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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA 394.12 Schlosser, E. 2006 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Kids love fast food. And the fast food industry definitely loves kids. It couldn't survive without them. Did you know that the biggest toy company in the world is McDonald's? It's true. In fact, one out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast food restaurant.
Not only has fast food reached into the toy industry, it's moving into our schools. One out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand name fast food. But do kids know what they're eating? Where do fast food hamburgers come from? And what makes those fries taste so good?
When Eric Schlosser's best-selling book, Fast Food Nation, was published for adults in 2001, many called for his groundbreaking insight to be shared with young people. Now Schlosser, along with co-writer Charles Wilson, has investigated the subject further, uncovering new facts children need to know.
In Chew On This, they share with kids the fascinating and sometimes frightening truth about what lurks between those sesame seed buns, what a chicken 'nugget' really is, and how the fast food industry has been feeding off children for generations.
Featuring cover art by M. Wartella.
Author Notes
Eric Schlosser, a contributing editor at the Atlantic Monthly, won a National Magazine Award for an article he wrote on strawberry picking for that magazine. His work has been nominated for several other National Magazine Awards and for the Loeb Award for business journalism.
(Publisher Provided)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-An important addition to most libraries. Useful for health classes and nutrition units, it will also be an eye-opener for general readers who regularly indulge at the Golden Arches. An adaptation of Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (Houghton, 2001), Chew on This covers the history of the fast-food industry and delves into the agribusiness and animal husbandry methods that support it. From the 37-day life of the pre-McNugget chicken to the appallingly inhumane conditions of slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, the author lays out the gruesome details behind the tasty burgers and sandwiches. Equally disturbing is his revelation of the way that the fast-food giants have studied childhood behavior and geared their commercials and "free" toy inclusions to hook the youngest consumers. The text is written in a lively, lay-out-the-facts manner. Occasional photographs add bits of visual interest, but the emphasis here is on the truth about soda pop and obesity, fries and lies. Schlosser is a crusader writing with an obviously strong purpose. While at times veering toward the inflammatory edge, he backs up and documents all of his points, ensuring that his insights will incite. Those seeking a book to balance this one should consider Tracy Brown Collins's Fast Food (Gale, 2004), a collection of 10 essays representing varied opinions about different aspects of this industry.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The author of Fast Food Nation partners with Wilson to serve up a stinging, often startling expos? on this country's pervasive, lucrative fast-food industry, for young people. The book's scope is exhaustive and sometimes exhausting, starting with a history of the hamburger, the advent of drive-in restaurants and the debut and mushrooming of McDonald's. The text dwells on this chain's effective if manipulative marketing campaigns aimed at children, noting that its outlets disperse more than 1.5 billion toys annually. The book also covers the plight of fast-food restaurant workers; the steep mark-up on fast-food items; the low nutritional value of many school cafeteria menus featuring fast food; and the fast-food industry's ample contribution to America's obesity epidemic. Making for sometimes unpleasant though undeniably edifying reading is a lengthy account of how the animals that provide fast food meats are fed, slaughtered and processed. In some cases, the subtitle's promise comes through in inadvertent ways, as the narrative provides perhaps an overabundance of details. But in the end, Schlosser and Wilson leave readers with a powerful suggestion that "the solution starts with you," urging them to consider the ramifications of placing an order at a fast-food counter, thereby setting into motion "the ripple effect near and far." Many who have digested the information dished out here will do as the convincing authors hope: head for the exit. Copious endnotes document sources of statistics and statements. Ages 11-13. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) ""The impact of McDonald's on the way we live today would be hard to overstate,"" wrote Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, his persuasive expos+ of the far-reaching negative effects of the fast-food industry, published for adults in 2001. Unfortunately, this adaptation and update of that material for young people, though filled with similarly eye-opening, stomach-turning information, sometimes goes overboard in its zeal to convince readers of the evils of the heavily processed, fat- and salt-laden fare many of them consume every day. Granted, the aggressive marketing of junk food to children is reprehensible. Schlosser and Wilson ably make this case with evidence such as fast food's infiltration of school lunch programs and Coca Cola's advertising stunt of flying an Alaskan NBA star into remote Yupik villages to hand out soda to kids who have little access to dentists and, due to their increasingly modern diets, a high incidence of tooth decay. The authors also paint a convincing picture of unjust working conditions for fast-food workers, many of whom are teens, and employees at meatpacking plants and company-owned farms. But overall the arguments here are more strident and less nuanced than in Fast Food Nation, with the result that the corporations can seem sinister to a ridiculous degree. A later chapter grudgingly notes the healthier menu options now offered at many fast-food chains, saying this shift may ""reflect a sincere concern for the well-being of their customers"" or it may just be a ""public relations effort to avoid blame for America's obesity epidemic."" These extremes leave out a third, more pragmatic explanation -- that shrewd businesses aim to give customers what they want. With black-and-white photos and comprehensive endnotes. Index not seen. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-9. Including passages from Schlosser's best-selling adult book Fast Food Nation0 (2001) and other writings, the authors dish up a somewhat-less-stomach-churning look at the fast-food industry's growth, practices, and effects on public health. Folding in original interviews, recent statistics, and published research, along with such spicy taglines as "The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross," they trace the hamburger's early years and the evolution of the McDonald's Corporation's revolutionary Speedee Service System. They follow with vivid tours through feedlots, abattoirs, and a chicken-processing plant to explore how fast food has achieved spectacular international success, particularly among an increasingly obese youth market, then round off with glimpses of Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard initiative and other alternatives less likely to lead to gastric bypass surgery. Readers may not lose their appetites for McFood from this compelling study, but they will definitely come away less eager to get a McJob and more aware of the diet's attendant McMedical problems. Extensive endnotes, occasional photos. --John Peters Copyright 2006 Booklist