good-humored decency. For those seekingrnto understand the eontemporar)’ leftrnin all of its fanaticism. Commies is indispensable.rnMyles Kantor is editor of www. Free-rnEmigration.com and a columnist forrnFront Page Magazine. .rnHapless Mealsrnby Katherine DaltonrnFast Food Nation: The Dark Side ofrnthe All-American Mealrnby Eric SchlosserrnBoston: Houghton Mifflin Company;rn356 pp., $25.00rnAfew years ago, an old friend of myrnhusband watched her three-vear-oldrnson die after eating a tainted hamburgerrnat a fast-food chain in Oregon. She is arnpediatrician, and her son had good care;rnbut there was simply nothing anyonerncould do for him.rnHe was one of many Americans whornbecome sick from what they eat. Accordingrnto a 1999 study by the Centers forrnDisease Control, 200,000 people arernsickened by food daily, 900 are hospitalized,rnand 14 die. That amounts to a quarterrnof the American population over arnyear’s time. Most of these poisonings arernnot deadly, but there is enough E. colirn0157:H7 (the toxic strain responsible forrnthe Jack in the Box deaths out West inrn1993, among many others) floatingrnaround for concern.rnThe problem, simply put, is caused byrnmanure in your meat, and I do meanrnyours: A 1996 USDA study found thatrnover 78 percent of the ground beef sampledrncontained microbes that are spreadrngenerally by fecal material. Yet the U.S.rngovernment, which can recall consumerrnproducts ranging from toys to automobiles,rndoes not have the legal power to recallrntainted meat, or even to release informationrnto the public about where thatrnmeat is being sold (unless under a brandrnname at a retail outlet, but not at a fastfoodrnrestaurant). Nor can it impose punitivernfines. The recalls you have heardrnabout have been limited, voluntary, andrnoften late, after much of the poisonedrnmeat had already been consumed.rnErie Schlosser, in a chapter describingrnhis unauthorized visit to a High Plainsrnslaughterhouse, explains how our groundrnbeef becomes so dirh’. An ever-changingrncrew of Mexican and Latin Americanrnworkers, many of them with little Englishrnor education, work disassembly lines thatrnmay process up to 400 cattle an hour.rnThe speed of the lines is such that theyrncan require a worker to make six cuts arnminute on a full-sized cow. (Anyonernwho has cut up a chicken knows ten secondsrnisn’t much time to separate bonernfrom bone.) Speed, plus the lack of emphasisrnon cleanliness and the commonrnoccurrence that a cow stomach or bowelrnis pierced and spravs the meat; the illrnhealth of many feedlot cattle, which arernpacked so closely into the lots that theyrnfoul eat other with their waste; the incrediblerntruth that a single hamburgerrncan contain meat from dozens or sometimesrnhundreds of cows—all of this makesrnit remarkable that any American hamburgerrnis untainted.rnFast food is cheap; it is convenient; it isrnquintessentially American; and it has becomernan American staple —so much sornthat a quarter of the countr’ eats it on anyrngiven day. Yet fast food is, along withrntelevision, one of the great leveling evilsrnof modern life. The very sameness, immediaternavailability, and ostensiblern”quality” that has made McDonald’s sornsuccessful has also helped to make allrnAmericair cities look alike. The franchisingrnsystem McDonald’s perfected hasrnbeen imitated by so many other kinds ofrnrestaurants and businesses that it is now arnpolitical statement (and sometimes an inconverrience)rnto shop at a locally ownedrnstore or eater)’.rnTo be truly pro-American beef yournmust be pro-American beef farmer, butrncattle, potatoes, and many other farmrnproducts have a concentration of sellersrnnow (Schlosser argues) that is reminiscentrnof affairs before the Sherman Actrnwas passed to bust up the beef trust. Arnpotato farmer earns about hvo cents on arn$1.50 order of fries, and it wasn’t so longrnago that pig farmers were selling at a lossrnwhile pork prices at the supenuarket remainedrnstable. It’s no use saying that onlyrnthe invisible hand of consumer demandrnhas brought us to this point; asrnSchlosser and many others document,rnour own government promotes consolidationrnand mega-franchising. Once consolidated,rnlarge organizations of any kindrncan largely shape their market and supplierrnbase. However you mav feel aboutrntrustbusters and goerrunent regulation,rnwhat chance does a family business havernagainst a multimillion-dollar corporationrn—let alone a cartel?rnSchlosser packs much detail into arnhighly readable and convincing narrativernthat touches on the many aspects of arn”fast-food nation,” from the high injuryrnrates among meatpackers to tire alchemyrnof the flavoring industry to the pervasiverninfluence of cheapness-at-any-cost on thernculture of an entire country—and now,rnthe world. The book also contains arnmnuber of piquant asides: how, in thern1920’s, General Motors secreflv boughtrnup many cit}’ trolley systems, dismantledrnthem, and turned the companies into busrnlines with GM-manufactured buses; howrnthe character of Ronald McDonald wasrncreated in 196 s by Willard Scott, later ofrnToday show fame, who was soon deemedrntoo portly to play the part.rnBut among the answers Schlosser proposesrnto the problems he so effectively describes,rnthe only one that seems to offerrnhope, or any imnrediate protection, is arnchange in how we spend. Jack in the Boxrnnow offers (Schlosser says) clean meat,rnhaving forced its suppliers, after the 1993rnpoisonings, to test their meat rigorouslyrnfor microbes; only a similar p.r. disasterrncoidd prompt McDonald’s or BmgerrnKing to do the same. Wlro wants to eat arnhamburger there in the meantime? Orrnto buy supermarket beef while waiting forrnOSHA to hire a reasonable number of inspectors?rnIn anv case, 50 United Statesrnmay simply be too manv to allow for anyrnnational regulatory .solution. We are leftrnwirii onlv the much less convenient solutionrnof slow food: buying meat from arnfarmer or rancher or local butcher wernknow, or can get to know—one who hasrninspected his processor —and cookingrnthe meat ourselves.rnThat is, these days, a very un-Americanrnanswer, and I have little hope it will bernwidely adopted. Nor is McDonald’s concerned.rnEarlier this year, one of itsrnspokesmen replied b- fax to a New YorkrnTimes reporter who called the companyrnto request a response to Mr. Schlosser’srncriticisms. The fax said: “His opinion isrnoutvoted 45 million to I every single day,rnbecause that’s how many customersrnaround the world choose to come to McDonald’srnfor our menu of variety, valuernand qualit)’.”rnKatherine Dalton, who lives on a beefrncattle farm in New Castle, Kentucky, isrna contributing editor to Chronicles.rn30/CHRONIlCLESrnrnrn