Fast Food Nation
America prides itself in being the most diverse country in the world, but one of the things Americans have in common is the way they think about capitalism. Capitalism is about increasing money. Americans don’t believe in labor as much as they do in capital. A free market requires just as many buyers as sellers. Although they get the same terms of trade and the same access to information, none have a big enough share in the market to influence prices. The triumph of the free market is basically taking money from the poor and giving it to the wealthy. Fast food has permeated every aspect of American society. Although fast food may seem like the foundation of American culture, it has some serious consequences on society. Rising in the fast food industry caused a noticeable increase in food poisoning, inhumane working conditions in meat packing plants and manipulation of children through television.
Food poisoning has become a large concern in American Society. “In the United States roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized and 14 die”, (195). There is evidence that the risk of food related illnesses have risen and that the consequences are becoming way more severe. There are many factors that contribute to the rise of food borne illnesses but the main one is the change in how food is produced. E coli 0517: H7 is a new pathogen whose spread can be attributed to social and technological changes. Cattle infected with E coli show few signs of illness. This pathogen spreads through America’s food supply with the help of huge feedlots, slaughterhouses and hamburger grinders. In addition to the E coli virus, scientists have discovered many more food borne pathogens. The nations leading agri business firms are against any more food safety regulations. The U.S. government can recall defected baseball bats and toasters but they cannot recall a few thousand pounds of contaminated meat. Food that has been tainted with these viruses had most likely come in contact with an infected animals stomach or manure during processing. In the twentieth century, hamburgers had a bad reputation. It was believed that ground beef was made from putrid meat and heavily laced with chemicals. White Castle decided to change the hamburgers reputation. With its success, White Castle managed to take away some of the social stigma. By the early 1990s, beef production was responsible for about half of the employment in agriculture. In 1993, doctors noticed an increase in the number of children being admitted into the hospital with bloody diarrhea. It turned out that Jack in the Box restaurant was selling contaminated hamburgers. Lauren Rudolph, a six-year-old girl, got poisoned from a hamburger she ate at Jack in the Box. She was admitted in to the hospital on Christmas Eve, suffered three heart attacks and severe cramps and died in her mother’s arms a week later. In 1982 dozens of children became sick from contaminated hamburgers sold at McDonalds. E coli 0157: H7 is a mutation of a bacterium found in the human digestive system. It can release a deadly toxin called a Vera toxin or a Shiga toxin that attacks the lining of the intestines. The Shiga toxins can cause seizures, neurological damage and strokes. Five percent of the children who develop HUS, which can stem from E coli poisoning, can be killed. A six-year-old boy named Alex got sick from eating a contaminated burger. Doctors tried frantically to save his life by drilling holes in his skull and inserting tubes in his chest. Unfortunately Alex passed away five days after being admitted into the hospital. E coli proved to be resistant to antibiotics as well as salt chlorine and acid. It can live in fresh water and in seawater. A tiny UN cooked particle of a hamburger patty can have enough pathogens to kill a person. The most common cause of a food borne illness out break is the consumption of under cooked ground beef. Personal transmission of the virus most commonly occurs around family members, day care centers and senior citizen homes. The cattle in the feedlots become more prone to illnesses. The rise in grain prices, encouraged people to feed their cattle less expensive material. A lot of the cattle in the United States were fed livestock wastes. FDA regulations allow dead pig and horse remains to be put into the cattle feed. The most common way of contaminating meat in a slaughterhouse is removing an animals remains and hide. In their hurry, workers forget to disinfect knives in the factory. The meatpacking and fast food industry have been supporters of the Republicans. The meat packing industry directed most of its campaigned contributions to conservative right winged republicans. The meat packer’s allies in congress worked hard to stop inspection in factories. The Hudson Food out break revealed many flaws in USDA’s inspection policies. Because Harding still kept the box of contaminated meat patties, specialists were able to figure out that they were contaminated with E coli. The company made no attempts to warn the public about the recall for the patties for three weeks until USDA found another contaminated box. If a company decided to pull contaminated meat off the market it is not obligated to tell the public. Wendy’s wanted to recall 250,000 pounds of ground beef without notifying health officials. Both the USDA and meat packing industry argue that details about where a company has distributed its meat must not be revealed to the public to protect the firms trade secrets. Some of the most questionable meat has been bought by the USGA and self to school cafeterias. The cheapest beef was the most likely to be contaminated. Recently an eleven-year-old boy became sick by eating a contaminated burger at his school cafeteria. In the summer of 1999 a ground beef plant in Dallas failed a series of USDA tests for Salmonella. The tests showed that about 47% of the meat was contaminated. Supreme Beef responded by suing USDA, saying that Salmonella was a natural organism not an adulterant. In May 2000, Judge Fish claimed that the presence of Salmonella was not proof that the conditions at the plant were unsanitary. The ruling casts doubts on USDA’s ability to withdraw inspectors from a plant whose tests showed excessive levels of contamination.
