Chew on This

A very scary account of the fast food industry, full of shocking facts and figures about our consumption of processed food. Schlosser is an American journalist, author of the bestselling adult book Fast Food Nation, which he has now rewritten for a younger audience. Accessible and informative, it is almost magazine-like in its tone, but it is primarily about the US market, with only passing reference to such British champions as Jeanette Orrey and Jamie Oliver. Nevertheless the problems are global, stemming largely from the huge power of the giant fast food chains and their manipulation of the market, in which children are seduced into eating poor-quality unhealthy food by cheap toys often manufactured by other children, and in which their employees are exploited to work long hours for low wages. There are graphic accounts of the appalling conditions inside slaughterhouses and meat packing plants, as well as the high-tech white-coated world of the flavour industry, like a sinister version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. We are told the depressing news that most children now prefer artificially manufactured flavours – whether banana or strawberry – to the real thing. The book is backed by a website that gives resources, activities and facts for those who want to get the message across and become ambassadors for change. And Schlosser makes it clear that change is possible, and that each one of us can make a difference by simply walking out of that fast food outlet and not buying their wares. SU