Fast Food Nation Quotes

“The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The twenty-first will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The medical literature on the causes of food poisoning is full of euphemisms and dry scientific terms: coliform levels, aerobic plate counts, sorbitol, MacConkey agar, and so on. Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Today the U.S. government can demand the nation-wide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam-rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Did somebody say McUnion? [...] Not if they want to keep their McJob.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the United States was spent to prepare meals at home. Today about half of the money used to buy food is spent at restaurants--mainly at fast food restaurants.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Congress should ban advertising that preys upon children, it should stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, it should pass tougher food safety laws, it should protect American workers from serious harm, it should fight against dangerous concentrations of economic power.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The market is a tool, and a useful one. But the worship of this tool is a hollow faith. Far more important than any tool is what you make with it.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“When a worker is injured at an IBP plant in Texas, he or she is immediately presented with a waiver. Signing the waiver means forever surrendering the right to sue IBP on any grounds. Workers who sign the waiver may receive medical care under IBP's Workplace Injury Settlement Program. Or they may not. Once workers sign, IBP and its company-approved doctors have control over the job-related medical treatment - for life. Under the program's terms, seeking treatment from an independent physician can be grounds for losing all medical benefits. Workers who refuse to sign the IBP waiver not only risk getting no medical care from the company, but also risk being fired on the spot...Injured workers almost always sign the waiver. The pressure to do so is immense. An IBP medical case manager will literally bring the waiver to a hospital emergency room in order to obtain an injured worker's signature. When Lonita Leal's right hand was mangled by a hamburger grinder at the IBP plant in Amarillo, a case manager talked her into signing the waiver with her left hand as she waited in the hospital for surgery. When Duane Mullin had both hands crushed in a hammer mill at the same plant, an IBP representative persuaded him to sign the waiver with a pen held in his mouth.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music—combined.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Twenty years ago, teenage boys in the United States drank twice as much milk as soda; now they drink twice as much soda as milk.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The spread of BSE [mad cow disease] in Europe has revealed how secret alliances between agribusiness and government can endanger the public health. It has shown how the desire for profit can overrule every other consideration. British agricultural officials were concerned as early as 1987 that eating meat from BSE-infected cattle might pose a risk to human beings. That information was suppressed for years, and the possibility of any health risk was strenuously denied, in order to protect exports of British beef. Scientists who disagreed with the official line were publicly attacked and kept off government committees investigating BSE. Official denials of the truth delayed important health measures.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The life's work of Walt Disney and Ray Kroc had come full-circle, uniting in perfect synergy. McDonald's began to sell its hamburgers and french fries at Disney's theme parks. The ethos of McDonaldland and of Disneyland, never far apart, have finally become one. Now you can buy a Happy Meal at the Happiest Place on Earth.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The typical American now consumes approximately three hamburgers and four orders of french fries every week.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music—combined.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“About 75 percent of the cattle in the United States were routinely fed livestock wastes—the rendered remains of dead sheep and dead cattle—until August of 1997. They were also fed millions of dead cats and dead dogs every year, purchased from animal shelters.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Lowe has broken from the Christianity of his parents, a faith that now seems hopelessly out of date. The meek shall no longer inherit the earth; the go-getters will get it and everything that goes with it. The Christ who went among the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, among lepers and prostitutes, really had no marketing savvy. He has been transfigured into a latter-day entrepreneur, the greatest superstar sales person of all time, who built a multinational outfit from scratch.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Americans already drink soda at an annual rate of about fifty-six gallons per person – that’s nearly six hundred twelve-ounce cans of soda per person.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Unlike other commodities, however, fast food isn’t viewed, read, played, or worn. It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer. No other industry offers, both literally and figuratively, so much insight into the nature of mass consumption.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“On any given day in the United States about one-quarter of the adult population visits a fast food restaurant.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Pull open the glass door, feel the rush of cool air, walk inside, get in line, and look around you, look at the kids working in the kitchen, at the customers in their seats, at the ads for the latest toys, study the backlit color photographs above the counter, think about where the food came from, about how and where it was made, about what is set in motion by every single fast food purchase, the ripple effect near and far, think about it. Then place your order. Or turn and walk out the door. It’s not too late. Even in this fast food nation, you can still have it your way.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Like Cheyenne Mountain, today's fast good conceals remarkable technological advances behind an ordinary-looking façade.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than a quarter of the American population suffers a bout of food poisoning each year.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The war on foodborne pathogens deserves the sort of national attention and resources that has been devoted to the war on drugs. Far more Americans are severely harmed every year by food poisoning than by illegal drug use. And the harms caused by food poisoning are usually inadvertent and unanticipated. People who smoke crack know the potential dangers; most people who eat hamburgers don’t. Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“A nationwide study published by the USDA in 1996 found that [...] 78.6 percent of the ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal matter. The medical literature on the causes of food poisoning is full of euphemisms and dry scientific terms: coliform levels, aerobic plate counts, sorbitol, MacConkey agar, and so on. Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating hamburger meat makes you sick: There is shit in the meat.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Indeed, market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“The federal government has the legal authority to recall a defective toaster oven or stuffed animal—but still lacks the power to recall tons of contaminated, potentially lethal meat.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Every month about 90 percent of American children between the ages of three and nine visit a McDonald's. The seesaws, slides, and pits full of plastic balls have proven to be an effective lure.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Beslenme biçimi, bir ulus hakkında sanatı veya edebiyatından daha çok bilgi verebilir. ABD'de herhangi bir günde yetişkin nüfusun yaklaşık dörtte biri bir fast food restoranına gidiyor. Fast food sektörü oldukça kısa bir süre içinde, beslenme biçimimizin ötesinde coğrafyamızı, ekonomimizi, işgücümüzü ve popüler kültürümüzü de dönüştürdü. İster günde iki kere yiyin, ister uzak durun, hatta hiç ağzınıza sürmemiş olun; artık fast food'dan ve sonuçlarından kaçamazsınız.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“Most of all, i am concerned about its impact on the nation’s children. Fast food is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children. This is an industry that both feeds and feeds off the young.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal