward meaningful change is to stop buying the products. "The executives who run the fast food industry", according to Schlosser, "are not bad men. They are business men. They will sell free-range, organic, grass-fed hamburgers if you demand it. They will sell whatever sells at a profit." (269) Schlosser concludes by informing his readers that, "Even in this fast food nation, you can still have it your way." (270)
Afterward: The Meaning Of Mad Cow
While writing "Fast Food Nation", Schlosser admits that he spends most of his time talking about E. coli infection as an example of the weakness of the American food safety system. However, since writing he has also seen the threat of Mad Cow Disease grow and as such wanted to touch upon it in an afterward. Schlosser believes that "mad cow disease is important today, not just as a deadly foodborne illness, but also as a powerful symbol of all that is wrong about the industrialization of farm animals." (272)
In 1996, the FDA made an announcement that they planned to expedite new rules over cattle feed to help with the prevention of an outbreak of mad cow disease, or BSE (Schlosser, 272). It was believed that cattle who were eating feed containing remains of infected animals were the cause of the spread of the disease to humans. While the FDA seemed to want to make a quick solution to the issue, they immediately met resistance from the American cattle, meatpacking, meat-processing, feed-manufacturing, and rendering industries (Schlosser, 272). They believed that the ban was "totally unsupported by any scientific evidence" and that it would be "unfeasible, impractical, and unenforceable" to change the feed of the cattle (Schlosser, 273).
The Consumers Union still demanded this radical change on feed however and about a year and a half later, in 1997, the new animal feed restrictions finally took effect (Schlosser, 273).However, while cattle could no longer be fed dead sheep, goats, cattle, deer, mink, elk, dogs, and cats; they could still be fed dead horses, pigs, and poultry along with some parts of dead cattle (like blood, gelatin, and tallow) and leftovers from restaurants (Schlosser, 273). With all of the restrictions placed on cattle feed, there were no new restrictions put on what could be fed to poultry, hogs, zoo animals, or pets. These companies who had previously resisted change in feed because of an economic issue, found that they could still make a large profit off of pet foods (Schlosser, 274).
Finally, in 2001, mad cow disease started making headlines in the news and efforts were made to reduce the amount of outbreaks. The European Union launched a program that required testing for mad cow disease in all cattle older than 30 months (Schlosser, 274). In the U.S., any government proposed programs for food safety were still met with resistance. However, in March of 2001, McDonald's announced "that its ground beef suppliers would be required to supply documentation showing that FDA feed rules were being strictly followed - or McDonald's would no longer buy their beef" (Schlosser, 275). Companies like ConAgra, IBP, and Excel immediately made changes to meet McDonald's demands. Interestingly enough, Schlosser tells us that ironically "the American Meat Institute, which routinely fought against any mandatory food safety measures proposed by the federal government, made no complaint about these new rules." (275)
Schlosser continues in his afterward to talk about two reactions to his book that he believes are worth mentioning. The first is that he has been accused of being too hard on the Republican Party. Schlosser responds to this by saying that "it is a sad but undeniable fact that for the past two decades the right wing of the Republican Party has worked closely with the fast food industry and the meatpacking industry to oppose food safety laws, worker safety laws, and increases in the minimum wage." (277) He even uses the example of President George W. Bush who began his presidency by stopping the testing the National School Lunch Program's ground beef for Salmonella (Schlosser, 277). Consumer groups were so upset about the decision that the government reversed their decision to allow testing to continue. Schlosser does say that while in recent years "the Democrats have been far more willing than the Republican to support tough food-safety legislation", that wasn't always the case (278). One of the Republican Party Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt had the "nerve to condemn dangerous concentrations of economic power, battle the meatpacking industry, and win passage of the nation's first food safety laws" (Schlooser, 278).
A second reaction to his book was outrage from Hindu consumers of McDonald's after learning that the fries were made with beef flavoring. Because cows are sacred animals to Hindu people, finding out that the fries were not entirely vegetarian and contained some of their most sacred symbol; the Hindu people were extremely angry with McDonald's, believing they had caused great emotional damage and endangered their souls (Schlosser, 278). After filing a lawsuit against McDonald's, McDonald's issued a rare public apology. They offered their regret at causing confusion to their customers (Schlosser 279). The Hindu people were still not happy with this though, since they believed they weren't confused but rather lied to! McDonald's had told them the fries were made in 100% vegetable oil when they didn't. McDonald's responded by saing they never claimed their fries were vegetarian. However, after sending a letter to a manager of McDonald's Customer Satisfaction Department inquiring what options McDonald's had for vegetarians, the department responded by saying "we presently serve several items that vegetarians can enjoy at McDonald's - garden salads, french fries, and hash browns… cooked in 100% vegetable oil" (Schlosser, 280).
According to Schlosser, "the glory days of the major chains seem to be over. Smaller regional restaurant companies are the ones now enjoying rapid growth in the U.S., as many larger ones lose customers." (281) Ever since the McLibel case, McDonald's Corporation has been working really hard to try to improve their image, through means such as improving the meatpacking slaughter of animals by demanding the handling and slaughtering of animals to be more humane (Schlosser, 282). However, while efforts have been made to make the treatment of animals better, the treatment of human workers is still at an all time low. Some of the meatpacking companies, such as IBP in Texas, are allowed to make their own system for handling injuries in their company. The IPB plant has responded by forcing their employees to sign a waiver that surrenders the rights of the injured to sue the company while maybe giving them medical attention under IBP's Workplace Injury Settlement Program (Schlosser, 283). Schlosser believes that if McDonald's were to simply insist that their meatpacking suppliers improve the working conditions for their employees and reduce the injury rates, the companies would obey the demands (284). After all, "the cost of slowing down their production lines would be insignificant compared to the cost of losing their biggest customer" (Schlosser, 284).
In Europe, the spread of BSE revealed how "secret alliances between agribusiness and government can endanger public health" and how "the desire for profit can overrule every other consideration" (Schlosser, 285). Over the years, Schlosser tells us that "governments throughout Europe ignored the interests of consumers while protecting those of agribusiness." (285)In fact, even in America, the USDA, the FDA, and the American Meat Institute have opposed any additional prohibition on what can be fed to livestock, increases the chances of the spread of BSE (Schlosser, 286). Schlosser tells us that the "current FDA feed rules are primarily concerned with efficiency and utility, not public health. They allow cattle to be fed pigs, pigs to be fed cattle, cattle to be fed poultry, and poultry to be fed cattle. They allow dogs and cats to be fed dogs and cats. Although leading American manufacturers promise never to put rendered pets into their pet food, it is still legal to do so." (287) With all of the resistance of the fast food industry to any food safety changes, the fast food industry is declining. Many countries are calling for a change in the farming ways; including Germany who plans to make 20% of its farmland organic by 2010 (Schlosser, 288).
Schlosser concludes his book by stating that he hopes "future historians will consider the American fast food industry a relic of the 20th century - a set of attitudes, systems, and beliefs that emerged from postwar southern California, that embodied its limitless faith in technology, that quickly spread across the globe, flourished briefly, and then receded, once its true costs became clear and its thinking became obsolete. We cannot ignore the meaning of mad cow. It is one more warning about unintended consequences, about human arrogance and the blind worship of science. Whatever replaces the fast food industry should be regional, diverse, authentic, unpredictable, sustainable, profitable - and humble. It should know its limits. Things don't have to be the way they are. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I remain optimistic." (288)
Exercise: Today was another day of Yoga… Vinyasa 1. So grab a video or head into class to enjoy this hour of stretching, strengthening, and relaxing.
Eat: One of the best snacks to have when you are absolutely starving is a fresh apple. Some recommend eating an apple before enjoying a full meal because it helps to stiffle extreme hunger and prevent over eating. As a snack, however, it is not only very healthy for you but it is also very filling. Try taking one with you to enjoy after your workout today.
Relax: To relax today, I want to encourage you to participate in, or extend the amount of time you spend in the savasana yoga pose. This is supposed to be a relaxing, meditative pose to conclude the yoga session. To do the pose, lie down on your back with your legs slightly apart and your arms down by your side, and palms facing up. Then focus on your breathing and on positive energy while keeping your eyes closed. You can also put a jacket or blanket over you to trap in heat as well as a small towel over your eyes to create more darkness. Lie like this for a good 5 to 10 minutes and just think of good thoughts or of positivity, clearing your mind and relaxing into the floor.
