American Culture on a Sesame Seed Bun
Central to the success of McDonald's, as envisioned by Kroc, was thateverything would look and taste exactly the same at every location - he wasa great believer in uniformity and conformity. Now that has one effect whenyou're talking about what a restaurant's architecture looks like and whatthat means for the American landscape, but when it comes to food it has aprofound effect on how food is produced. Because if they want theirpotatoes to taste everywhere exactly the same, or their ground beef totaste everywhere exactly the same, they need suppliers who can produce thaton a large scale. And so the effect of the fast food industry in the UnitedStates has been really to promote concentration in agriculture, to promotelarge-scale industrialised agriculture that can make sure that a potatotastes exactly the same in New York as it does in Oregon. The rippleeffects have been profound throughout the American agricultural economy.Well, again if you go back to 1970, before the meteoric growth in theAmerican fast food industry, the top five meat packing firms in the UnitedStates controlled about 20% of the beef that was being sold in America.Today the top five control more than 85% and there's rea
However his version of America is one of conformity, uniformityand efficiency. As Schlosser comments: "Today the US government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals and foam-rubber toy cows. And, they spend more of fastfood than on movies, books, magazines, videos, and record music - combined. It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer. And, meatpacking is the most dangerous job inthe U. No one thinks about food, how itis made and where it comes from. Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat. "Schlosser points to CDC estimates that reveal that about 280,000 Americansdie every year as a direct result of being overweight as well as annualhealth care cost figures in the United States stemming from obesity thatare nearing the $240 billion mark. As a nation, we've gained access to fast food that is cheap and thattastes good even if artificially so. lly three meatpacking companies that control the overwhelming majority of beef thatAmericans eat. "Food that may look familiar hasin fact been completely reformulated. He seems to have forgotten about other American valuessuch as individuality and caring about people. There are 13 slaughterhouses in the United States thatproduce most of the beef that Americans eat and that's a phenomenalconcentration and industrialization of this system over the course of 20,25 years. Hewrites, "But the value meals, the two for one deals, the free refills ofsoda give a distorted sense of how much fast food really costs.
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Acceptance Essays
