Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [164]
Future historians, I hope, will consider the American fast food industry a relic of the twentieth century — a set of attitudes, systems, and beliefs that emerged from postwar southern California, that embodied its limitless faith in technology, that quickly spread across the globe, flourished briefly, and then receded, once its true costs became clear and its thinking became obsolete. We cannot ignore the meaning of mad cow. It is one more warning about unintended consequences, about human arrogance and the blind worship of science. The same mindset that would add 4-methylacetophenone and solvent to your milkshake would also feed pigs to cows. Whatever replaces the fast food industry should be regional, diverse, authentic, unpredictable, sustainable, profitable — and humble. It should know its limits. People can be fed without being fattened or deceived. This new century may bring an impatience with conformity, a refusal to be kept in the dark, less greed, more compassion, less speed, more common sense, a sense of humor about brand essences and loyalties, a view of food as more than just fuel. Things don’t have to be the way they are. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I remain optimistic.
photo credits
INTRODUCTION: Cheyenne Mountain. © 2000 by Greg Skinner.
CHAPTER 1: Carl Karcher holding his daughter Anne Marie beside his first hot dog stand, 1942. Courtesy of CKE, Inc.
CHAPTER 2: Ronald McDonald in the classroom. © 1989 by Evan Johnson/Impact Visuals.
CHAPTER 3: Working at Wendy’s. © 2000 by Skylar Nielsen.
CHAPTER 4: Signs at night. © 2000 by Skylar Nielsen.
CHAPTER 5: J. R. Simplot. © 1995 by Louis Psihoyos/Matrix.
CHAPTER 6: Cattle in eastern Colorado. © 2000 by Rob Buchanan.
CHAPTER 7: Welcome to Greeley. © 2000 by Eugene Richards.
CHAPTER 8: Injured ConAgra Beef worker and his family. © 2000 by Eugene Richards.
CHAPTER 9: Alex Donley. Courtesy of Nancy Donley.
CHAPTER 10: A Vogtland cowboy. © 1999 by Franziska Heinze.
EPILOGUE: Fast food nation. © 2000 by Mark Mann.
notes
Introduction
Although I did a great deal of firsthand reporting and research for this book, I also benefited from the hard work of others. In these notes I’ve tried to give credit to the many people whose writing and research helped mine. Robert L. Emerson’s The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990) offers a fine overview of the business. Though many of its statistics are out of date, the book’s analysis of relative labor, marketing, and franchising costs remains useful. Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age, by John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1999), is less concerned with the workings of the industry than with its impact on the American landscape and “sense of place.” McDonald’s has played a central role in the creation of this industry, and half a dozen books about the company provide a broad perspective of its impact on the world. Ray Kroc’s memoir with Robert Anderson, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s (New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1987) conveys the sensibility of its charismatic founder, an outlook that still pervades the chain. John F. Love’s McDonald’s: Behind the Arches (New York: Bantam Books, 1995) is an authorized corporate history, but an unusual one — fascinating, thoughtful, sometimes critical, and extremely well researched. Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald’s (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1976),