FFN

Response to Fast Food Nation

I cannot say I am at all surprised by what I read in Fast Food Nation. For the most part my expectation has been realized. Any text that deals with a developing facet of culture usually addresses the subject matter with a critical lens. That is to say, books are hardly ever written about the greater benefit of something that is making a few people rich or lots of people unhealthy. This is of course generally speaking.

More specifically I wonder what people expect from a meat packing facility under a system such as ours where profitability is of top concern. Industry spokespeople may insist that safety is the top concern of American meat providers, but I think safety is only an issue inasmuch as it can cost a lot of money if meat born disease kills someone and lawsuits are brought up using words like “criminally negligent” and “profiteering.” One could easily graph the money needed to make meat completely safe (for the consumer and the worker) and how much lawsuits against a company would cost to come to a best-fit ratio of dollars-invested-in-safety to profitability. I gaurentee that is exactly how much money is invested in safe guarding employees and the more-important consumer. It is not feasible to deliver a product as voluminous as meat and do so cheaply and as safely as humanly possible.

This is sadly the reality of the world we live in, and unless one wishes to pay 25 dollars for a cheeseburger, the one we will have to live in.