"...The American food system has undergone monumental changes in the past five decades. It has become a system organized to produce large volumes of highly standardized products as cheaply and efficiently as possible. The pursuit of these goals has brought many benefits for consumers. But, as author Eric Schlosser points out, it is an amoral system, which has negative consequences along with its positive ones. In his book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser examines the social and economic consequences of the operations of one particular segment of the American food system: the fast food industry. Both the author and his book have attracted a great deal of media attention. It is not hard to understand why. The book focuses on the all-American meal, hamburger and french fries, and offers some jolting revelations about it.
In successive chapters, Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process-the farm, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together relevant historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. The subjects of these stories range from Ray Kroc, the man who built McDonald's, to Kenny Dobbins, a packing house worker whose health was ruined in a series of accidents over his sixteen years of employment...."
Herrmann, O, Robert.. "Book reviews: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal." Journal of Consumer Affairs 2(2001):399. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.
"...Schlosser was born in New York City on August 17, 1959. His father, Herbert, was the chairman of the NBC television network. Schlosser was raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and attended the exclusive Dalton School. After graduating, he entered Princeton University, where he edited the school's humor magazine, wrote plays for the Triangle Club, and studied literary journalism with the Pulitzer-winning writer John McPhee. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1981, Schlosser conducted postgraduate studies in British history at the University of Oxford...."
"...In 1998 he wrote a two-part investigative report on the fast-food industry for Rolling Stone. The article became the basis for Fast Food Nation. "Schlosser is a serious and diligent reporter," Rob Walker wrote for the New York Times (January 21, 2001), "and Fast Food Nation isn't an airy deconstruction but an avalanche of facts and observations as he examines the fast-food process from meat to marketing."...
Biography Reference Bank (Bio Ref Bank), 07/01/2011