Fast Food Nation

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “Why the Fries Taste Good”

Schlosser continues his journey around the country, this time taking the reader to Idaho. He introduces J. R. Simplot, a former potato farmer turned business tycoon who was the pioneering force behind the frozen french fries McDonald’s and almost all other fast food chains use. Like Ray Kroc and Carl Karcher, Simplot was man from humble origins who relied upon his ingenuity and risk-taking to great effect. At the time Schlosser met Simplot, the man was a billionaire. The development of the frozen french fry heralded a monumental change to the American diet and to American agriculture. Schlosser lays out a history of how potato processing companies became tremendously powerful and the corresponding impact these companies had on individual family farming. Schlosser mentions the “fallacy of composition”—the “mistaken belief that what seems good for an individual will still be good when others do the same thing” (142)—and the way independent farmers used it to justify growing their businesses by introducing expensive new technologies and methods that would ultimately not be profitable when other farmers all did the same thing.

For the second half of the chapter, Schlosser transitions to a discussion of how french fries acquire their unique flavor, particularly McDonald’s fries. This leads him to a place in New Jersey where the flavor industry is pervasive. Schlosser realizes that readers may not be aware that there is such a thing, so he describes the industry in detail. He tours a few facilities, and though he is bound by confidentiality agreements and cannot disclose brand affiliations, he provides general descriptions of what goes on in these flavor factories. Essentially, chemists, who are given the moniker of “flavorists,” experiment with compounds to get the exact flavor of a particular food. Most processed foods and frozen foods rely on these concoctions for their flavor. Schlosser interviews one flavorist in particular, Brian Grainger, who gives Schlosser a kind of smell test. Schlosser closes his eyes and smells small strips of paper dipped into vials of fragrances, each of which gives him the sensation of smelling a different fresh food—including a grilled hamburger. Schlosser concludes the chapter by returning to the potato processing plants in Idaho, this time at a place called Lamb-Weston, where he receives a firsthand education about how millions and millions of potatoes are turned into frozen french fries.

Chapter 6 Summary: “On the Range”

Schlosser introduces an independent rancher by the name of Hank and describes the tour of the ranch that Hank takes him on. As an independent rancher, Hank represents a dying breed in the American West. Schlosser uses his encounter with Hank as a jumping-off point into a discussion of how ranching, much like potato farming, has become gradually corporatized. Essentially, meatpacking companies have created highly unfavorable conditions for independent ranchers. The sheer size of the companies means their control of the cattle market is profound, and in many cases, they artificially manipulate the price of cattle. Schlosser details the tactics employed by meatpacking companies at the turn of the 20th century, which turned the industry into an oligopoly. The companies were broken up by so-called “trust buster” politicians in the 1910s, and antitrust laws were subsequently instituted to protect ranchers against a small number of giant companies that sought to use their buying power as a means of putting competition out of business. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, the political trend toward deregulation allowed large agribusinesses to grow and stifle competition again.

Schlosser describes similar manipulations within the poultry industry. After McDonald’s created the chicken McNugget, the way chicken was processed changed entirely, from packaging an entire bird to processing it into smaller pieces. Generally, the same process of corporatization overtook the poultry industry, effectively wiping out independent agents. In many ways, Schlosser outlines the ways in which conglomeration has changed how cattle and chicken are raised, processed, and delivered. These changes have come at a very high cost for independent ranchers like Hank, who, Schlosser reveals toward the end of this chapter, committed suicide. While Schlosser stops short of blaming the meatpacking industry directly for Hank’s suicide, he says it is difficult to envision a scenario in which corporatization did not contribute to the sense of doom Hank must have felt prior to taking his own life.

Chapters 5-6 Analysis

Chapters 5 and 6 are connected thematically; in both, Schlosser examines the impact that the industrialization of food has had on American agriculture. The common thread is that an increased efficiency, which resulted from the fast food industry’s ever-increasing demand for cheaper food products, has had devastating impacts on traditionally independent farmers and ranchers. In Chapter 5, Schlosser follows a similar structure as in previous chapters, taking the reader back in time so that he can demonstrate how dramatically the fast food industry has altered agriculture. In this case, Schlosser introduces J. R. Simplot, an Idaho potato farmer who was an early pioneer in the creation of frozen french fries. This was a major turning point for the food industry in general, as it turned potatoes into the second most-consumed food product, trailing only dairy (115). It also helped grow McDonald’s and other fast food chains. In 1966, when McDonald’s regularly started using frozen french fries, they operated about 725 stores nationwide. Within a decade, that number had increased to over 3,000 (115). The reduced overhead cost of frozen french fries compared to fresh-cut potatoes created soaring profits for McDonald’s. As McDonald’s expanded, alongside other chains, so too did the demand for potatoes and meat. To keep up with the growing demand, independent farmers needed to find ways to inexpensively increase output. One of these ways was through conglomeration. Bigger, more powerful companies bought up smaller ones, creating an oligopoly in which only a few large firms controlled huge percentages of US agricultural operations.

In Chapter 6, Schlosser explores a similar dynamic within the cattle and poultry businesses and develops the theme of The Effects of Mass Production on Food and Community. He begins this chapter by interviewing an actual rancher to “learn how development pressures and the dictates of the fast food industry were affecting the area’s cattle business” (133). The man’s name is Hank, and what Schlosser portrays in his interview with the man are the consequences of the industrialization of the cattle business. From the point of view of one rancher, readers see how livelihoods that span generations are threatened by an ever-increasing amount of corporate control and leverage. Schlosser outlines some of the less-than-ethical business practices of the nation’s largest meatpacking firms, such as ConAgra and IBP. One of these is the manner by which the largest corporations manipulate the cost of cattle. Essentially, they rig the economic system to their favor, making independent ranching especially difficult because the small outfits cannot get a fair market value for their cattle. The larger corporations drive down the cost of cattle, which for them is beneficial, but for the Hanks of the world, it is extremely detrimental. Added to this is the fact that the large corporations do not have to reveal the cost of the cattle they are buying, which means that independent ranchers have a hard time knowing what their cattle are actually worth (138). Furthermore, with such an extensive amount of economic power, these large corporations can curry favor with legislators who in turn provide legal justifications for these sorts of practices. Schlosser further details how large corporations manipulate the market in their favor, including analogous practices within the poultry industry, with the purpose of demonstrating the effect this has on real people like Hank. As he nears the close of the chapter, he mentions that Hank has committed suicide in the time since the interview, dramatically reinforcing the far-reaching impact the fast food industry may have on individual lives.