The Faults of The Fast Food Industries in "Jungle" and "Fast Food Nation"

Fast food can is a relatively new industry that serves fast, cheap, and oftentimes unhealthy food. Eric Schlosser wrote a book called Fast Food Nation in which all of the fast food industries faults are exposed. Many people do not know all the short, and long terms effects that the fast food corporations can leave on our whole Earth’s environment. Something as small as killing more animals than needed for production can change the environment slightly, but then assuming the ripple effect everything changes due to the overkill.

From what Schlosser wrote about it was exposed that many fast food corporations have been accused of unsanitary kitchens, but worse than that they have been known to have below standard slaughterhouses and meat. It would be expected that the meat you eat in a cheeseburger is genuine one hundred percent beef. The citizens who eat fast food became concerned when the food started making people become sick. This is more alarming due to the fact that this means the cows themselves were sick to begin with. Cows and chickens become sick by eating unsanitary food, drinking spoiled or unclean water, and also can become sick by living in unbearable factories. The animals that are made for eating most of the time live very close to one another to maximize the space available. The animals produce extreme amounts of feces and odor so these facilities that the animals are grown in are very unsanitary. so if one cow becomes sick the illness quickly spreads throughout the whole facility. A main concern of fast food companies needs to be to keep the meat safe and tasty.

There are many ways in that fast food corporations harm our world’s environment. The main way is in the un proper disposal of all of the food packaging. A meal from a fast food restaurant can contain a plastic cup, paper wrappers, plastic bag, and other materials. If somebody gets a meal from the drive though they sometimes throw the wrappers out of the vehicle when they are done eating. This can first off harmful to the soil, but it can more severely harm the environments wild life. When and gets caught in a plastic bag it could choke, or get hurt. Fast food also poses the risks of giving humans health concerns such as obesity or increasing the risk of diabetes. Fast food companies like the say that the customers are potentially putting themselves at these risks, and that they as a company are not to take the blame. Another extreme environmental risk from fast food businesses is global warming. Where the animals are kept in factories gives of huge waves of heat that can greatly affect the countries, and even the whole worlds global warming.

Upton Sinclair studied the meatpacking industry in Chicago. While doing this observation it was discovered how unsanitary this business really was, and how unfairly and ridiculous these workers were treated. To have the best efficiency from employees the employer must make the working conditions safe and consistent. In the past meat packing industries have paid workers very little, and have made them work in unreasonable conditions. In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed the unhealthy ways of the meatpacking industry. Some of the tactics from the meatpacking industry harm the environment. All of the excess plastic, and guts are wrongly dumped into our environment.

At the time the novel was written the entire city of Chicago was basically built on literal garbage. The meatpacking factories had floors covered in guts and limbs from the animals which had been slaughter. If the meat was not used immediately, it was set aside most of the time. The good news is that the extra meat did not always go to waste, sometimes the expired and diseased old meat was sold for slightly cheaper prices at market. The good meat that was being packaged was often mixed or confused with the expired leftover meat and sent off with no special warning label. Packaging expired meat also used more plastic than what was actually needed and this harms the environment and can make things toxic. Pollution from making these plastics and meat harm all of the air in the environment and can affect all of the wildlife.

The novels The Jungle and Fast Food Nation were big eye openers for the customers of packaged meats, and the entire fast food industry. People were more hesitant while grabbing a quick drive through burger, eating the meal, and then throwing it out the window to help harm the environment. After the books were published and talked about throughout the world, both industries did in fact respond by attempting to improve their ways.

The meatpacking industry has improved to become better for the environment, and has started to become a cleaner work place. Another flaw of the industry is a very unsafe working place, but know the meatpacking industry is making changes to become a safer day to day work place. Fast food corporations are becoming better also. Rather than using styrofoam and plastic, they have become more aware of the harms of these materials and are now using more paper. Paper can still harm the environment, but it can also easily be recycled and degrades faster than plastic. Both industries still are bad for the environment rather it be global warming, or more noticeably the unhealthy disregard of waste and garbage.