Eric Schlosser levels the following charges: fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That’s a bold statement. Schlosser first wrote about the unsanitary and discriminatory practices of the fast food industry in a two-part series for Rolling Stone magazine in 1999. He expanded that treatment into this almost 300 page book and published it in 2001.

While reading about the book I found a number of comparisons to Upton Sinclair‘s 1906 novel The Jungle. I had to ask myself: have a hundred years gone by without any serious changes in the way America treats food? Have the ghosts of the Union Stockyards simply changed clothes and donned franchise uniforms at strip malls, pizza joints and hamburger stands across America?

I want to feel better about myself. To that end I have adopted a simple motto: eat less; move more. I am hoping this book will help me achieve that goal.