Global Mac

Globalization of the hamburger ! That McDonalds is worldwide, the McDonald brothers and their offspring are wondering if ,We only held on to that 5% interest !? The last McDonalds I read about opening was in France at an exclusive up scale mall next to the Louvre museum. The French people thought it was a disgrace to the world class museum that a McD's was allowed to be in the same class as great works of art. France is the second largest market for McDonalds next to the United States (NPR, 2009 October).
The first concentration camp the Nazis opened was Dachau, were gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, and political opponents were imprisoned( Schlosser, ch.10,p.233). McDonalds, in poor judgement decided to open up a resturaunt! I think this was a poor choice and disrespectful to the victims and to the survivors.
You can drive from East to the west coast and see the golden arches every thirty minutes while driving. I saw the same thing when I was in Germany and driving down the Autobohn. McDonalds is every where and is known by small children of all countries. Saudi Arabia,Kuwait,Yemen,Italy,Hondurous all these countries have McD's and other American fast food available, I have had lunch at most of them . Do you think that the same stories would be written by Schlosser if he interviewed workers and suppliers over seas?

E.coli O 157:H7

I think this chapter can also be called everything you did not want to know about E.coli O 157:H7, but were afraid to ask. The quality of meats served in fast food industry has to be safer than Schlosser makes it out to be in chapter nine. The massive amount of burgers sold per year compared to the amount of E. coli O 157:H7 reported has to be very low or they hide reported cases very well. Schlosser pointed out that Jack in the box had an E.coli O 157:H7 outbreak that received allot of media headlines, which almost but them out of business (p.199). McDonald's just flat out denied any E. coli O157H7 burgers made anyone sick. Denial, the first line of defense if you are ever caught doing anything wrong. Upton Sinclair wrote about the conditions in slaughterhouses in 1906 the same way Schlosser wrote about them in this book. I feel not much has changed since 1906 in the slaughterhouses, or in our government perspective of providing safe meat to the consumer. Schlosser wrote that when "Anyone who brings raw ground beef into their kitchen today must regard it as a potential biohazard"(p.221).Meat is not the only food that can have E. coli O 157:H7, Spinich, scallions,tomato's and penut butter have been recalled for E.coli O 157:H7. Schlosser maybe right about the beef, but is leading his readers astrayfrom the whole truth about E. coli O157:H7. I used E. coli O 157:H7 Eight times in my blog, Schlosser used E.coli O 157:H7 sixty-five times in chapter nine. How many did you count?

Dangerous jobs

Schlosser description of the slaughterhouse was the exact same thing I saw when I toured a slaughterhouse. The assembly line of death was amazing to watch. Live animals walk in on their own and ten minutes later their on hook, dead and traveling down the line.
Schlosser interview on sharp knives (p.172) again re-enforces the tragic work environment that these workers endure to earn a living. The labor intensive job of cutting up meat at a pace that seems gruelling and beyond impossible to maintain day to day. Just think about it the next time you go to the grocery store and pick up that shrink wrapped package of meat, what had to happen before it ened up in the meat section at your grocery store.
The cleaning crew job is sofar the worst job mentioned yet in the book. Schlosser gives detailed discription of the hazard they deal with every day. Schlosser states the fatal tragedies of cleaning crews,the dismemberment,head injuries, arms severed and other permenant injuries the workers deal with and yet others replace them (p.178).
Kenny! Southpark! Kenny is a blind , loyal, don't bit the hand that feeds you type employee the company wants more of. Kenny is the typical stereo type that Schlosser has been writting about through every chapter we have read. Loyalty is in one direction, employee to the company. Companies can not see all of the faces of their employees and it makes it easier to treat people without emotion and without respect. Kenny is a prime example of this type of corporate loyalty.