Beginning of the chapter Lee Harding ordered so soft chicken tacos at a Mexican restaurant. Later, Harding was not feeling very good, he was blaming the tacos for his stomach pains. Throughout the night and weekend he was having bad bloody diarrhea. He was then hospitalized, he also found out that he tested positive for Escherichia coli 0157:H7. The doctor asked him what he has ate the past few days and the first thing he thought of was the tacos he ate because they were not that good to begin with, but he later found out it was the frozen beef patties he ate the other day infected. The company White Castle then had the largest beef recall in history. Millions of pounds of beef was infected with the E coli and infected a lot of people. Jack in the box was also another company that had to do a massive recall because their food was also infected. This has caused serious problems to the world. E Coli has caused millions of people to become sick and has even has caused some deaths. I think it was wrong because it took several months for these companies to recall the food knowing it was causing illnesses to all these people. White Castle and Jack in the Box could of taken more responsibility in fixing their problems. In conclusion, after reading this chapter, i have the attitude to never eat beef again knowing how easy it is for food to be affected.
I chose the topic fast food and obesity because both are a non stop growing problem. Fast food is one of the leading reason in bad health. People are becoming obese from all the fast food and junk, and it is also a increasing issue for children. All these fast food companies have high fructose corn syrup which is the main reason why people are becoming so obese and unhealthy. If people do not exercise or take caution, they will end up with serous problems throughout life. This can cause diabetes and heart attacks because of the intake of fast food. Fast good chains are growing and will not stop. They will only get worse and worse. All these fast-food companies add all kinds of ingredients and chemicals into their food which is completely unhealthy. Its not only fast-food chains that are changing the way we eat, it is also the meatpacking business. They have completely changed the way food is today by processing and adding hormones to the animals food. For the result of that causes obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle. In order for me to continue my research about fast food I will need the library databases, internet and even personal experiences from people. I will need to go deep into researching to find some hard evidence.
This chapter of Fast Food Nation reveals the disturbing truth of meatpacking companies. The working conditions and environments showed the truth on how employees are being treated. The chapters name is the most dangerous job and that is the truth. Employees are getting injured constantly in the slaughterhouses, but management does just about nothing about these situations. If an employee gets injured on the job they are sent to the companies nurse to be inspected. Even the nurses do not care. Slaughterhouses have so many injuries, they are suppose to report and document each one but they do not even document half of the injuries to OSHA. One of the most used injuries is a pulled muscle even for the serious injuries. One guy had a pretty serous cut and the nurse told him to come back to work the next day. The nurse has also said, ” if you can’t use one hand, use the other.” That is very harsh to say. Supervisors are very corrupt in slaughterhouses as well, they abuse their power and overwork the employees. This can go as far as even trading for ‘favors.’ When employees want to try to get a easier job, or a higher position, supervisors would ask for sexual favors or even drugs. Sometimes supervisors will even supply employees to work double shifts for the drug crank. After reading this chapter, I do believe this is the most dangerous job in the United States. It is sad to see people are that desperate enough to have to work in these environments and conditions.
In this chapter we learn about some of the slaughterhouse environments. Slaughterhouse management is very corrupt and horrid. The work environment is treated terribly, workers are constantly getting injured and supervisors are power-happy. Supervisors treat their employees with no respect and have no concern for them. Whenever an employee gets injured on duty, the company will not report it and will give nothing to the employee. Even for the serious injuries management treats it like nothing and forces the employees to come back to work. All they hire are illegal immigrants because these companies feel like they have them on a leash so they can control them. Slaughterhouses have a high turnover rate, whenever someone quits or get fired they easily find new immigrants to hire. People believe meat comes from farms and are made naturally but that is not the case. The meat packing business is all made in factories and processed. Nobody would ever have guess how meat packing businesses work. These companies have so much power it is unbelievable. Employees are treated wrong and the higher ups are greedy and do not care. I do not see how they slaughterhouses are still up and running for business and they need to be shut down.
This chapter starts out with the main character, Hank who lives out on a farm not very far from a raceway. He was a typical farmer with a family, wife and kids. This chapter reveals a lot of shocking truth to what is becoming of the fast food business and meat products. The food business is going down the drain. Meat is becoming processed and very unhealthy to eat. These companies are putting chemicals into the cows, chickens, pigs, etc., foods. These chemicals they are putting into the food is to speed up the growth and the hormones, which results into bigger and fatter animals. That does not necessarily mean it is a good practice. These huge companies like tyson are abusing the animals and employees. These companies are trapping the farmers into these contracts so they can never escape. The farmers have to spend so much money to get these farm houses set up but they will never go out of debt for their very little amount of money they earn. These companies are becoming a very bad business which is changing the food business. Hank later shocked everyone later in the chapter. Hank committed suicide shocking the world. Everything was going perfect for him, had a family and a career but nobody knows what made him commit to those actions.
Today in class we watched a documentary that showed us all behind the scenes in meat packaging. This video showed everything from how the employees and animals are treated and the horrifyimg facts about slaughterhouses. Natural farming is disappearing and factory farming is taking over. These huge factories have completely changed the way the food business is growing. These companies changed the way of farming. They have turned grassfeeding cows to corn-eaters. The problem with that is the high amounts of corn that is being fed to the cows are making them fat. These companies are also injecting chemicals into the cows food to quicken the growth, the exact same with other animals. Their farming techniques are not natural, its just mass production and it is nothing like how it use to be. The worlds largest slaughterhouse kills 32,000 hogs everyday. Thats an outstanding number. The animals are not the only ones getting mistreated, employees are disrespected and the industrial jobs are some of the most dangerous jobs out there. Farmers were threatened to lose their contracts with the companies if they spoke about their processing plants. In the documentary, farmers were not allowed to show their chicken houses because of what they do. In conclusion it is disgusting and horrifying seeing what these companies do to these animals and all they do to genetically modify these animals.
J. R simplot is a huge character when it comes to the fast food business. He started up one of the first successful potato plants that converts potatoes to French fries and then sells them to companies like McDonalds. J.R was an 8th grade dropout and went straight into the workforce becoming one of the richest men in the United States. Mr simplot also became very successful in the early teens by starting up a potato plant in the 1920s. He later then discovered a new method called the dehydrating company for drying out potatoes. The 1950s became “The Golden Age of Food Processing”, this was the start of freezing foods. J.R. started freezing his fries in 1953 and sold frozen fries to companies like McDonalds. Since the start of freezing fries, J.R. has noticed his sales were decreasing. J.R. initially started freezing fries because it would decrease labor save a lot of money. Customers did not notice the difference in taste but really did make a difference in their health. This change made selling french fries one of the most profitable items on the menu. Schlosser says, “The taste of McDonalds french fries has long been praised by customers, competitors, and even food critics. Their distinctive taste does not stem from the type of potatoes that McDonald’s buys, the technology that processes them or the restaurant equipment that fries them.” Just about everything now uses something on the label called “natural flavor”, its all processed food.” The flavor industry is an corridor dotted with refineries and chemical plants.” Processed foods are disgusting and unhealthy. All these companies sell food that are not good for us, but they do not care it is all about the money.
In my English class we watched a documentary about bees called the Vanishing of Bees. This documentary was very interesting because it revealed the importance of bees. I never realized the importance of bees until I saw this documentary. I learned a lot from how they live and how they perform. A bee queen can live up to five years which I thought was amazing and a bee can not live without their hive for more then 24 hours. Bees are pretty much an essential to living in our everyday life. Bees are the key to producing fruits and vegetables and without them then it will be very difficult to eat healthy. This documentary is about bees mysteriously vanishing out of no-where. The reason, no one knew why they were disappearing, there were no dead bees and no sign of them dying or leaving. Not even the scientists that were looking into this problem could figure out the problem for the disappearing bees. The scientists found pathogens and diseases the bees have been contracting but it did not explain why they were all disappearing. Beekeepers all over the country had to eventually turn to the government for help about this bee problem. The government had to import bees from Australia because the US had such a shortage but then the whole world was starting to have the same problem with the bees disappearing. After a year the problem was finally found. Farmers were putting pesticides on to their crops which were luring away the bees. The pesticides were placed on plants and crops to kill all the diseases and bugs from getting to them but also affected the bees which was a huge problem. I enjoyed this article because I learned the importance of bees and without them no body will be able to survive without the necessary fruits and vegetables to live.
Chapter four starts off talking about a guy delivering pizzas. He one day opens up several Little Ceasar franchises. This chapter explains a lot about what franchising is all about. Ray Kroc was one of the originators of franchising. That is how he expanded the McDoanlds business for the McDonald brothers. The point of having someone franchise a business is for the franchisor to make the money. The franchisee invest in opening up a store and is responsible while the franchisor just sits back and collect the income. People coming into the franchising business may think that once they buy into a store, then they think they will be set, but that is not the case. Being a franchisee means you will be the boss of a store but still has to work for someone. They think it is a no risk investment but they are wrong because the franchisees are under a contract and if the franchisors terminate that contract, then the franchisees investment went to a waste. In my opinion, the franchise business is very corrupt because they are basically using people to make more money and then they can eventually stab them in the back and fire them. Then that store the franchisee bought will belong to the franchisor.
What drives us to consume? The US is known as the ‘fattest’ nation. But why is that? What has caused this to happen? What drives us as consumers to eat junk? People eat fast food and unhealthy junk food because it is cheap and it tastes good. But that is not a good thing. People buy cheap food because, well you know, it’s cheap and convenient. Not very many people realize what these foods does to your body, some people continue to buy cheap unhealthy food anyway. These products are cheap because companies put a ingredient called High Fructose Corn Syrup in their products, it was suppose to replace sugar. Not only is fructose corn syrup bad for our bodies, it is cheap. It is the lead cause to gaining weight very fast. Since 1985, we have been consuming sugars, beef, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, honey, etc from 128 pounds to 158 pounds per person. One of the main sources of high fructose corn syrup is from sodas, they contain a majority of this unhealthy ingredient. These companies advertise and advertise trying to make their products sound like the “must have” kind of food to eat. Studies have shown one of five American are obese. The cause, foods with high fructose corn syrup. This is a huge problem for America, everybody is getting fat and high fructose corn syrup is the problem. This ingredient is in everything and this needs to stop.
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