Why the Fries Taste Good: Book Review

Eric Schlosser's chapter "Why the Fries Taste Good" in his book Fast Food Nation, effectively demonstrates the evolution of our food from a natural and unadulterated element of every day life meant to provide sustenance to an unnatural creation of chemists and multi-million dollar corporations meant to provide sensory satisfaction. Schlosser explores the origins, processing, and manufacturing of our food for consumption by the masses.

Schlosser makes the point that even from its origins our food has become less natural. The process of farming has been taken over by major corporations turning a huge profit while the independent farmer slowly slips into poverty. Farming has become an unnatural "industrial model of agricultural - one that focuses narrowly on the level of inputs and outputs, that encourages specialization in just one crop, that relies heavily on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, advanced harvesting, and irrigation equipment." (Schlosser 119) It's evident that the recent farming methods are far less than natural. What's a little less evident is that the economic model surrounding farming has also become unnatural. As farmers are forced off of their land due to an inability to turn a profit, they are hired by the huge companies that caused their downfall to manage what was once their land. In essence, it is a return to sharecropping. These major corporations are creating a land and market monopoly. Not only is this an unnatural state of affairs in a country where capitalism and competition reign, but it's also illegal.