Yes, this book has an agenda, but it’s not what you might have guessed. The main theme is not how fast food is so bad for you (although that is mentioned), but rather how the business practices of mega-corporations–as exemplified by the fast food industry–are bad for everybody: farmers, workers, consumers. I think Schlosser makes quite a convincing argument, especially when he ties in the appalling workplace conditions at slaughterhouses to the safety of the meat you eat (believe me, I’m glad I decided long ago to give up beef). And he exhorts all of us to action, by demonstrating how consumer pressure on big corporations like McDonald’s can result in positive change that years of government regulation couldn’t bring about.

I’m happier when I don’t eat fast food. I like my food to taste like something, and I want it to be good for me too. In this book, Schlosser has just given me a myriad more reasons to avoid the stuff.

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it’s a good book and it will probably make you reconsider eating certain foods. i didn’t eat much fast food to begin with . now i almost never do.

I found the first halfish of this book somewhat long-winded and a bit boring. And very populist. More than I’m willing to be with any great enthusiasm. But the second halfish was better. I like reading about the terrible health effects of meat. The awful health conditions and poor testing of it’s production. I don’t eat meat, so I get to pat myself on the back sanctimoniously. Yay!

It’s not as good as everyone says, but everyone says it’s the bste book ever, so that’s not surprising. It’s certainly a worthwhile read.

I skipped over a lot of this book, because I was mainly using it as a source for a report on the fast food industry’s blame in the rising obesity rate of Americans. It was surprisingly interesting and hopefully I’ll actually read the whole thing someday.

good book. really makes you think. i don’t eat fast food but i’m sending this book to my parents—maybe it will make them stop eating. Made me want to get more involved in politics as well.

An interesting read. Glad I saw what all the hype was about. Ultimately, it didn’t change my eating habits (I ate little to no fast food to begin with). A quick, easy read

The funny thing is, I never chose to eat McD’s french fries before, but this book made me want to eat them. I was appreciating the technology that went into making the fries (which the book described). I didn’t expect myself to react this way, but I guess I wanted to know why the fries were so popular. I always thought I wasn’t really biting into potato.

I wish I had read this book sooner than I did. Ignorance was bliss, but learning how the food I put in my body is made has opened my eyes. I haven’t been eating meat for a couple years, but reading about how meat gets to the plate was still very disturbing. I certainly didn’t know that most of the meat Americans consume has feces in it, not to mention a high occurrence of food-borne pathogens like E coli. And while I could’ve guessed that conditions at slaughterhouses aren’t all that humane for the animals, I had no idea there are so many recent examples of the workers being injured or killed simply by doing their jobs and trying to meet the dangerous and unreasonable speed requirements.

But the most disturbing thing of all was the link between the rise of fast food in this country and the rise in obesity in our children. This is no mistake—it’s not a secret that the fast food companies have purposefully targeted children in their advertising campaigns. They learned from marketing experts that if you can get a kid to start eating your food at a young age, you’ve got a customer for life. And that customer is most likely going to be overweight, if not obese, and have an increased risk of health disease and cancer (among other things) and a decrease in life expectancy.

We should not stand for this any longer. Fast food companies need to stop marketing unhealthy food to children. They need to get out of our schools or change their in-school menus to have only healthy, nutritious foods.

We need to take back our kids—and not just our own kids. Kids from low-income families don’t have adults in their lives who are reading things like Fast Food Nation. So when you’re asking your school to make improvements, think about the school on the other side of town and who’ll be asking for improvements there.

I read this book as part of a small book club with some friends, none of us with school-age children. When we were discussing it, we decided to look into starting a garden at a school where kids can learn about how food grows and what’s healthy to put in their bodies. We found out there’s already a garden at a school on the other side of town (literally) that desperately needs volunteers, so we’re going to get together and do what we can to help.