Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation is a gripping book that has spine tingling moments one would think I was describing a sci-fi or suspense thriller. This book has changed the way I look at the fast food industry. The interviews and background information about how the industry got started and spread as prolific as it has was great information; but the information about the production of meat and the slaughterhouses was need to know information that every consumer should be privy to. It can also so be said as consumers we should take as much time to research the food we consume as we do our cars, cameras, cell phones and other gadgets we diligent comparison shop. I for one would have not thought it necessary with such government machines as FDA and USDA. They no longer mean as much to me as they once did. In the era of terrorism and the warning systems that are in place to make us aware of the threats on our life it would seem we would have more to fear on the home front then we could ever imagine. "There is shit in the meat (197)." How can the government knowingly allow the practices in slaughterhouses to remain and to continue to make things more and more lenient for this industry?

It makes me feel as the safety of the spotted owl, gray bat and the humpback whale or more significant in this world than the safety of me and my family. The thing that is most horrifying is the substance they are nonchalant about is something that we must partake of to live. We are not discussing a product that is something by choice we can give up because it does not seem to end with ground beef, but chicken, and vegetables. How many scares on the evening news about spinach, onions, and other produce it was the same scare if 2001 that closed Chi-Chi's doors for good around the nation people dying from tainted onions. So how do we the American people eat by the luck of the draw. I'm not a gambling person but I feel like I've been forcibly entered into the lottery. Instead of hearing the slogan, "Somebody is going to win it might as well be you." Something more appropriate would be, "Today someone might die and it could be you." That seems a more appropriate sticker than the USDA or FDA stamp.