Chew On This – Informational Writing
“Your Way”
Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson’s book Chew on This reveals the secrets of fast food, describing how it is made, what it is made of, and what it does to the body. Chew on This unveils the immoralities of the companies that produce and sell fast food, such as the lengths that they go to in order to make money. But the last chapter, “Your Way”, implies that fast food companies will not change their ways, provides alternatives to fast food, and encourages the public to take action if they want change.
“Your Way” starts off with the topic of fast food in foreign countries, and how America’s fast food companies are dependent on them for the “majority of [their] profit” (236, 1). However, when the mad cow disease emerged, foreigners lost trust in the meat industry (241, 2). This, and the increasing criticism of how companies did their work, led to the creation of strict animal welfare rules (243, 1). This triggered fast food companies into appearing healthier, although this was more likely an attempt to appeal to the public, and to make their food seem less harmful. This could “simply be a public relations effort to avoid blame for America’s obesity epidemic” (244, 2). Thus, this means that even with new rules in place, which aim to enforce good, fast food companies will not change. They will always have advertising schemes, for the single goal of making profit. They also will not become like the healthier restaurants later mentioned in the chapter.
