Eric Schlosser Talks With The Observer

Eric Schlosser, author of the bestseller, FAST FOOD NATION, and co-writer of the eponymous screenplay, was interviewed by Rachel Cooke of "The Observer" recently. Schlosser’s film will be opening in the UK on March 24 (the DVD is being released in the US on March 6th). Please note that although the book and movie raise issues about the filth and horror of slaughterhouses, Schlosser is not a vegetarian, nor is his goal for anyone to stop eating meat. Nevertheless, the interview does contain some tasty morsels, and everyone should read it (and the book, and see the movie).

• After Schlosser admits that his film is a bit bleak, he adds:

"[T]o make it otherwise would have been a lie. We could’ve had Greg Kinnear’s character going before Congress, testifying against the industry. We could have had the workers rallying. Except, in the US, you won’t see any of that happening. A lot of well-intentioned people are complicit with things that aren’t very nice at all. I don’t want to sugar the pill. Things are really bad in the US just now."

• Continuing about our current state of affairs and the human toll (a la Upton Sinclair), he says:

"As for the human consequences of America’s rapacious meat-packing industry . . . things are much worse. The Bush administration is totally supported by the meat-packing industry, and the industry is essentially writing the laws."

He backs up his argument (and it’s not pretty) then adds that in 2001, the meatpacking industry had the highest rates of injury in America, and that today, it’s virtually impossible to tell how many people are still getting hurt.

• And for those of you who think that Smithfield’s recent decision to phase out gestation crates was all warm and fuzzy, know that just prior to that announcement (as Schlosser wrote in "Hog Hell" in The Nation–read it), the United States Court of Appeals criticized Smithfield for hideous working conditions and "an atmosphere of intimidation and coercion" to dissuade workers from joining a union.

Although Schlosser clearly has no ethical issue with the producing of animals for slaughter (and there we disagree), he provides other compelling reasons for avoiding factory-farmed products. And for those of you trying to educate friends and family members of the myriad reasons to go vegan, facts about contamination and human mutilation are effective weapons for your arsenal.