Fast food anyone?

February 2, 2004

I never made it all the way through the book but this is a nice review:

In the second half of the book Schlosser examines the ripple effects of the

fast-food industry's entrenchment in American life. " The fast food chains now

stand atop a huge food-industrial complex that has gained control of American

agriculture, " he writes. The industry's massive demand for beef has led to the

industrialization of cattle-raising and meatpacking, which has crippled

independent ranchers and given rise to " rural ghettos " around meatpacking

plants. The conditions in the big slaughterhouses pose a grave threat to worker

safety. Schlosser also discloses shocking details about the industry's impact on

public health. (One memorable study concludes that there is more fecal bacteria

in the average American kitchen sink than on the average American toilet seat.)

With respect to both worker safety and food safety, the meatpacking industry,

Schlosser contends, has shrugged off accusations of negligence and used its

considerable political clout to disable any attempts at meaningful government

regulation. Today the USDA has startlingly little control over the detection of

pathogens in meat and the distribution of contaminated meat.

....

That's a very good question. In a way, the future of the fast-food industry is

tied to the future of this country. If we continue to allow the growth of a

low-wage service economy, one in which unions are weak and workers have little

say about their working conditionswell, then the fast-food chains will have a

bright future. On the other hand, if we bring the minimum wage up to the level

it was thirty years ago, in real terms, and we enforce the rules about overtime,

and make it easier to organize service workers, the fast-food chains will have

to change their business model. Or go out of business. Access to cheap labor,

and a lot of it, has been crucial to their success.

-- Heidi

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