Blog 3: The End of Overeating

In present day America the obesity rate is rising every year, it has been in a steady increase for the past forty years or so. America has earned the label 'fattest' country on the planet for this steady rise. In the book 'The End of Overeating' by David A. Kessler, MD, he goes into detail about why Americans are gaining so much weight, other than the obvious overeating. Kessler goes in depth in how the brain functions when certain foods are consumed, how psychologically connected food is with our mental functions, and as well as describing different experiments where the outcomes were valid evidences of what people and animals prefer, which are fats and sugar. Kessler provides the evidence of a study in which the reinforcing attributes of fat and sugar were tested on rats, the person who conducted these experiments was a scientist by the name of Sara Ward. In an experiment Ward demonstrated how much a rat would work for a reward by giving it a task, and it was usually a repetitive task. She was later asked,"The breaking point at which the animals will no longer work for the reward, she told me, is slightly lower than the breaking point for cocaine (Kessler, Chap.6, page.31)." This right here means that sugar and fat can be as addictive as drugs. I believe that this passage is extremely important because it does not only make a connection between food being as addictive as drugs, but it also points out that since children are exposed to all these addictive foods and such a young age it is obvious to why obesity is rising. Obesity in America is rising because we're allowing children access their own drugs, drugs that make they're health unstable, drugs that make them most likely addictive for life, and those drugs are candy, fast food, soda, anything that is loaded with sugar, loaded with fat, or even loaded with both.

Blog Two

The turnover rates in the fast food industry is about 300 to 400 percent. This is described in Fast Food Nation on pg. 73. It's Ironic how a company that fires so many employees demands as many in return. It's very interesting to know that the fast food industry has some of the highest homicide and robberies, and yet there are no reports on the crimes and barely any evidence shown in the news unless its in a small community. "In 1998, more restaurant workers were murdered on the job... than police officers (Fast Food Nation, 83) ." How is it that these statistics aren't being given to the public to aware us of the possible dangers of this line of work? When you enlist for the military, becoming a doctor, flying a plane, or even becoming a cop you're told of the risks and dangers of your work field. So why are future employees unaware of the potential risks that their jobs may contain?

Crime rate.

Looking at the fast food industries from the outside in all you seem to notice is the food and how it is made. Just brushing the surface and never really getting to the bottom of the issues that industry factories and fast food establishments actually create. One of the major issues is how crime rate mysteriously increases after the arrival of farm factories. The town of Lexington, Nebraska is depicted as a place with nice scenery and modest Victorian homes, but looks are very deceiving in this town since the arrival of a well known company. " In 1990, IBP opened a slaughterhouse in Lexington. A year later, the town, with a population of roughly seven thousand, had the highest crime rate in the state of Nebraska. (Fast Food Nation,165)." It's amazing how a lot of the crime that occurs around or to these companies are unnoticed. Fast food industries have some of the highest robbery/murder rates in the country and the crimes are done by former employees majority of the time."The FBI does not compile nationwide statistics on restaurants robberies, and the restaurant industry will not disclose them(86)." The president of the National Safe Workplace Institute stated, "No other industry is robbed so frequently by it's own employees (86)." The crimes are almost never disclosed to the public, there are no statistics on how many workers are murdered on the job or the robberies that occur every year. Anyone say, "Let's not scare future employees away?"

Class Assignment #1

            The liberties of workers throughout the nation are almost always protected by the creation of unions and the settlement of legal matters through the unions. One company that has been notorious for years by dodging unionized workers is McDonald's. On February 21, 1998, a Mcdonald's in St. Hubert, Montreal, Canada closed weeks before a union was finalized, leaving all the workers without jobs. The reason behind the closing was "... restaurant was a money loser.."(77), even though is was in the same location for seventeen years.  A Canadian editorial was quoted by Eric Schlosser, "Did somebody say McUnion?... Not if they want to keep their McJob"(Fast Food Nation, 77). Mcdonald's has been known to follow a procedure where if a union was suspected of forming experienced managers and corporate executives would be flown to the restaurants and start "rap sessions"(76).These sessions consisted of the flown in experts listening to the employees promising better situations if the names of the employees planning the union were disclosed. The discovered employees would later be fired. If Plan A didn't work then Plan B would be enforced. Plan B would be the closing of the jeopardized restaurant and the firing of all it's workers,"... During the early 1970s,... in Lansing,Michigan. All crew members fired,...restaurant was shut down, a new one was built...,...workers who'd signed union cards were not rehired..."(77).

Blog assignment One

              Many ideals are expressed and defended when the point of views are strong and reasonable. Eric Schlosser In his novel, "Fast Food Nation", describes and depicts some of the upbringing of the fast food industry and how they function. He also gives information and reveals the methods behind some of their campaign strategies that are directed towards the population and potential consumer.

              In the novel, "Fast Food Nation", Eric Schlosser describes how the nation's fast food and entertainment industries have been almost completely molded behind the ideals Ray Kroc, the man who franchised McDonald's, and Walt Disney, America's most beloved figure of joy and fantasy. Walt Disney started his business when he purchased a studio in Hollywood, California. There he hired workers and had them each work on an individual animation productions,had a supervisor oversee the production, and time how long it took each of the workers to complete the animation. This was a method used in automobile factories, assembly lines, which Walt Disney adopted and applied it to products of his early creations.Ray Kroc caught wind of the idea and decided as well to adopt the method and it was a huge success on his part as well. As soon as a McDonald's used the methods competitors soon mimicked, making fast food production faster and less costly.

              Walt Disney and Ray Kroc were one of the first businessmen to catch on to the idea that marketing to consumers at a young age would provide a consumer most likely for life. This type of advertising is later deemed "cradle to the grave (43)" campaigning. Walt and Ray realized that "brand loyalty (43)" can begin as early as the age of two. An age where researchers found that children, in present day, can recognize brand logos before they can actually recognize their own names. In a memo that Eric Schlosser had acquired it says, "... challenge of the campaign... is to make customers believe that McDonald's is their 'Trusted Friend'... (50)"

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Class

In class doing something i never thought would be done in a college English class.. Oh yeah.. LaGuardia is just getting more interesting..LOL