However, as bad as the conditions may be working inside the restaurants, conditions in the meat-processing plants that provide the animal products used by the industry are far worse. Workers safety laws are ignored, and disease is prevalent. Schlosser reports a heart-rending tale of a young boy who died from E.coli bacteria after eating a tainted Jack-in-the-Box burger. It is difficult to track the source of an infection because "a single fast-food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle" (Schlosser 2004). . Despite the fact that cows are herbivores, they are fed scraps of animals to inexpensively fatten them up for slaughter. Cattle, chickens, and pigs themselves suffer under terrible, confining and unsanitary conditions to sate the insatiable appetite for beef, chicken, and pork of the major American fast food companies

Schlosser's book is dark, even depressing at times, but his anecdotal style gives it...
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