Fast Food Nation Chapter 9: What's in the Meat

1. What kind of meat is selected for consumption in public schools?

-The USDA selects the cheapest ground beef available for public school consumption. This kind of meat is the mostly likely to be produced in factories where cleanliness and sanitation are foreign words and harmful bacteria, like E. coli 0157:H7 are in abundance. I understand the pecuniary logistics behind buying cheap meat, but it still strikes me as inhumane that the USDA would subject the nation's youth to such a dangerous threat.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of irradiating meat?

- Irradiating meat involves blasting the carcass with gamma radiation, disrupting the DNA of viruses like E. coli and preventing them from reproducing. It virtually stops a virus in its tracks. However, the maintenance of these machines would be handled by illiterate, non-English speaking peoples, making it quite dangerous.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 8: The Most Dangerous Job

1. How does the injury rate in meat packing compare with the injury rate in other occupations?

-The injury rate in modern slaughterhouses is three times higher than that of the average American factory. That number may not be entirely accurate either; thousands of less noticeable, but just as debilitating, injuries go unreported. Its astounding that unlike every other occupation that has developed over the past few hundred years, this job's safety level has deteriorated. With the increase in production and line speeds, injuries have become far more common than every before in the meat packing industry.

2. What kinds of injuries do workers in meatpacking plants typically suffer?

-Lacerations, tendinitis, back and shoulder problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and "trigger finger", along with pinched nerves, herniated disks, fractured or broken bones, injuries requiring amputations, and torn muscles are just a few of the many injuries that can be accumulated while working in the slaughterhouses.

3. Why don't more workers complain about safety conditions in the plants?

-They know that the managers of the plants get bonuses based on injury reports. The more injuries reported, the smaller the bonus given to the plant manager. So, plant managers make life very hard for employees who come forward about injuries that are not visible, like pinched nerves or fractured disks. They make examples out of honest employees and encourage injured employees to not report it.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 7: Cogs In The Great Machine

1.Why were newer meat packing plants located in rural areas rather than in cities?

-Meat packing plants are "put..close to feedlots--and far way from the urban strongholds of nation's labor unions". This kept the labor unions from investigating the brutal conditions of the meat packing plant as easily, and also allowed them to use trucks, instead of railroads, for transporting the meat.

2. How do wages in meat packing plants today compare with wages in the early 1900s, after the workers became unionized?

-Meatpacking butchers in the early 1900s organized many unions, hoping to improve the wages of this dangerous job. After World War 2, their wages improved tremendously, "exceeding the national average for workers in manufacturing". After Iowa Beef Packers, IBP, opened their meat packing industry, incorporating the McDonald's Speedee Service System into the meat packing industry, these wages were cut again. They de-skilled every job required by butchers, allowing them to employ immigrants who took much lower wages. It's still a high paying job, with above average income, but its still very dangerous.

3. What is the impact on small communities of having a meat packing firm?

-When IBP opened a new slaughterhouse in Lexington, Nebraska, in 1990, the effect was astounding. The crime rate soared, the town became a major distribution center for drugs, gangs ran rampant, and the whites of the town left, leaving the Hispanic population to become the majority. The slaughterhouse brought in many illegal immigrants, and many of the problems faced by towns harboring illegal aliens, with it.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 6: On the Range

1. How does the nutritional value of a McNugget compare with that of a hamburger?

- McNuggets, now made with "100% percent white meat", are now a integral part of the American

diet. McDonald's may advertise them as the healthiest part of the menu, but in reality, they are just

as disastrously unhealthy as the rest of the choices. Researchers found that their "fatty acid

profile" resembled beef, rather than poultry. They contain two times as much fat per ounce than

the regular McDonald's hamburger. They now incorporate beef tallow into their vegetable oil to

retain that familiar taste that America's youth knows and loves.

2. How does the suicide rate for ranchers and farmers compare with the rate for U.S. citizens in general?

- The rate of suicide for farmers and ranchers is about three times higher than that of regular U.S. citizens. Ranchers' ways of life have been destroyed with the homogenization of the cattle, pork, and poultry market, and therefore, the death toll has been steadily mounting in rural areas. This issue, like many of the problems resulting from fast food, has been almost completely ignored since the farm crisis of 1980.

3. What are "captive supplies" of cattle?

- Captive supplies are products that are supplies (surprisingly) not actually owned by a company but used by companies at the expense of those who actually own the supplies. Usually, the market for captive supplies, such as cattle, are controlled by several large corporations. In the case of cattle, ConAgra, IBP, Excel, and National Beef. These companies usually illegally collude and dominate the market together, as shown by the case of the Beef Trust of the early 1900s. Now, laws have been passed to make sure that the beef market is not monopolized like it was before, but this hardly stopping the companies. Cattle are owned by independent ranchers, who get paid by companies to raise them and prepare them for the slaughterhouse. Since beef consumption has declined in recent years, farmers have taken the advice of agribusinesses and given their cattle growth hormones. According to some ranchers, captive supplies of cattle are used to control the cattle market, and not improve slaughterhouse efficiency, as stated by the four major beef companies.