“The Meaning Of Mad Cow”
The last part of the book actually culminates with the worse possible scenario to the story of “fast food.” The author uses, at the end of the last paragraph, the most perfect words to describe what the fast food industry has become, which is “human arrogance and blind worship of science.” With all it’s technology and the race for the next quick way to make money, the industry has done everything it possibly could do to make a quick buck, at the expense of those it is serving, the consumer. The dangers that their employees are exposed to, whether it is the employees at the slaughterhouses or at the fast food restaurants, are so blatantly slave-like.
Throughout the book, I learned about a whole different world. From Disney and the treatment of the employees when they decided to strike because they wanted to unionize to the treatment and conditions of the employees at McDonald’s, and the use of young people and unskilled migrant adults. The fact that the labor laws do not apply to them, is so “UnAmerican.” I cannot understand how McDonald’s, and other fast food restaurants, have so much pull that this can happen.
I feel that McDonald’s is deceitful in naming their kids meals “Happy Meals” when the people that made that meal happen can’t possibly be happy with the way the working hours are, and of course, no benefits. Fortunately, my daughter is a vegetarian and does not like to get her meals at fast food places. If anything, she likes the rice bowls at Jack In the Box, but orders it without the chicken.
Throughout the whole time I read this book, I wondered if the author was a disgruntled employee. He really dug deep and got to the nitty gritty of the ugliness of how these founders of these fast food restaurants worked their way through the heart of America and established themselves as “The American Way.” I am ashamed of them and I feel that they are not worthy of my business. It has been a long time since I have had a McDonald’s cheeseburger, and I think it will be an even longer time, now, if at all, if I am to frequent the place in the near future.
