Chapter 10 fast food nation

This chapter didn't really spark any interests what so ever. The chapter starts out about things that really don't jhave anything to do with fast food except the fact of Mcdonalds expanding all over the world. On page 240, the book mentions obesity in America because of fast food. I would have to agree. I wrote about fast food being convenient, of course because its cheap and fast. Everyone has ate fast food at least once in their lifetimes. Im not saying fast food is bad but its def not good for you. Thats why so many people become overweight and unhealthy and its a disgusting habit. To be completely honest, I stopped eating meat since the middle of reading this book. I once was a vegetarian but I would eat meat here and there, and I decided it was okay to eat meat every once and while. Now, I started it again because of this book and I think that the slaughter process, and eating meat is just gross, period.

Chapter 9 Fast food nation

This chapter is called What's in the meat! I didn't even want to read this chapter because of the title. I remember when there was E Coli in the meat, everyone was nervous about eating meat. I think the most disgusting thing is the part that talks about feeding the cattle other dead animals, animals such as dogs and cats even!  That's what you get though. I mean how can anyone feed an animal another animal, and one that's made to eat grass and things like that. Now, towards the end of the chapter, fast food employees talk about food being dropped and served and how they won't eat the fast food after seeing how its made or what's done to it. Can we trust anyone in the world? I can't even eat fast food without searching the food for hair, or bugs or whatever. How am I supposed to know if the food was spit on or dropped on the floor? The whole process disgusts me.

Fast food nation Chapter 8

Kenny is the highlight of this chapter. I can't beleive everything that man went through, and always getting injured working in a slaughter house. Why would he put himself through all of that? When I was reading this chapter, I was waiting after every injury mentioned that he had quit, or found another job. However, he kept going back, even after a short time of being able to heal completly. He had broken bones, a heart attack, hit by a train and more. How could anyone want to go back to the same place and the same job after all those injuries happened because of it? I feel awful for the guy, and at the end of the chapter they mention that he is only 46. Forty-six and hes coughing up blood, back pain, chest pains, and he can barely walk. I have a lot of respect for Kenny, but at the same time I just want to call him stupid for putting himself through all of that. Because of his injuries at such a young age, I dont beleive Kenny will live to be that long, and its so sad to see that happen to someone. The company should have taken responsibility from the beginning but instead they betrayed Kenny's loyalty to the company. Kenny should have received millions of dollars for everything he had to go through.

Fast food nation Chapter 7

First of all, Im curious to know why anyone would ever want to open and run a slaughter house. These chapters are really killing me when it comes to fast food and eating meat. Since I began reading this book, I've cut down on fast food pretty much all together. The only thing I've eaten is Chik-fil-a and I wont even eat the chicken, just fries. On page 152, the book mentions a man that fell into one of the machines and was turned into lard. I can't even explain how sick that makes me. I can't beleive they just kept going after that happened instead of closing down the building. This page also mentions how cattle were stuck on the head with a sledge hammer, slaughtered and then disassembled by the workers. The cruelty with this is just wrong to me. I did some research on slaughter houses and how a lot of them are known for cruelty to animals. One thing I read talked about the way animals suffer in the process of being turned into our every day food. Its against the law to torture animals, even though they are facing death. Some of the things that are being done can be read at this website http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html. The article talks about animals still being alive and aware when they are cut to bleed to death and some even go as far as being skinned while they are still alive. It really disgusts me that nothing has been done to stop this type of cruelty. Then again, our world is so messed up, it just doesnt matter to people anymore what happens behind closed doors.

Fast Food Nation Chapter six

I knew from the title of this chapter that I wouldn't like it much. It's hard to beleive how much our world has changed though, like when it came to farms and the way we produced everything in America. Everything is more technical and less farms exist due to that reason and farmers had to struggle to make a dime. I guess it is sad to think about it, and people say change is good. Well, maybe the world was a lot better back in the day. Anyway, I have always preffered chicken over beef, including when I eat fast food. After reading about the chicken McNugget, I'm not so sure I'll eat any meat, period. This chapter really just made me sad thinking about millions and millions of animals that are killed for to make a hamburger or a chicken nugget. I know, I know, were all human and animals were put here for us to survive off of but we can all make it being vegitarians, right? I guess that's besides the point, but it's my opinion on it. This chapter went back and forth making sense to me and then not making sense. This whole book has a habit of doing that so far.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 5

This chapter pretty much grossed me out when I was reading it. I know that if I decide to stop and grab fast food instead of cooking, I dont stop to think about what the food is made out of. I refuse to eat Taco Bell because of the meat, even though I dont know exactly what it is, I still wont eat their meat. Any other fast food place doesnt bother me too much but then again, I don't eat meat often so maybe thats why fast food doesnt bother me. After reading this chapter about processing and "natural flavors", I'm not to sure about any fast food place. I mean its commen sense that fast food isn't technically fresh food, because if it was  we wouldnt call it "fast" food right? If we could all stay home and cook food that fast that tasted as good, fast food restaraunts would probably cease to exist. If everyone in the world knew every, and I mean every ingredient in what they ate at fast food retaraunts, do you think that would stop any of us from eating it? My guess would be probably not. They make fast food so convenient for everyone, whether its a cheap dollar menu or just a time saver, and for those reasons, fast food is popular for everyone. They warn us on cigarette packs that if we smoke, we can get lung cancer and so on, but we still do it. If Mcdonalds put on their bag "This food can make you very unhealthy and overweight", would that stop us? Again, im guessing it wouldnt so what the point of warning us whats harmful and not harmful? Obviously, none of these warnings have any effect on us. I think the world makes it extremely hard for anyone to be as healthy as they can be because everywhere you turn, there is always something tempting you not to be healthy. Smoking, drinking, fast food, and so on are all tempations. Lets face it, nothings going to change, even if we are warned over and over what's bad for us.

Fast food nation Chapter four

This chapter bored me while I was reading it, however I know a lot about what the chapter is based on. For example, this chapter talks about frachising places like Burger King and Mcdonalds. I'm currently taking a business class and learning about the way franchising works, and what it takes to make it work. I think overall that franchising is a great idea for people that want to own their own business but have guidlines on exactly how to run the business and what to produce. Anyone that becomes a franchisee needs to have excellent management skills in order to keep any franchise up and running. Now, if you had the patience to read this chapter, I think its something to learn from in terms of success and owning a business. This chapter tells you what it takes now a days to do something like that and the power that certain people had in order to keep a franchise open and succesfull. I think that anyone can have the potentional to gain such success as owning your own business and after reading a few chapters of this book, I've realized that a lot of advice in a hidden way is given throughout it. The first chapter talks about these young kids that didn't even finish school and struggled to become something and they ended up owning the most popular fast food restauraunts in America. This gives all of us a little confidence to see that when you put your mind to something, anything is possible.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 3

First off, I'd like to point out that each chapter I have read, including this one, starts out with useless information. Everything that is talked about in the beginning of these chapters basically turn into a bunch of nonsense after getting to the main point of the chapter. I dont understand why the author keeps doing this, and overall, my interest passes over the beginning and right to the middle of the chapter.

On page 60, something I found to be amusing was the mention of the clusters of fast food restaraunts on the same streets. I always wondered why we had so many and all in the same area. For example, in Boardman on 224, there are three taco bells, all within 10 minutes of each other. There are 2 Mcdonalds, 2 Wendys, and 2 burger kings also within 10 minutes or less of each other. Why is this neccasary? Maybe overly convenient for everyone, but just not neccasary what so ever. i believe we could use that space for other things that could be more useful to the community, instead of fast food chains, basically telling everyone you can't avoid them.

When i read about that girl that got up and went to Mcdonalds every day before they opened and prepared everything and worked on her feet until after lunch, I felt horrible. I kept thinking, poor girl.. why  isn't she getting her highschool diploma and finishing up with school? It's sad to see that at the age of sixteen, she is walking to work, making minimum wage. I know that alot of teenagers take this path after deciding to drop out of school. At a fast food chain.. are they or is anyone truly learning anything that they may be able to use later on in life? I dont think so. The book even stated that fast food chains spend money on research to find the cheapest and fastest way to train their employees, and cheating the goverment because they recieve money for every employee they train. I just wanna say, I feel like saying that it's all a bunch of bull ****!! Teenagers should be able to get a better job than working at a fast food chain... places that don't frown on you for not having a highschool diploma or being pregnant at sixteen for example. I can understand how the teens may  look at this as a good thing because not much is required, but what does this show them when it comes to their future? They probably think that it just doesnt get any better than that. For some reason, I just find it all pathetic the way the book was explaining how fast food chains hire, pay, and the type of employees they look for. If they have to pay their employees a low wage, and spend the least amount of money on training, why do they insist on wasting money by building their restaraunts 5 minutes apart from each other. You would think that they would be trying to save money since they can't afford good wages and decent training. Just saying =)

Fast Food nation Chapter 2

This chapter didnt seem to interest me too much. I beleive the first chapter of the book was interesting and kept my attention, but chapter two didnt interest me what so ever. However, I found it interesting that Mcdonalds actually has a university to get a degree made up by the company in hamburgerology. I guess that was pretty clever of them, however, I'm not sure I know of anyone that would ever consider that as a degree. Basically the second chapter talks about business and how Mcdonalds kept the business going and speaking of mascots and such. Honestly, this chapter was hard to follow as in keeping my attention, which is why I don't have much to write on this blog. I did notice how a lot of the chapter is about marketing and how they promoted different products that were newly introduced to the public or made to catch attention of younger ones, and its good to see the effort put in to keep the company going, but a whole chapter on it is a little over done. Over all, I don't feel like im reading an actual book, I felt like I was reading the guidlines in my business book for class. Hopefully, the next chapter catches my attention somewhat better.

College Writing II, Chapter one, Fast Food Nation

I am writing my entry in response to Chapter one of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

Something that caught my attention when reading the first page of chapter one was something that Carl's father had told him which is "The harder you work, the luckier you become". That statement isn't very long but holds good advice, and I would have to agree that the more effort you put into working, the more determination you have, which I believe will you get you farther in life. The first chapter talks about Carl leaving Ohio and traveling to California which was a big step for him, especially being the age of twenty and never traveling up until that point. Carl decided to work for himself by buying a hot dog cart and selling food to local residents. However, he has definitely progressed since then and worked extremely hard to get where he is today. During the time that Carl was struggling to make ends meet and build a life for his wife, kids and himself.. he spent most of his time in competition with others that were opening fast food restaurants and always trying to find new ideas that would make his the best out of all of them. Their restaurant quickly grew and they opened several more restaurants, numbering 100 by 1974 and more than 300 by 1981. Carl Karcher should be noticed for all the effort and hard work he dedicated to serve America with his great ideas. He sets a great example of what his father originally told him.. which i mentioned earlier. "The harder you work, the luckier you become". Carl died January 2007 and left behind his business, CKE Restaurants, Inc. which is the parent company of the Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito restaurant chains. Its headquarters are in Carpinteria, California. It was incorporated in 1964 by Carl's Jr. founder Carl Karcher as Carl Karcher Enterprises, Inc.

Overall, I mentioned that Carl should be an example of what hard work is and how anyone, no matter your age, or talent, can accomplish great things. Carl didn't always have it easy, he was in great debt and struggled to accomplish what he did before he passed away. The end of chapter one, Carl talks about how happy he was about the progress Anaheim made. That part of California had changed a great amount since Carl first arrived from Ohio but he didn't miss the way it used to look, he stated that he was happy because he believes in progress and that's exactly what California had done, the state had progressed with businesses and more population. Because of that, Carl was truly happy and he had been a big part of that progress in California, as well as others that were the founders of our favorite fast food restaurants today. Reading this chapter, it makes you realize how much things have changed since then, from small hot dog stands to fast food drive thru's and restaurants on ever corner in every city. According to the way things were back then, everything has definitely changed a great amount.

Essay Four soon to come :)