Author: Tina Volpe

ISBN: 0-0761343-0-6

 

The following review was contributed by:  Helen Kaut: To read more of Helen Kaut’s Reviews Click HERE

Not only since Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation” and Morgan Spurlock’s entertaining documentary “Super Size Me” we know that fast food is bad for you. Vegetarian and animal rights supporter Tina Volpe goes further with “Fast Food Craze” and concentrates on the implications of mass farming for animals and in return for our health.

The first two chapters cover the questionable practices of fast food giants such as McDonalds (using cheap meat), KFC (appalling farming conditions of chickens) and Taco Bell (appalling working conditions) and Jack in the Box (E-coli poisoned meat). A lot of damaging chemicals are used in fast food such as the carcinogenic Acrylamide in French fries and Trans Fatty Acids. Diseases such as SARS, BSE (Mad Cow disease)  or Hepatitis A arise from unsanitary conditions inherent in factory farming. New to me was the fact that so called “food disparagement laws” make it awfully difficult to criticize the food industry as the lawsuit of Texas Cattlemen versus  Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman shows.

Volpe devotes the next chapter quotes of famous thinkers such as Buddha, Gandhi, Voltaire and Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer as well as from famous vegetarians/vegans such as Moby and K.D. Lang.

The following chapters show in detail the cruel reality of factory farming. The reader learns that chickens, who are in fact very sensitive birds, get their beaks cut off without anesthetics or painkillers to prevent them from pecking at each other. He/she learns that chickens nowadays have been genetically altered in such a way that they grow twice as fast and large, but their lungs and hearts don’t develop so that a lot of chicken die before they get slaughtered and their legs are often crippled by the weight of their bodies. They are often still alive when they are put into the scalding tank. Pigs, who are very intelligent and loyal creatures, suffer in equally brutal conditions. Sows are mainly there to give birth and have no space to move and not even straw bedding to lay on. Two  weeks after giving birth they are separated from their piglets and impregnated again. Many pigs die on their way to the slaughterhouse due to overcrowding and they are often boiled alive when the knifing was unsuccessful. Cows suffer a similar treatment. Dairy cows are in constant state of being pregnant and genetically manipulated to produce as much milk as possible, often resulting in diseases such as infection of the udders,  Bovine Leukemia Virus and laminitis. Calves are immediately separated from their mothers after birth and male calves are used to produce white veal, not seeing the light of day for 18 to 20 weeks.

Black and white photos illustrate the shocking brutality of these farming practices. The book’s final chapter is an appeal to become a vegetarian, answers common questions regarding vegetarianism and sums up the advantages of a non-meat diet.

The appendix about food-borne illnesses makes rather grim reading and will put you off any of the fast food chains forever. The references list useful vegetarian cookbooks and further sources of information. The book finishes with an extensive list (10 pages)of famous vegans and vegetarians.

Tina Volpe has a clear mission- to make the reader aware of the terrible state of factory farming and fast food production and to convert him/her into a vegetarian. She does this with passion but without falling into the trap of becoming too sentimental. Instead she lets the facts do the talking. If this book does not put you off your burger - nothing will.