I don’t normally recommend movies. People’s tastes vary so dramatically that it is often a pointless task. However last night I saw Fast-Food Nation. I expected a comedy like approach to fast-food, a la Supersize Me, or perhaps an advocacy film that beats you over the head with the ideals of being a vegan. Instead what I saw was a dramatic, intense and realistic mirror image of America’s unsustainable system of mass-mechanized-slaughter, illegal labor and corporate greed. It’s not a feel-good movie, however Fast Food Nation is the kind of film that should be mandatory viewing, especially for people who joyously indulge in their fast-food without a thought in their minds as to where it comes from.
I never read the original novel, although many around me did, I really had no idea that the story had very little to do with fast-food, and more to do with how and where America gets its food. The film is primarily a scathing look at the meat packing industry and the system of fast-food outlets that peddle the low-grade beef to the masses. It does this in a very realistic fashion, focusing on several sets of characters in a small Colorado meat-packing town, conjoined by the system they support in different ways.
The most heart-breaking is the lives of the Mexican Immigrants, who crossed the border illegally to find a better life. What they do find is a company that cares very little about the employees they exploit. Supervisors coerce young Latinas into sex, supplying them with amphetamines, and manipulate their lives with what little power they have. Drug use runs rampant, as it helps the employees forget about the miserable conditions they are surrounded by. Rats, feces and blood come with the territory, as does the potential for loss of limbs, which occurs often. These are clearly the jobs that American’s do not want (nor ever did, the meat packing industry has long been staffed by immigrants), among the most undesirable and dangerous jobs in the country. They are exploited for their labor, then discarded. Their illegal status makes them easy to avoid paying medical bills for on the job accidents. A worker can simply be tossed aside like garbage, even after the worker sacrifices a limb for the cause of America’s meat. I found it disturbing.
The story is driven by an executive’s investigation of high amounts of fecal matter found in a fast-food chains meat. In a mediocre attempt to self-regulate, the executive comes to the town of Cody to “get some answers.†He discovers that fecal matter is commonly found in meat, and that America’s squeaky clean, sterilized by marketing population has been removed from the understanding of how beef is actually procured. The executive, deeply disturbed by what he finds, then returns home and does what any executive in position would do. I don’t want to spoil the movie, but take my word for it, their self-regulation is a joke.
To be honest, I’m surprised this movie was even made. It attacks everything that our nation is built on. It shows our corporate culture, industrial meat packing industry, franchise food outlets and minimum wage labor force for what they really are: a flawed, unsustainable system designed to make the rich, richer by exploiting every party involved in the process, even the customer, all in the name of greed and capitalism.
I wondered, before I saw it, why this film was promoted very silently and made very little splash in the overall box office. After I saw it, it made sense. What media corporation would want anything to do with a film that shines a light on the horrors of our society?
When the movie ended I felt sick. Not only was I disgusted with fast food, I felt a little ill about America. I love my country, I want to see it prosper, but we have been hoodwinked by this hyper-capitalist food system. It destroys the American farmer (by supporting agro-business, who buy out the small farmer and replace them with factory farming), destroys the American land (mass pollution of fecal matter and urine, ask anyone who lives near a meat processing plant) and destroys the American People (be feeding them toxic, unnecessarily fattening food).
I’ve long been against the system of mechanized slaughter, however I’ve never been one to go vegetarian. I have cut down my consumption of red meat for health reasons and even eat all vegetable meals. When I do eat meat, I try to buy grass fed, free range or organic, since it is more often produced by smaller farms and is not loaded with hormones and chemicals. I rarely eat fast-food anymore. I do love it, but I’ve known to many people who worked in those places to not hear the stories of dehydrated meat, bugs and employee sabotage. Doing the calorie calculations too is alarming. These food products contain high amounts of trans-fat, salt, chemicals, and honestly you can probably eat twice as much of a good home cooked meal and match the caloric intake, more for your money and your health. Not to mention the fact that it’s just garbage. If Hostess could make a burger, it would be a Big Mac. After seeing this film, I am even less inclined to eat fast-food, less likely to buy meat and dairy from a factory farm label and less likely to buy food products in general from the corporate machine. I don’t think I’ll go vegetarian, but for the first time in my life, I’m seriously considering it.
This film was so brutally honest, that I began to go into denial. Here, I knew everything they said was true, I’ve read it, seen it, pondered it before, and I found myself at a moment thinking that perhaps, it’s all trumped up by the anti-meat people. Sadly, denial is only a temporary fix. The truth is a powerful thing. We may pretend our house is not burning, but it doesn’t make it so.
I’m a strong believer that idealism can only go so far. Thinking black and white will drive you crazy. There is no way to live in the U.S. and not support the corporate system that is leeching money away from the hardworking American people. However, silence and indifference do not make you innocent. Besides, solutions are simple. BE A SMART SHOPPER! Why feed your family poisons and preservatives? If we all stopped eating fast food today, there would be healthier food restaurants tomorrow. If we all stopped eating at Chili’s and Applebee’s, and choose a local family owned restaurant, maybe every town in America wouldn’t all look the same. So what if we’re pressed for time, if we keep feeding ourselves this crap than we’ll have far less time in the end.
It’s sad, but I have to say it, America has lost her way. We are drifting down the wrong path. Hyper-Capitalism has brought us wealth, at the expense of our soul, and now they’re taking away the wealth too. Like a virus, the corporate machine will not stop till its extracted every last dollar out of the American people, consuming lopsided amounts of economic lifeblood till finally America’s veins will begin to run dry.
The end comes in two forms: a nation too sick to continue or a nation who rises to fight the expanding disease. Do we still have the will left to fight? Or will we die?