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//**__Plot:__**// The plot of Fast Food Nation is simple. The book starts with introductions of the fast food industry and all of the work that goes into it. From the begenning of growing the food to the finished product in the resturaunt. This part of the novel looked indepth to more of the vertical consolidation of a fast food chain, looking at stops that the food product takes along the way to being eaten. Next came the actual steps to making the food within the resturaunt. In this part of the book everything from clenliness to working conditions was scrutinized by Schlosser. Some fast food chains were found to be in prestine condition with healthy food, good service, and clean resturaunts, other resturaunt chains looked... a little bit ugly... //__**Author's goal**:__// The author's goal was to conduct research through surveys and statistics to uncover the truth about what goes into fast food and how it has changed our society as a whole in both positive and negative ways//.// //**__Analysis/Predictions:__**// __Introduction:__ Over the last 30 years the fast food industry has boomed. The author talks about how resturaunt corporations now take in about half of the money spent by adults every year. the introduction mainly focuses on general stats about the money distribution and how it has changed in the fast food industy over the last several decades. Some examples of these stats are in the Mcdonald organization. One in every eight americans can say that at one time or another they have worked for Mcdonalds. Also, Mcdonals is responsible for 90% of new jobs in america each year. I predict the rest of the book will focus on these type of stats but will go more in depth to specific parts of the fast food industry. __Chapter 1:__ This chapter is all about the founding fathers of the fast food industry. the man who really got things going was Carl Karcher. he moved to L.A. and bought a hot dog cart and every thing snowballed from there. He eventuall opened a BBQ resturaunt of his own. Also, he discovered that in Los Angeles, the car industy was booming which led to more fast food being consumed. L.A. had more cars at that time than total in 41 of the other states in america. The fast food resturaunt buildings transofmed from simple to complexly dacorated on the outside. At this time the Mcdonald brother were just getting started with their resturaunt that would eventuall become the fast food leader. other fast food resturaunts that were just getting stareted were Dunkin' Donuts,Wendy's, KFC, and Taco Bell.I predict that the next chapter will go into depth about how these first resturaunts evolved into the monumental industy that fast food is today. __Chapter 2:__ This chapter starts out explaining the vast empire of McDonalds including its headquarters, museum, and university where franchise owners go to learn how to sucsessfully operate their own resturaunt. The McDonald brothers sold their already sucessful business to Ray Kroc. Quality service, value, and clenliness are the words of Ray Kroc that he wanted his resturaunts to run on and set the example for many other fast food chains after him. Kroc caught critisism when he convinced the government to allow him and other fast food industries to pay 16 and 17 year olds 20% less than older workers. Among other things, this chapter states how children are the largest common group of people that salesmen like Kroc targets. They use many different types of advertising teqniques. television commercials, toys in happy meals, and the use of playgrounds at the resturaunts provide an inticing persuation used to get kids to but into McDonalds. I predict that the next chapter will talk more about other smaller fast food chains since this chapter talked mostly the McDonals corporation. __Chapter 3:__ In Clorado Springs, there are many industries. the largest is the resturaunt business. The author indicates how most of the workers at fast food joints are teenagers. this is beacuse they are willing to work for lower wages and dont need much skill to perform their jobs. Apart feom teenagers, immigrants comprise the workforce for fast food. Eniglish is a secondary language for about 17% of fast food workers. the fast food resturaunts rely on a factory like assembly line to get work done. the author interviewed high school students who work at fast food resturaunts. they said they would never consider forming a union, just because quitting and finding another job is easier. I predict that the next chapter will talk about other CEO's of large fast food chains because this chapter focused mainly on their employees. __Chapter 4:__ The author starts out this chapter by riding with a pizza delivery guy through a town called Pueblo in Colorado. this is just one example of the extensive research the author did to write this novel. Pueblo is quickly producing fast food chains in its city. He visits a Little Ceasars pizza joint owned by a former NHL player. he only made $300 a week while being trained. he had to pay a fee of $15,000 to won a franchise. Franchising businesses has been around scince the 1800's. I predict the next chapter will talk about how fanchises of all sorts of industries has changed America. __Chapter 5:__ This chapter begins with the J.R. Simplot potatoe plants in Idaho. this man grew up in the early 1900's working on his familie's farm. from a young age he built his potatoe empire becoming one of the largest shippers of the potatoe in the U.S. he eventually made millions selling potatoes and dried unions to the military during world war II. Simplot is the one who first stareted selling french fies to Mcdonals and is known to have revolutionized the french fries market. The chapter mainly revolves around the ingredients that go into french fries like lots of salt that makes them taste better. At Mcdonalds french fries became far more profitable then ham and cheeseburgers. Schlosser stated that the french fries are all bought and made the same way. What makes Mcdonald's taste better? It is the secret mixture in the oil they are fried in. The Mcdonald's fries had more saturated fat per ounce than one of their Hamburgers.The process for producing a french fry is as follows: truck bring the harvested potatoes into the factory to be cleaned. Next they are sliced into the fry shape.Finally, they are fried and shipped off to various resturaunts like Mcdonalds. I predict that the next chapter will talk about other foods that have changed the fast food industry like the chicken mcnugget. __Chapter 6:__ In the begenning of this chapter, Schlosser visits with a Colorado Springs rancher named Hank. on the tour of the ranch Hank tells Schlosser how there is a difference between rasing cattle the right and wrong way. Hank says he raises his cattle in a way that does not destory the land, unlike much of his cattle raising competition. the next section is about the breaking up of the beef trust. this is where 5 beef producing companies had a monopoly. the trust was eventually broken up. this allowed companies to sell meat at competitive prices for a long time.In 1983 Mcdonalds created the chicken mcnugget. One month later the corporation was one of the largest buyers of chicken anywhere. mcdonalds created the mcnugget because they were watching the nation consume more and more poultry. this was seen as a problem for a company that only sold burgers. I predict that the next chapter will talk about the speifics of percentages of the different resturaunt chains and their annual sales. __Chapter 7__: Schlosser starts out this chapter in Greely, Colorado. this town used to be a quiet little place but now it reeks of dead animals and manure. A large meat packing company ame to Greely and took over everything. Today, the Greely plant is one of the largest suppliers of meat to fast food resturaunt chains. The process for meat packing is as follows: first, the cattle are shipped by rail, next they are slaughtered and cut, finally they are shipped to various franchises around the country. Omaha city, kansas city, and chicago are three of the largest meat packing cities in america. At the end of the chapter the book shows an example of a union coming together for rights for its workers. The Greely workers formed a union and fought for better wages. I predict that the next chapter will talk about the process of making a hamburger scince this chapter talked all about the process. __Chapter 8__: In this chapter the author takes a tour of another meat packing plant to see what working conditions are like. When he starts out everything seems to look normal but as he moves deeper and deeper into the plant, things begin to change. The cattle are held in a pen that iis very small and is covered in manure. some of the women in the plant are working so hard that they are sweating even though they are in 35 degree temperatures. in some places the blood dripping from the dead cattle hanging from chains that are moving is so thick on the floor that it goes up to your ankles. Also you have to dodge these moving cattle as they are moving very fast. sometimes people get hit and fall to the bloody floor. an interesting thing to note is that anyone who has to have an arm amputated recives 36,000 dollars for their troubles. I predict the next chapter will talk about working conditions inside of the actual resturaunts themselves. __Chapter 9__: This chapter talks all about foodborne illnesses that come from packaged beef. one man who tested positive for E coli led to a very large re call of meat. Hudson foods in 1997 recalled about 35 million pounds of meat inflicted with E coli. unfortunatley, about 25 million pounds of the same meat had alredy been consumed by americans every where. Every day in america 200,000 people are made sick by diseases like E coli. Aout 900 of those people go to the hospital and 14 will die. I predict that the next chapter will talk about foodborne illnesses that come from franchises like Mcdonalds and Wendys. __Chapter 10:__ Plauen was a town in Germany that had been bombed during the Cold war. McDonalds opened a resturaunt there in 1990. This was the first chain of McDonalds stores that opened in Germany. The fast food industry is booming in the United States. However the big time chains are looking to open resturaunts in countries elsewhere to increase profit. For example the McDonalds corporation only had about 3000 resturaunts outside of America. Today they have about 17,000 in about 120 countries. I predict nothing considering this is the end of the book. //**__Muckraking theme connection:__**// This book relates to muckracking for ingseveral reasons. First the book mainly revolves around Ray Kroc and the Mcdonalds corporation. Kroc was a real captain of industry leading his resturaunt chain to the top making lots of money but leaving room for competition in the mean time. finally, the whole idea of the book is about "muck rackers." Whether it was the CEO of a resturaunt chain or some one affecting the industry in a small way like all of the people creating new foods, systems of operations, or even the "worker bees" in the resturaunts making the fast food industry one of the largest industries in the world.
 * __Fast Food Nation__**