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

Key Figures

Eric Schlosser

Eric Schlosser narrates the book, and in some respects, it almost reads as a travelogue. In conducting the research for the text, Schlosser traveled far and wide, even going overseas to Germany to investigate how McDonald’s has fared in Europe. In general, Schlosser aligns himself as an investigative journalist and tries to maintain an objective stance. He does not eternally condemn the founders of fast food; in fact, he presents these men fairly and does not lay any blame for the current state of fast food at their feet. He likewise recognizes the reasons fast food is popular, namely that it offers cheap meals, and he does not begrudge people for indulging in the occasional trip to McDonald’s.

In many ways, the book serves as an antithesis to the public persona fast food chains have created over the years. McDonald’s, for example, built its empire on a family-friendly image, one that caters to families and offers jobs to teenagers looking to get a start in the world. In other words, its carefully crafted image is what the public sees. Schlosser’s text pulls back the curtain not just on McDonald’s but also on the industry as a whole. What Schlosser reveals is a stark contrast to the shiny public personas of fast food chains. On multiple occasions, Schlosser references Upton Sinclair’s classic 1906 exposé, The Jungle, which gave the public a thorough look into the meatpacking industry. The book, which garnered a lot of attention at the time, eventually led to change within the industry. With the many nods to Sinclair in his own book, Schlosser hopes that his own exposé will lead to change as well. He also wants consumers to know exactly what they are contributing to each time they make purchases at a fast food restaurant.

Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc was the man responsible for making McDonald’s into the brand name recognized worldwide today. An entrepreneur from a humble background, he moved to California from the American Midwest in search of the American dream. He is credited with early strategies that made the food served at McDonald’s consistent and uniform across all locations. He initiated methods in the restaurants that loosely resembled the automobile industry’s assembly lines. For example, he set up kitchens so that people had limited duties to perform, which reduced the chances that something would go wrong. It also meant that highly skilled chefs and cooks would not be required to operate a McDonald’s restaurant.

Kroc was also skilled at predicting future trends in the industry. He anticipated the significance of the freezer as a means of using frozen food and exploited frozen french fries to keep the taste uniform. This decision alone would yield tremendous profits for the company and enable it to continue expansion. Kroc also saw the success that Disney had in marketing directly to children and followed the same blueprint. Schlosser presents Kroc as a true American original, a man with spirit and heart who sought to make the most of the opportunity afforded him by American capitalism, which he of course achieved.

Dale Lasater

The son of a Texas rancher, Lasater is introduced in the Epilogue. He represents the direction in which Schlosser hopes agribusiness will evolve. Lasater runs his own ranch and has resisted the methods that would make him exorbitantly rich, such as using feedlots for cattle and feeding them grain rather than raising them on grass on the range. For Lasater, this is a moral concern. Schlosser says of him, “He has come to believe that our industrialized system of cattle production cannot be sustained. Rising grain prices may someday hit ranchers and feedlots hard. More importantly, Lasater finds it hard to justify feeding millions of tons of precious grain to American cattle while elsewhere in the world millions of people starve” (256). Lasater has a moral conscience, and that is the point for including him in the text. He stands as the antithesis to the profit-centered corporate ethos of the larger agribusiness firms.

Lasater is also included in a section that mentions other figures who stand in contrast to the practices of the fast food and agricultural industries. Lasater and the others, such as the Conway family of Colorado, owners of Conway’s Red Top, show that there are viable alternatives to the current state of affairs. They demonstrate a different approach, one guided by a sense of ethics and what’s best for a local community rather than what yields the best revenue.