Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser

[Bern]

The fast food chains deliver food that's consistent, convenient and cheap... right? This book looks at the economic ecosystem that sustains these businesses and argues that the real cost is much higher.

You might think you're in for a novel-length diatribe against McDonalds - well you are - but mostly it's a bunch of stories about the people who make up the fast food business, from its pioneers back in the day to the workers in the slaughterhouse to the chemists in the flavour factory in New Jersey.

Some aspects of production-line food supply must be of benefit to us - we live longer and are taller than ever before. Other efficiencies - like feeding livestock back to themselves, or having them penned up awash in their own faeces - seem obviously wrong. Maybe Mad Cow Disease proves it, maybe that's just a layman's misunderstanding.

There might be a fast food restaurant on every corner but we still have a choice about what we eat, even if it's sometimes limited by lack of information, the cost or just availability. This book will definitely get you exercising that option.