What's In The Meat?
Hamburger Meat - Buddy Hammon
If someone were to tell you that there are pieces of the cattle's spinal cord, bone, and even feces in the fast food meat, would you still feel comfortable eating it? According to Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, that is exactly the case (pg 196). If you're someone who has ever wonder how people can get so sick off of fast food, you now have your answer. This jaw opening truth disgusts me personally. How in the world does this happen? The carelessness of those who slaughter the cattle has lead to some serious health issues not only here in America but all over the world. As if the unhealthy factor of the burgers wasn't enough, we can now worry about becoming seriously ill from it. I suppose we can thank White Castle for popularizing burgers in the 1950's since before this time, burgers were considered "food for the poor" (pg 197). Let's be honest for a second. White Castle is delicious, but is it worth eating as often as we do when we actually face the facts? Not at all. Want one more reason to drop your jaw? Out of the 800,000 pounds of hamburger meat created daily at a meat industry, just a single cow with a disease can contaminate 32,000 pounds of that meat. The odds of you eating a contaminated burger is much higher than you might think. This book (Fast Food Nation) has opened my eyes in more ways than one and I'm hoping that this will help open yours as well.
E. Coli
We’ve all heard of E. Coli, but what exactly is this disease? Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a deadly pathogen that can spread in poorly prepared meat, such as the meat in fast food companies (pg 193). This pathogen can lead to anything from diarrhea to death. Although children are usually the main target, E. Coli can harm all ages and personally, I’m not willing to put my life in the hands of those who prepare my meals. Even though we are all guilty of consuming fast food, I refuse to become one of the 25% of Americans that are affected by E. Coli a year.
Beef Trust and Meat Today
Much like many other greedy companies today, the Beef Trusts which prepare our meat care little about our health as consumers. They are much too concerned with creating a large quantity of meat and maximizing profit that they fail to carefully examine every bit of meat that hits the industry. The Jungle, a book written by Upton Sinclair many years ago, spoke out against the unsanitary conditions of meat industries. This speaking out opened the eyes of many and helped eliminate the problem of rats and other disgusting conditions. Thankfully for us as Americans today, we had Clinton step into the game and improve scientific testings for all meat. I give the industry some credit for cleaning up their act some what, but after my experience with this book, I don’t feel nearly as comfortable with eating fast food. Being a former fast food lover myself, I’ve made some serious changes to my eating habits mainly in part to my recent readings in Fast Food Nation. It opened my eyes to the unsanitary conditions which lead to deadly diseases in humans. For that reason alone, I will no longer will I scarf down a Big Mac or a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger on a weekly basis.
Having It Our Way
How We Can Make Changes - Matt Cutkomp
In the epilogue, Eric Schlosser portrays how if we want to create real change in the fast food business, then we as a country need to be the ones to lead the reform and we can’t count on the government figure heads to do it for us. It starts by saying that the first step that needs to take place is to ban advertisements of unhealthy foods (Schlosser 262). I believe by doing this it would discourage unhealthy eating habits to children. These habits are nearly impossible to break due to how fast food can become highly addictive to some individuals. I also think that it is the parent’s responsibilities to stop the children from eating fast food. If parents would teach their kids good eating habits from a young age, it would undoubtedly lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle for their future. Next there is a problem in the healthiness of our foods in the public school system. The first step to improving these foods is to stop purchasing ground beef. This is because the ground beef that is bought, although tested for E. coli, could be potentially deadly to children. I know that some families cannot afford to pack their own lunch but for the many Americans that can, it is critical that children are being packed a healthy lunch to avoid the possible harmful foods being served. Another way that we could make our food safer and healthier is by modeling our food manufacturing systems after countries such as Holland and Sweden (Schlosser 263). Through their thorough inspection system and tough food safety laws, these two countries have statistical proven to have the safest and cleanest foods over the in the last 40 years. Holland for example has been testing for E. coli since 1989. If standards such as these had been implemented in America at that time, then it is possible that the 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak would never have happened. In my opinion i think that it is imperative to have high food standards placed on these food manufactures. If these companies could not comply with the laws and rules placed on them by the government then they would be forced into a probation period or even the possibility of shutting the company down. The final point made in the epilogue is that if we truly want to make substantial change in the fast food business then the first step we have to make is simply stop buying it (Schlosser 269). By doing this, we it would put fast food companies in a chokehold forcing them to either change or to economically go under. It is understandable that for some people quitting fast food seems like an almost insurmountable task, but with help and guidance from friends and family I’m positive that everyone can break from the addiction. From there we can move forward not as a fast food nation but a nation of healthy principles that can be a good role model for the rest of the world.
The Meaning Of "Mad Cow"
Mad Cow: A Disease That Must Cease
By: Jason Mathewes
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), also known as Mad Cow disease, is in many ways a symbol of all that is wrong with the industrialization of the meat industry (Schlosser 272). The disease is transmitted among cows through their food. This is made possible because the corporations who own the beef farms have discovered that it is far more efficient to feed the cows animal protein than to feed them traditional feed. The animal protein is made of cow, pig, and various other animal parts. It causes the consuming cows to grow much larger, but at the cost of making them cannibals. The corporations knowingly and happily feed their cows their own ancestors, something that is disgusting and debatably immoral. The corporations are also aware that this is the only way that Mad Cow disease can be transmitted, yet they feel that that little extra profit made by feeding their livestock animal protein is worth the risk of infecting all of their cows. It is also well known that Mad Cow disease can be transmitted from beef to the human consumer, but the corporations feel that the probability of this happening is rare enough to be continued. If these corporations feel that it is okay to endanger the lives of millions of people in order to increase profits, doesn’t that show that there is something seriously wrong with them? The beef industry is no longer about pleasing the consumer and making profit in doing so, it is now about making as much profit as possible, even if lives have to be put in danger in the process.
Above the Law
The beef corporations, with their limitless money, feel that they are above the law. For years the FDAattempted to put limits and regulations on the feeding of animal proteins to cows, such as cow proteins now being allowed to be fed to cows. However, many companies do not seem to take these regulations seriously, or they overlook them, because some how, cow parts somehow end up being fed to cows. I mean I can see how they might have just slipped in their somewhere along the lines. With feed being in such high demand its not like they make it in mass quantities for each type of livestock. And after years of the FDA and USDA unsuccessfully being able to control the feeding of animal proteins to livestock, McDonalds decided to put regulations on animal proteins, threatening those who did not comply with the loss of McDonalds as a customer, and within weeks all of the beef companies had complied (Schlosser 275). The only thing that could get these corporations to abide by the regulations was the treat of losing “the world’s biggest shopping cart“ (Quoted in ibid), McDonalds.
Dog Eat Dog
Europe has taken more serious action towards Mad Cow disease. Unlike America, who continues to allow the beef companies to threaten the lives of all of it’s citizens, Europe has begun to move away from fast food and towards a more natural lifestyle. The scariest part about Mad Cow disease is that theincubation period of the disease is unknown, so we could currently be in the middle of an invisible epidemic, possibly even a pandemic (Schlosser 284). This is a frightful thought but a thought that needs to be considered nonetheless.
Decline and Fall - Jason Mathewes
On the upside, as fast food chains moved worldwide at an increasingly accelerating pace, they neglected to notice that they “did not gain any new customers“ (Cited in Robert O‘Brien, “Consumer Update & Industry Outlook,” NPDFoodworld, March 2001.) at home in America. This caused their empire to slowly start to crumble, just as Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte’s empires crumbled. The fast food chains are no where near gone, but they are not nearly as dominant as they once were. Could this receding of fast food companies be permanent? Or is it merely a recession that will soon turn around and be built back up into an overpowering empire? Those questions can only be answered by you, the consumer, and by where you spend your money.
