Perhaps the most important point Schlosser is trying to make in this chapter is that the increase of foodborne illnesses “can be attributed to the recent changes in how American food is produced” (Schlosser 195). He argues that “the nations industrialized and centralized system of food processing has created a whole new sort of outbreak, one that can potentially sicken millions of people” (195). The virus E. Coli O157:H7 is perhaps the main cause of a multitude of food poisoning cases, as it is actually “the leading cause of kidney failure among children in the United States” (200). Schlosser mentions several reasons for the spread of this disease, and perhaps the most shocking one is the living conditions of the cattle before they are slaughtered. “The cattle now packed into feedlots get little exercise and live amid pools of manure” Schlosser writes, arguing that if a virus is to infect one cattle, then it would be rather easy for the rest of the herd to become infected (202). Unfortunately, the federal government had done little in order to improve the conditions of meatpacking plants and virus prevention. “The Reagan and Bush administrations cut spending on public health measure and staffed the U.S. Department of Agriculture with officials far more interested in government deregulation than in food safety”, which creates a problem within the entire industry (206). When food safety is sacrificed for government issues, outbreaks of E. Coli O157:H7 are more likely to occur. Businesses too are equally at fault, for a company “does not have a legal obligation to inform the public, or even state officials that a recall is taking place” (212). Again, the companies seem to value production over safety. This is odd, considering Schlosser gives an example of a restaurant that has a much better business practice than many of the leading fast food chains. In-N-Out Burger “pays eight dollars an hour, offers health benefits, and has not sacrificed higher quality food and low prices (260). Despite this, it seems as if fast food restaurants will continue to dominate the landscape for quite some time. (Word Count 356).
Even with the new systems that are in factories, to keep them clean, there are still multiple cases where meat is soiled by a tiny error. The one problem that arises from this tiny error is that many people have already consumed the meat before someone is detected to be sick from it. “Health officials soon traced the outbreak of food poisoning to undercooked hamburgers served at local Jack in the Box restaurants. Tests of the hamburger patties disclosed the presence of E. coli O157:H7… Nevertheless, more than seven hundred people in at least four states were sickened by Jack in the Box hamburgers…” (Schlosser 198). There were hundreds of people that could have been sick from this bacterium, but they just overlooked their sickness or their doctors may have misdiagnosed them, like Lee Harding’s doctor did when he diagnosed him with the “summer flu” (193). There are probably many people out there that could not afford the medical testing to know if they are sick with something worse than the flu or diarrhea. You never realize how dangerous it can be, not only on the production side, but also on the consumer side. Yes, there are many people that get hurt or killed every year, but if there is ever an outbreak of E coli. or any other foodborne illness there could be a chance that millions could be affected. Many times these outbreaks hit children the hardest. Public schools are one of the most likely places that you will find buying hamburger in mass quantities. If they were to get one bad batch, the one batch could affect the whole entire school system. “In about 4 percent of reported E coli. O157:H7 cases, the Shiga toxins enter the bloodstream, causing hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure, anemia, internal bleeding, and the destruction of vital organs” (199). E coli. can be one of the most dangerous battles that you have to deal with from a health situation. If you are a young child that has become sick because of school food, what are you supposed to do when that is all you get to eat? How are you supposed to deal with the sickness if you do not have the money to take care of it? One way that this problem could be surpassed would be to take an extra fifteen minutes throughout the process and check the meat multiple times. Even though this would be a time consuming process it would save you more money in the long run, and it would also save multiple lives. But many meat companies would not be willing to take the time to make a simple check. “The meatpacking industry’s response to The Jungle established a pattern that would be repeated throughout the twentieth century, whenever health concerns were raised about the nation’s beef. The industry had repeatedly denied that problems exist, impugned the motives of its critics, fought vehemently against federal oversight sought to avoid any responsibility for outbreaks of food poisoning…” (205). Many places are not even willing to accept the responsibility for their meat and the problems that it has caused others. If they are not willing to accept responsibility, it will be very hard to get them to be willing to make changes in their procedures, even if it saved them money in the long run. But the one thing that will help make changes in industry will be the company demanding changes in their food supplies. “When McDonald’s demanded ground beef free of lethal pathogens, the five companies that manufacture its hamburger patties increased their investment in new equipment and microbial testing” (268). All it takes is one threat to change companies and the companies will step up and clean up.
Much like the child in Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," the individuals who take the place of being isolated and tortured for "the happiness of thousands" (Le Guin 374) are those who suffer from tainted meat. When, in the United States, "roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a foodborne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die" (Schlosser 195) because of how cattle are fed in the feedlots, combined with contamination of "one out of five carcasses" (203) as a result of fast paced deconstruction of the animals, one has to ask why the numbers are even there in the first place. Better yet, when a company's "recall [is] issued about six weeks after the...production date...almost all of the questionable meat has been eaten" (214). However, the speakers for the companies dismiss the situation much like those from Omelas. A form of rationalization takes place in the citizens to the point where they believe that "they know compassion. it is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science" (Le Guin 375). In Schlosser's case, the architecture can be alluded to the establishment---whether that be the "Golden Arches" or the brick and mortar restaurant, the music can be alluded to the jingles and advertisements, and the science can be alluded to the "meat containing whatever organisms the tests found [and] could still be sold to the public" (Schlosser 215).
It would be quick for me to claim that the individuals who leave Omelas are the individuals Schlosser directs his epitaph toward, but alas, this would not be correct. Schlosser is more like Plato and Aristotle, where they wish for the individual to change what is occurring, not to walk away from it and live isolated. Plato speaks of how the isolated individual who is just does not live to the fullest extent of his/her abilities (Republic 496D-497A). Aristotle speaks of how individuals should become apt in lawmaking to bring about true justice and good to those in the community (Nicomachean Ethics 1180b, 25). Schlosser is not solely writing for those who will walk away from the problem, but confront it by using the only techniques the corporations understand: profit and demand
{387}
From whom does Aramark get their beef and poultry?
When will death become a serious issue for the meat industry?
Fast Food Nation pg. 193-222; 255-270 Is change really as easy as Schlosser suggests? Why is this knowledge not more widely known? First and foremost what I found most disturbing was the fact that almost one hundred percent of our beef is contaminated with some kind of food born pathogen. Schlosser said that “a nationwide study published by the USDA in 1996 found that 7.5 percent of the ground beef samples taken at processing plants were contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7 percent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, 30 percent were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, and 53.3 percent were contaminated with Clostridium perfringens” (Fast Food Nation 167). The fact that there is this much contamination within our meat and we are not aware of it and are not made aware of the severity of it ever. Our government cannot even force places to recall these contaminated meats. The places must “voluntarily” recall it. We can’t recall meat but “the US government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves” (196). This is a huge problem and shows how much political power the fast food corporations have over our government. The greed of the corporations is the root of the problem. These food borne pathogens thrive in the huge feed lots that they are brought up in. Schlosser notes that a government health official “compared the sanitary conditions in a modern feedlot to those in a crowded European city during the Middle Ages, when people dumped their chamber pots out the window, raw sewage ran in the streets, and epidemics raged” (201). This is exactly what is happening. Food borne pathogens are raging an epidemic and we are constantly hearing about things being recalled and yet we never know the severity and more often than not can’t pinpoint from where the product came from. Schlosser introduces us to a family owned restaurant that is the example from which all fast food should mirror. They pay the highest wages along with giving benefits to full time workers, and these high wages “have not led to higher prices or lower-quality food. The most expensive item on the menu cost $2.45 . . . the ground beef is fresh, potatoes are peeled every day to make the fries, and the milk shakes are made from ice cream, not syrup” (260). I do not understand why other fast food places can’t mirror this kind of thing. The prices are not expensive and they have fresh food from small, private companies that follow health codes. Can change really be as easy as not buying from these places until they change their habits? Will people be willing to do this? Word Count: 449
There is a simple way to describe the contents of our reading. Schlosser weaves this sentence together beautifully. He states, “There is shit in the meat” (Schlosser 197). Most Americans are aware of food poisoning and how dangerous it is, but many do not know the reasons why it is becoming more and more prominent within our culture, infecting thousands every year. These food borne pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, can be found in “infected animal’s stomach contents or manure” (197) according to Schlosser. The only way for these bacteria to infect the meat would be for them to somehow come in contact with one another, which is a disgusting truth. In the early 20th century, “hamburgers were considered food for the poor” (197) and thought to contain the remains of old worn-out cattle. Sadly, it seems things are much worse than that. Cattle of today are being fed some of the worse things imaginable, which help transmit these fatal pathogens. According to Schlosser, “current FDA regulations allow dead pigs and dead horses to be rendered into cattle feed, along with dead poultry” (202). In addition, “a study published a few years ago in Preventive Medicine notes that in Arkansas alone, about 3 million pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994” (202). Cattle were meant to be raised on the open prairie, feeding on the grass, not bunched in these inhumane feedlots eating chicken poop. I am surprised there has not been a larger outbreak of pathogens within the beef industry. These feedlots are a breeding ground for bacteria. Adding this in with the speed and lack of safety of the slaughterhouses, there is no telling what we consume in our Quarter Pounders, Big Macs, and Whoppers. When confronted about inspecting their cattle for signs of disease, the Beef Trust responded, “Our contention is that in all reasonableness and fairness we are paying all we care to pay” (205). These companies could care less how many human beings they kill, as long as they make a profit. This is no longer free market, its madness. Schlosser describes this as “a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market” (261). If we do not stand up for basic moralities within the market, we will be overrun by the greed of man.
Schlosser focuses his audience on the proponents of the health issues in the modern meatpacking industry to show how if the problems in the slaughterhouses and factory style work environments were fixed to how animals are supposed to be raised then the problems American consumers and producers are facing today would not be such a burden. The gross living conditions mentioned in “The Most Dangerous Job” lead to problems not only felt by the workers, but by millions of Americans everyday. These problems transform into bigger problems like “roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die” (Schlosser 195). Not all of the diseases can be directly related to the slaughterhouses and livestock conditions, but “much of the increase can be attributed to recent changes in how American food is produced” meaning the “kidneys being pulled out with bare hands” and fecal matter/gray matter/blood that runs ankle deep in the slaughterhouses more than likely have something to do with the conditions that cause deadly diseases in the meat being mainly fed to “children between the ages of seven and thirteen” (Schlosser 170, 198). It’s obviously not the cattle themselves because they seem to be “apparently healthy animals” but the fact that most of the meat, “78.6 percent,” in some form of another comes in to contact with unclean materials, whether it be human or fecal, makes it seem that no wonder millions of people are becoming sick due to the meatpacking industries’ processes of collecting the meat (Schlosser 197). In contrast, the cattle raised by Dale Lasater on a free-range ranch contain “much lower fat than grain fed beef, and has a much stronger, distinctive flavor” (Schlosser 257). If cattle are healthier, and like Argentine cattle, where they are considered “gourmet,” are fed grass, like they are supposed to be, then it should prove beneficial for consumers and producers as cattle are being raised healthier, the meat tastes better, there are no preservatives, and the lethal E. Coli type diseases are less likely to spread in these cattle. word count: 348 1. If cattle are clearly healthier than wouldn't it cost nearly as much compared to if they created a product at lower quality but higher quantity? 2. If hundreds of people are dying from pre-packeged beef, not even from fast food, then how can companies go unchecked like this?
Why did it take so long for the virus to be found and why wasn’t it completely taken care of? In the face of a possible epidemic such as the E. coli O157:H7, does government always seek to profit in some way, and why? Perhaps for the sake of production and profit the 25 million pounds of the ground beef was purposely kept and sold. Many people are infected and killed each year by these pathogen ridden burgers although “much of the increase can be attributed to recent changes in how American food is produced” (Eric Schlosser 195). Eric Schlosser adds, “improper food handling or storage would cause a small group of people in one local area to get sick. Such traditional outbreaks still take place” (Eric Schlosser 195). As it seems, however deadly a virus may be and no matter how it’s spreading, the government is the to profit from it. According to Schlosser, “the U.S. government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam-rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meat packing company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves. The unusual power of the large meatpacking firms has been sustained by their close ties and sizable donations to Republican members of Congress”( 196-197). Apparently, The Clinton administration made effort to support the modernization and the implementation of tough, science-based food inspection. But this motive was not successful because the “Republican party gained control of Congress” (Eric Schlosser 210). And both the “meatpacking industry and the fast food nation industry have been major financial supporters of the Republican Party’s right wing” (Eric Schlosser 210). As if to make matters worse, “the meat packing industry’s allies in Congress worked hard in the 1990’s to thwart modernization of the nation’s meat inspection system”(Eric Schlosser 210). Perhaps the government was the reason why the virus had continued to spread. Word count 324
The offences keep piling on the fast food companies, when will they end?
What can we do to stop this injustice?
At first I was curious as to how the factories that were clean and high-tech were contaminating their beef (and the slimy, smelly chicken was not). Then it occurred to me—in the words of Schlosser, “there is shit in the meat” (197). It is no wonder there is a chance (although small) you could potentially die from eating a fast food hamburger! They do not provide normal, clean living conditions for their “captive stock” so manure is rampant and flowing through their environment just prior to slaughter (201). Everybody knows that cows are herbivores, well, at least they know that cows eat grass or hay or grain or some type of plant—NOT meat. Yet, here the companies are feeding the cattle not only meat, but dead, decaying meat! Schlosser states that “what they are being fed often contributes to the spread of disease” (202). Many studies found that cattle “were routinely fed livestock wastes…remains of dead sheep and dead cattle,” which is cannibalism, “millions of dead cats and dead dogs…sawdust and old newspapers…[and] chicken manure” (202). Are any of those items edible, much less plants and suitable for a healthy and normal cow’s diet? Certainly not. I am not surprised to see that there was an “outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as ‘mad cow disease’” (202). I would go mad too if I had to had in my own feces and eat dead animals and their feces! Even the workers add to the contamination problem when, “in a hurry, tend to forget” to clean and disinfect their knives “every few minutes” or when meat drops on the floor, they “place it right back on the conveyer belt” (203). However, the workers are not entirely to blame, if at all. Schlosser points out that these employees are “overworked, often illiterate” and “do not always understand the importance of good hygiene” because they are the most uneducated, unskilled of the work force. The company singles them out for this job; they do not want someone who will cause them problems and decrease their large profits for the sake of sanitary (and sane) conditions for the cattle and workers alike for the overall benefit of public health. Why? Because they can. The public had been enlightened now—our eyes have adjusted to these harsh, cruel, disgusting realities—and now it is time to change the system that has greatly influenced (for the worse) the meat industry, the food habits of Americans, the health of Americans, the wide-ranged and quick spread of pathogens, the noncompliance of companies to provide in any way for their employees, and the general lifestyle of America. It is time to take a stand.
In the “Epilogue: Have It Your Way” of Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser recaps many of the issues he presents to the reader and offers his suggestions on how to turn around the fast food industry. One of the aspects of Schlosser’s argument that appeals to me is the emphasis he places on not being labeled as an extremist. By telling the stories of Dale Lasater, and his “nature is smart as hell” (Schlosser 255) attitude toward the beef industry, and of the Conway’s Red Top Restaurant family who operate on the believe that nothing is worth “compromising the values responsible for its success” (258), Schlosser highlights example of real people making it in the real world by producing real food. It’s almost like seeing a rare flower in bloom; it keeps the hope alive that others can grow from their existence. Schlosser acknowledges that it ‘ll take time to make change and that the last thing it will be is easy, but one day living in a society where the people are cared for by the people connected to their food is an entirely attainable goal for the fast food industry to strive for. Schlosser says “there is nothing inevitable about the fast food nation that surrounds us – about its marketing strategies, labor policies, and agricultural techniques, about its relentless drive for conformity and cheapness” (260). What this means is that people got along for centuries, millennia even, without depending on fast food. There is nothing natural about vast, intimidating machinery or “beef contaminated with fecal material, hair, insects, metal shavings, urine, and vomit” (207). The change lies in the hands of the people. It is up to us, students, parents, citizens, workers, and consumers alike, to push legislation that protects us and to support companies that value their customers. Schlosser’s big point is just “it’s not too late” (270). [313] How difficult would it be to create a national system of online directories of local organic food options? When Jamie Oliver tried to change some of the food served in the school system at Huntington, W.V., could he have used the contamination of food throughout American schools to hasten change?
What are the main causes of the spread of food borne illnesses in the United States, and how are the slaughterhouses and feedlots to blame?
In these chapters of the novel, Schlosser examines some of the food borne illnesses that stem from the exposure of beef to contaminated substances, and how the unclean nature of the slaughterhouses in America cause thousands of people to become sick every year. The Ecoli O157:H7 virus is the main concern of Schlosser, and is one of the most dangerous and lethal food borne illnesses found in unclean or contaminated beef. Schlosser blames the mass meatpacking system in America for the spread of many food borne illnesses such as Ecoli O157:H7. Schlosser writes, “The meatpacking system that arose to supply the nation’s fast food chains—an industry molded to serve their needs, to provide massive amounts of uniform ground beef so that all of McDonald’s hamburgers would taste the same—has proved to be an extremely efficient system for spreading disease” (Schlosser 196). Many of the slaughtered cows are exposed to manure while in the slaughterhouses, and the mass slaughter of the cows provides a perfect environment for the spread of bacteria. The feedlots are also thought to be a major problem concerning the spread of food borne illnesses because of their unsanitary conditions, and because what the cattle are being fed. Schlosser writes, “A government health official, who prefers not to be named, compared the sanitary conditions in a modern feedlot to those in a crowded European city during the Middle Ages, when people dumped their chamber pots out the window, raw sewage ran in the streets, and epidemics raged” (Schlosser 201). In these feedlots, cattle are often fed manure from other animals, and are often even fed the rendered remains of sheep or cattle which give rise to many of the well known food borne illnesses. The Clinton administration made an effort to bring an end to the contaminated meat that was being shipped from the meatpacking industries in the United States by implementing a meat testing system. Schlosser writes, “Under the new regulations, every slaughterhouse and processing plant in the United States would by the end of the decade have to implement a government-approved HACCP plan and submit meat to the USDA for microbial testing” (Schlosser 215). However, Clinton’s plan was undermined by the Republican congress, and it was never really successful in its attempt to end the distribution of contaminated meat in America. Word Count: 387
Perhaps the most important point Schlosser is trying to make in this chapter is that the increase of foodborne illnesses “can be attributed to the recent changes in how American food is produced” (Schlosser 195). He argues that “the nations industrialized and centralized system of food processing has created a whole new sort of outbreak, one that can potentially sicken millions of people” (195). The virus E. Coli O157:H7 is perhaps the main cause of a multitude of food poisoning cases, as it is actually “the leading cause of kidney failure among children in the United States” (200). Schlosser mentions several reasons for the spread of this disease, and perhaps the most shocking one is the living conditions of the cattle before they are slaughtered. “The cattle now packed into feedlots get little exercise and live amid pools of manure” Schlosser writes, arguing that if a virus is to infect one cattle, then it would be rather easy for the rest of the herd to become infected (202). Unfortunately, the federal government had done little in order to improve the conditions of meatpacking plants and virus prevention. “The Reagan and Bush administrations cut spending on public health measure and staffed the U.S. Department of Agriculture with officials far more interested in government deregulation than in food safety”, which creates a problem within the entire industry (206). When food safety is sacrificed for government issues, outbreaks of E. Coli O157:H7 are more likely to occur. Businesses too are equally at fault, for a company “does not have a legal obligation to inform the public, or even state officials that a recall is taking place” (212). Again, the companies seem to value production over safety. This is odd, considering Schlosser gives an example of a restaurant that has a much better business practice than many of the leading fast food chains. In-N-Out Burger “pays eight dollars an hour, offers health benefits, and has not sacrificed higher quality food and low prices (260). Despite this, it seems as if fast food restaurants will continue to dominate the landscape for quite some time. (Word Count 356).
ReplyDeleteEven with the new systems that are in factories, to keep them clean, there are still multiple cases where meat is soiled by a tiny error. The one problem that arises from this tiny error is that many people have already consumed the meat before someone is detected to be sick from it. “Health officials soon traced the outbreak of food poisoning to undercooked hamburgers served at local Jack in the Box restaurants. Tests of the hamburger patties disclosed the presence of E. coli O157:H7… Nevertheless, more than seven hundred people in at least four states were sickened by Jack in the Box hamburgers…” (Schlosser 198). There were hundreds of people that could have been sick from this bacterium, but they just overlooked their sickness or their doctors may have misdiagnosed them, like Lee Harding’s doctor did when he diagnosed him with the “summer flu” (193). There are probably many people out there that could not afford the medical testing to know if they are sick with something worse than the flu or diarrhea. You never realize how dangerous it can be, not only on the production side, but also on the consumer side. Yes, there are many people that get hurt or killed every year, but if there is ever an outbreak of E coli. or any other foodborne illness there could be a chance that millions could be affected. Many times these outbreaks hit children the hardest. Public schools are one of the most likely places that you will find buying hamburger in mass quantities. If they were to get one bad batch, the one batch could affect the whole entire school system. “In about 4 percent of reported E coli. O157:H7 cases, the Shiga toxins enter the bloodstream, causing hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure, anemia, internal bleeding, and the destruction of vital organs” (199). E coli. can be one of the most dangerous battles that you have to deal with from a health situation. If you are a young child that has become sick because of school food, what are you supposed to do when that is all you get to eat? How are you supposed to deal with the sickness if you do not have the money to take care of it? One way that this problem could be surpassed would be to take an extra fifteen minutes throughout the process and check the meat multiple times. Even though this would be a time consuming process it would save you more money in the long run, and it would also save multiple lives. But many meat companies would not be willing to take the time to make a simple check. “The meatpacking industry’s response to The Jungle established a pattern that would be repeated throughout the twentieth century, whenever health concerns were raised about the nation’s beef. The industry had repeatedly denied that problems exist, impugned the motives of its critics, fought vehemently against federal oversight sought to avoid any responsibility for outbreaks of food poisoning…” (205). Many places are not even willing to accept the responsibility for their meat and the problems that it has caused others. If they are not willing to accept responsibility, it will be very hard to get them to be willing to make changes in their procedures, even if it saved them money in the long run. But the one thing that will help make changes in industry will be the company demanding changes in their food supplies. “When McDonald’s demanded ground beef free of lethal pathogens, the five companies that manufacture its hamburger patties increased their investment in new equipment and microbial testing” (268). All it takes is one threat to change companies and the companies will step up and clean up.
ReplyDeleteWord Count 627
Much like the child in Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," the individuals who take the place of being isolated and tortured for "the happiness of thousands" (Le Guin 374) are those who suffer from tainted meat. When, in the United States, "roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a foodborne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die" (Schlosser 195) because of how cattle are fed in the feedlots, combined with contamination of "one out of five carcasses" (203) as a result of fast paced deconstruction of the animals, one has to ask why the numbers are even there in the first place. Better yet, when a company's "recall [is] issued about six weeks after the...production date...almost all of the questionable meat has been eaten" (214). However, the speakers for the companies dismiss the situation much like those from Omelas. A form of rationalization takes place in the citizens to the point where they believe that "they know compassion. it is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science" (Le Guin 375). In Schlosser's case, the architecture can be alluded to the establishment---whether that be the "Golden Arches" or the brick and mortar restaurant, the music can be alluded to the jingles and advertisements, and the science can be alluded to the "meat containing whatever organisms the tests found [and] could still be sold to the public" (Schlosser 215).
ReplyDeleteIt would be quick for me to claim that the individuals who leave Omelas are the individuals Schlosser directs his epitaph toward, but alas, this would not be correct. Schlosser is more like Plato and Aristotle, where they wish for the individual to change what is occurring, not to walk away from it and live isolated. Plato speaks of how the isolated individual who is just does not live to the fullest extent of his/her abilities (Republic 496D-497A). Aristotle speaks of how individuals should become apt in lawmaking to bring about true justice and good to those in the community (Nicomachean Ethics 1180b, 25). Schlosser is not solely writing for those who will walk away from the problem, but confront it by using the only techniques the corporations understand: profit and demand
{387}
From whom does Aramark get their beef and poultry?
When will death become a serious issue for the meat industry?
Fast Food Nation pg. 193-222; 255-270
ReplyDeleteIs change really as easy as Schlosser suggests?
Why is this knowledge not more widely known?
First and foremost what I found most disturbing was the fact that almost one hundred percent of our beef is contaminated with some kind of food born pathogen. Schlosser said that “a nationwide study published by the USDA in 1996 found that 7.5 percent of the ground beef samples taken at processing plants were contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7 percent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, 30 percent were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, and 53.3 percent were contaminated with Clostridium perfringens” (Fast Food Nation 167). The fact that there is this much contamination within our meat and we are not aware of it and are not made aware of the severity of it ever. Our government cannot even force places to recall these contaminated meats. The places must “voluntarily” recall it. We can’t recall meat but “the US government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves” (196). This is a huge problem and shows how much political power the fast food corporations have over our government. The greed of the corporations is the root of the problem. These food borne pathogens thrive in the huge feed lots that they are brought up in. Schlosser notes that a government health official “compared the sanitary conditions in a modern feedlot to those in a crowded European city during the Middle Ages, when people dumped their chamber pots out the window, raw sewage ran in the streets, and epidemics raged” (201). This is exactly what is happening. Food borne pathogens are raging an epidemic and we are constantly hearing about things being recalled and yet we never know the severity and more often than not can’t pinpoint from where the product came from. Schlosser introduces us to a family owned restaurant that is the example from which all fast food should mirror. They pay the highest wages along with giving benefits to full time workers, and these high wages “have not led to higher prices or lower-quality food. The most expensive item on the menu cost $2.45 . . . the ground beef is fresh, potatoes are peeled every day to make the fries, and the milk shakes are made from ice cream, not syrup” (260). I do not understand why other fast food places can’t mirror this kind of thing. The prices are not expensive and they have fresh food from small, private companies that follow health codes. Can change really be as easy as not buying from these places until they change their habits? Will people be willing to do this?
Word Count: 449
There is a simple way to describe the contents of our reading. Schlosser weaves this sentence together beautifully. He states, “There is shit in the meat” (Schlosser 197). Most Americans are aware of food poisoning and how dangerous it is, but many do not know the reasons why it is becoming more and more prominent within our culture, infecting thousands every year. These food borne pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, can be found in “infected animal’s stomach contents or manure” (197) according to Schlosser. The only way for these bacteria to infect the meat would be for them to somehow come in contact with one another, which is a disgusting truth. In the early 20th century, “hamburgers were considered food for the poor” (197) and thought to contain the remains of old worn-out cattle. Sadly, it seems things are much worse than that. Cattle of today are being fed some of the worse things imaginable, which help transmit these fatal pathogens. According to Schlosser, “current FDA regulations allow dead pigs and dead horses to be rendered into cattle feed, along with dead poultry” (202). In addition, “a study published a few years ago in Preventive Medicine notes that in Arkansas alone, about 3 million pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994” (202). Cattle were meant to be raised on the open prairie, feeding on the grass, not bunched in these inhumane feedlots eating chicken poop. I am surprised there has not been a larger outbreak of pathogens within the beef industry. These feedlots are a breeding ground for bacteria. Adding this in with the speed and lack of safety of the slaughterhouses, there is no telling what we consume in our Quarter Pounders, Big Macs, and Whoppers. When confronted about inspecting their cattle for signs of disease, the Beef Trust responded, “Our contention is that in all reasonableness and fairness we are paying all we care to pay” (205). These companies could care less how many human beings they kill, as long as they make a profit. This is no longer free market, its madness. Schlosser describes this as “a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market” (261). If we do not stand up for basic moralities within the market, we will be overrun by the greed of man.
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Schlosser focuses his audience on the proponents of the health issues in the modern meatpacking industry to show how if the problems in the slaughterhouses and factory style work environments were fixed to how animals are supposed to be raised then the problems American consumers and producers are facing today would not be such a burden. The gross living conditions mentioned in “The Most Dangerous Job” lead to problems not only felt by the workers, but by millions of Americans everyday. These problems transform into bigger problems like “roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die” (Schlosser 195). Not all of the diseases can be directly related to the slaughterhouses and livestock conditions, but “much of the increase can be attributed to recent changes in how American food is produced” meaning the “kidneys being pulled out with bare hands” and fecal matter/gray matter/blood that runs ankle deep in the slaughterhouses more than likely have something to do with the conditions that cause deadly diseases in the meat being mainly fed to “children between the ages of seven and thirteen” (Schlosser 170, 198). It’s obviously not the cattle themselves because they seem to be “apparently healthy animals” but the fact that most of the meat, “78.6 percent,” in some form of another comes in to contact with unclean materials, whether it be human or fecal, makes it seem that no wonder millions of people are becoming sick due to the meatpacking industries’ processes of collecting the meat (Schlosser 197). In contrast, the cattle raised by Dale Lasater on a free-range ranch contain “much lower fat than grain fed beef, and has a much stronger, distinctive flavor” (Schlosser 257). If cattle are healthier, and like Argentine cattle, where they are considered “gourmet,” are fed grass, like they are supposed to be, then it should prove beneficial for consumers and producers as cattle are being raised healthier, the meat tastes better, there are no preservatives, and the lethal E. Coli type diseases are less likely to spread in these cattle. word count: 348
ReplyDelete1. If cattle are clearly healthier than wouldn't it cost nearly as much compared to if they created a product at lower quality but higher quantity?
2. If hundreds of people are dying from pre-packeged beef, not even from fast food, then how can companies go unchecked like this?
Why did it take so long for the virus to be found and why wasn’t it completely taken care of?
ReplyDeleteIn the face of a possible epidemic such as the E. coli O157:H7, does government always seek to profit in some way, and why?
Perhaps for the sake of production and profit the 25 million pounds of the ground beef was purposely kept and sold. Many people are infected and killed each year by these pathogen ridden burgers although “much of the increase can be attributed to recent changes in how American food is produced” (Eric Schlosser 195). Eric Schlosser adds, “improper food handling or storage would cause a small group of people in one local area to get sick. Such traditional outbreaks still take place” (Eric Schlosser 195). As it seems, however deadly a virus may be and no matter how it’s spreading, the government is the to profit from it. According to Schlosser, “the U.S. government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam-rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meat packing company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves. The unusual power of the large meatpacking firms has been sustained by their close ties and sizable donations to Republican members of Congress”( 196-197). Apparently, The Clinton administration made effort to support the modernization and the implementation of tough, science-based food inspection. But this motive was not successful because the “Republican party gained control of Congress” (Eric Schlosser 210). And both the “meatpacking industry and the fast food nation industry have been major financial supporters of the Republican Party’s right wing” (Eric Schlosser 210). As if to make matters worse, “the meat packing industry’s allies in Congress worked hard in the 1990’s to thwart modernization of the nation’s meat inspection system”(Eric Schlosser 210). Perhaps the government was the reason why the virus had continued to spread.
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The offences keep piling on the fast food companies, when will they end?
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do to stop this injustice?
At first I was curious as to how the factories that were clean and high-tech were contaminating their beef (and the slimy, smelly chicken was not). Then it occurred to me—in the words of Schlosser, “there is shit in the meat” (197). It is no wonder there is a chance (although small) you could potentially die from eating a fast food hamburger! They do not provide normal, clean living conditions for their “captive stock” so manure is rampant and flowing through their environment just prior to slaughter (201). Everybody knows that cows are herbivores, well, at least they know that cows eat grass or hay or grain or some type of plant—NOT meat. Yet, here the companies are feeding the cattle not only meat, but dead, decaying meat! Schlosser states that “what they are being fed often contributes to the spread of disease” (202). Many studies found that cattle “were routinely fed livestock wastes…remains of dead sheep and dead cattle,” which is cannibalism, “millions of dead cats and dead dogs…sawdust and old newspapers…[and] chicken manure” (202). Are any of those items edible, much less plants and suitable for a healthy and normal cow’s diet? Certainly not. I am not surprised to see that there was an “outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as ‘mad cow disease’” (202). I would go mad too if I had to had in my own feces and eat dead animals and their feces! Even the workers add to the contamination problem when, “in a hurry, tend to forget” to clean and disinfect their knives “every few minutes” or when meat drops on the floor, they “place it right back on the conveyer belt” (203). However, the workers are not entirely to blame, if at all. Schlosser points out that these employees are “overworked, often illiterate” and “do not always understand the importance of good hygiene” because they are the most uneducated, unskilled of the work force. The company singles them out for this job; they do not want someone who will cause them problems and decrease their large profits for the sake of sanitary (and sane) conditions for the cattle and workers alike for the overall benefit of public health. Why? Because they can. The public had been enlightened now—our eyes have adjusted to these harsh, cruel, disgusting realities—and now it is time to change the system that has greatly influenced (for the worse) the meat industry, the food habits of Americans, the health of Americans, the wide-ranged and quick spread of pathogens, the noncompliance of companies to provide in any way for their employees, and the general lifestyle of America. It is time to take a stand.
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In the “Epilogue: Have It Your Way” of Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser recaps many of the issues he presents to the reader and offers his suggestions on how to turn around the fast food industry. One of the aspects of Schlosser’s argument that appeals to me is the emphasis he places on not being labeled as an extremist. By telling the stories of Dale Lasater, and his “nature is smart as hell” (Schlosser 255) attitude toward the beef industry, and of the Conway’s Red Top Restaurant family who operate on the believe that nothing is worth “compromising the values responsible for its success” (258), Schlosser highlights example of real people making it in the real world by producing real food. It’s almost like seeing a rare flower in bloom; it keeps the hope alive that others can grow from their existence. Schlosser acknowledges that it ‘ll take time to make change and that the last thing it will be is easy, but one day living in a society where the people are cared for by the people connected to their food is an entirely attainable goal for the fast food industry to strive for. Schlosser says “there is nothing inevitable about the fast food nation that surrounds us – about its marketing strategies, labor policies, and agricultural techniques, about its relentless drive for conformity and cheapness” (260). What this means is that people got along for centuries, millennia even, without depending on fast food. There is nothing natural about vast, intimidating machinery or “beef contaminated with fecal material, hair, insects, metal shavings, urine, and vomit” (207). The change lies in the hands of the people. It is up to us, students, parents, citizens, workers, and consumers alike, to push legislation that protects us and to support companies that value their customers. Schlosser’s big point is just “it’s not too late” (270).
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How difficult would it be to create a national system of online directories of local organic food options?
When Jamie Oliver tried to change some of the food served in the school system at Huntington, W.V., could he have used the contamination of food throughout American schools to hasten change?
What are the main causes of the spread of food borne illnesses in the United States, and how are the slaughterhouses and feedlots to blame?
ReplyDeleteIn these chapters of the novel, Schlosser examines some of the food borne illnesses that stem from the exposure of beef to contaminated substances, and how the unclean nature of the slaughterhouses in America cause thousands of people to become sick every year. The Ecoli O157:H7 virus is the main concern of Schlosser, and is one of the most dangerous and lethal food borne illnesses found in unclean or contaminated beef. Schlosser blames the mass meatpacking system in America for the spread of many food borne illnesses such as Ecoli O157:H7. Schlosser writes, “The meatpacking system that arose to supply the nation’s fast food chains—an industry molded to serve their needs, to provide massive amounts of uniform ground beef so that all of McDonald’s hamburgers would taste the same—has proved to be an extremely efficient system for spreading disease” (Schlosser 196). Many of the slaughtered cows are exposed to manure while in the slaughterhouses, and the mass slaughter of the cows provides a perfect environment for the spread of bacteria. The feedlots are also thought to be a major problem concerning the spread of food borne illnesses because of their unsanitary conditions, and because what the cattle are being fed. Schlosser writes, “A government health official, who prefers not to be named, compared the sanitary conditions in a modern feedlot to those in a crowded European city during the Middle Ages, when people dumped their chamber pots out the window, raw sewage ran in the streets, and epidemics raged” (Schlosser 201). In these feedlots, cattle are often fed manure from other animals, and are often even fed the rendered remains of sheep or cattle which give rise to many of the well known food borne illnesses. The Clinton administration made an effort to bring an end to the contaminated meat that was being shipped from the meatpacking industries in the United States by implementing a meat testing system. Schlosser writes, “Under the new regulations, every slaughterhouse and processing plant in the United States would by the end of the decade have to implement a government-approved HACCP plan and submit meat to the USDA for microbial testing” (Schlosser 215). However, Clinton’s plan was undermined by the Republican congress, and it was never really successful in its attempt to end the distribution of contaminated meat in America.
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