By
JULIETTE ROSSANT 
How often is there a quick fix to any problem? A one-drop-only miracle cure? An antidote to poison?
Well, if there is any antidote to the
Foie Gras War (not to mention that pint-sized epidemic of
national childood obesity -- part of an overall 10% budget increase for the
U.S. Department of Agricutlure in 2006), it is that every child in this country over the age of 10 read
Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food (
Houghton Mifflin 2006), by
Eric Schlosser and
Charles Wilson. Read it as soon as possible.
This is no simplification of Schlosser's previous best-selling book
Fast Food Nation (
Houghton Mifflin 2001). This is in no way a "dumbing down" edition. Rather,
Chew On This digs even deeper into the guts of Food production, service, and consumption in this country.
It is classic bait-and-trap reading of the highest order -- bait-and-trap for its readability and highest because of the quality of both its writing and information. Yes, despite the rather depressing subject matter,
Chew On This is more engrossing than any burger or bag of fries. Once you are roped in with stories of fast food pioneers, Mssrs. Schlosser and Wilson start cutting away into the real meat -- literally, as in their chapter six subsection "Meat" (pp. 156-202).
Schlosser and Wilson explain how America will raise 9 billion chickens for slaughter in 2006; desecribe the appalling conditions of their short, miserable lives; and present the needless suffering they endure at slaughter for your leisurely reflection -- while mentioning how much needless suffering our European counterparts avoid imposing. In "The Jungle" (pp. 182-186) and "Don't Complain" (pp. 186-191) sections, they catalogue conditions in slaughterhouses for both man and beast.
Thereareafter, the book really focuses in on you and every citizen of this country. If in our pet-loving, fast-food consuming "American Way of Life" we somehow have remained complacently unmoved by the suffering of billions of animals or thousands of fellow humans, then perhaps we will be moved to care when it comes down to ourselves. "Cook It Well" (pp. 192-198) explains the growing prevalence of the
e. coli virus -- the poop disease whose spread parallels the rise of mass-marketed meat. If that doesn't move you, the penultimate chapter, "Big" (pp. 202-233) explains how kids fat by age 13 have a 90% chance of being fat in their midthirties (p. 209, cited from the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [
abstract]) and shares the agonies of one obese child, who nearly dies from stomach stapling.
Finally, in "Your Way" (pp. 234-258), Schlosser and Wilson trace the export of American fast-food franchises overseas, where many now derive the majority of their profits. They discuss global anti-Americanism (associated with the
Bush doctrine of
pre-emptive strike, accompanied by the
Global War on Terrorism and measured by the
Pew Research Center) -- now manifest in attacks overseas on chains like
McDonald's and
KFC.
The bottom line is that you, an American consumer of Food, can make a difference. Schlosser and Wilson provide the simplest of prescriptions to improving our quality of life via food, targeting human labor conditions and animal quality of life:
Nobody is forced to buy fast food. The first tep toward real change is by far the easier. Stop buying it... Every dollar you spend is like a vote." (p. 254)
Beyond the book, they provide several areas of
specific action.
Although they do not mention it, the logic is intuitive: just as fast food companies force change among suppliers with their buying power, so consumers can do the same to fast food companies. And here is where
Chew On This is perhaps not explicit enough in a TV-oriented, attention-deficit society: they have laid out the vertical supply chain of fast food and demonstrated just how powerful each and every one of us can be -- if we stand united.
No wonder there is an uproar in the Food industry (see "Related news" links, below)! For what Schlosser and Wilson recommend is not an end to fast food but an imposing of humanistic constraints -- all very feasible, but, oh no!, costing a few pennies more per pound or ounce for the fast food giants.
The opposition is apparently quite large -- see the
members list for "
Best Food Nation", the industry antidote (as it were) to Schlosser's Fast Food Nation" (whatever that term means to the industry, beyond a book and a movie -- more at end of this article).
What does
Chew On This mean for the foie gras opposition? Get a clue! Get your priorities straight! Why mess about with a few thousand geese and ducks (whose gavage is scientifically accepted as relatively painless and harmless) when not just millions of cattle and billions of chickens live and die in abject conditions -- while fellow Americans (or imported workers) are caught up in labor-destructive system of production? Schlosser is on record as still eating burgers and fries, just no longer at McDonald's (see
Forbes interview).
Improve rather than overthrow -- that is truly revolutionary thinking, because it is so possible and reasonable. Don't be fooled by opposing Media: this is thought worthy not of
Karl Marx's
Manifesto of the Communist Party but rather of
Thomas Paine's
Common Sense.
To show us what motivated individuals and corporations can do, they provide living examples of food "do-gooders":
Alice Waters and her
Edible Schoolyard and fast food chains like
Inn-N-Out and
Burgerville.
Overall, Eric Schlosser deserves credit and praise for his continued efforts -- would that there were a journalist-author who has the same impact on American Politics as he does on American Food. By successfully encompassing the broadcest, most complete outlook of our Food horizons, from McDonald's to Alice Waters, Schlosser proves himself the most important writer on Food of the decade.
Regardless of all other considerations, Superchefblog recommends
Chew On This as mandatory reading for Summer 2006. For all ages.
(Stay tuned for the
movie -- watch the trailer
now.)
Book details:
PublisherAmazon.comBarnes & NoblePress releases:
Houghton MifflinPuffin (UK)
Best Food NationRelated news:
ForbesWall Street JournalForbesLos Angeles TimesSt. Louis Post-DispatchKQED bay area bitesWillamette WeekSouth Bend TribuneKansas City Star (AP)
Washington PostBrand RepublicIthaca JournalOrlando Sentinel (Los Angeles Daily News)
Lincoln Journal-StarMadison Capital TimesSeattle TimesSan Francisco ChronicleTwin Cities Pioneer Press (Newhouse News Service)
Seattle Post-IntelligencerEnergy BulletinBelleview News Democrat (AP)
GuardianTimesGuardianToronto StarChina DailyIndependentAustrialianGlobe & MailPrevious articles:
[
Foie Gras War - complete]
[
Cookbook Reviews - complete]
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