Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [181]
“whiny butts”: For this quote and Ireland’s views on franchise reform, see Kirk Victor, “Franchising Fracas,” National Journal, September 26, 1992; Deirdre Shesgreen, “Franchisees Seek Protection on Hill,” Legal Times, January 4, 1999.
“free enterprise contract negotiations”: Quoted in “Small Business Franchise Partnerships Feared Endangered if Federal Government Muscles In,” PR Newswire, July 1, 1999.
“Small businesses and franchising succeed”: Quoted ibid.
102 A 1981 study by the General Accounting Office: For the GAO study and the congressional investigation that prompted it, see Luxenberg, Roadside Empires, pp. 256–59.
The chain was “experimenting”: Quoted ibid., p. 258.
a recent study by the Heritage Foundation: See Scott A. Hodge, “For Big Franchisers, Money to Go: Is the SBA Dispensing Corporate Welfare?” Washington Post, November 30, 1997.
5. Why the Fries Taste Good
Food: A Culinary History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, traces the cultural and technological changes in food preparation from prehistoric campfires to the kitchens at McDonald’s. A good account of the history of American food processing can be found in John M. Connor and William A. Schiek, Food Processing: An Industrial Powerhouse in Transition (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997). Harvey Levenstein’s Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) has a fine chapter on the implications of postwar advances in food processing. For consolidation in the food processing industry and its effects on American farmers, I learned a great deal from the following sources: Charles R. Handy and Alden C. Manchester, “Structure and Performance of the Food System Beyond the Farm Gate,” Commodities Economics Division White Paper, USDA Economic Research Service, April 1990; Alden C. Manchester, “The Transformation of U.S. Food Marketing,” in Food and Agricultural Markets: The Quiet Revolution, edited by Lyle P. Schertz and Lynn M. Daff (Washington, D.C.: National Planning Association, 1994); Concentration in Agriculture, A Report of the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Concentration (Washington, D.C.: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, June 1996); A Time to Act: Report of the USDA National Commission on Small Farms (Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1998); and William Heffernan, “Consolidation in the Food and Agriculture System,” Report to the National Farmers Union, February 5, 1999. A telephone interview, extending for hours, with J. R. Simplot provided much information on the details of his life and the origins of the potato industry in Idaho. Simplot was blunt, charismatic, entertaining, and seemingly tireless. Fred Zerza, the vice president for public and government relations at the J. R. Simplot Company, helped confirm the accuracy of Simplot’s remarks. I also relied on “Origins of the J. R. Simplot Company,” J. R. Simplot Company, 1997; and James W. Davis, Aristocrat in Burlap: A History of the Potato in Idaho (Boise: Idaho Potato Commission, 1992). Paul Patterson, an extension professor of agricultural economics at the University of Idaho, graciously explained to me how potatoes are grown, processed, and sold today. Bert Moulton, at the Potato Growers of Idaho, gave me a sense of the challenges that farmers in his state must now confront. I am grateful to Ben Strand, at the Simplot Food Group, and Bud Mandeville, at Lamb Weston, for giving me tours of their french fry facilities.
The reference books on flavor technology were a pleasure to read; they reminded me of medieval texts on the black arts. Among the works I consulted were Fenaroli’s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients, vol. 2 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: CRC Press, 1995); Henry B. Heath, Source Book of Flavors (Westport, Conn.: Avi Publishing, 1981); Martin S. Peterson and Arnold H. Johnson, Encyclopedia of Food Science (Westport, Conn.: Avi Publishing, 1978); Y.