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Golden Arches
But, more importantly, the Golden Arches reflected a uniform dining experience for customers; in any state, at any McDonald’s, one could expect the same fries, the same burgers, the same “speedee service.” Thus the Golden Arches have come to represent not only one restaurant chain, but an entire method of doing business, of producing food efficiently—and, as a consequence (as Schlosser notes), of radically altering the means by which Americans eat, farm, work, and live. The Golden Arches are today a symbol of an immensely powerful global conglomerate—a physical representation of that company’s economic impact on the nation.
Ranchers Quotes in Fast Food Nation
The Fast Food Nation quotes below all refer to the symbol of Ranchers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6: On the Range
Quotes
Toward sunset we spotted a herd of antelope and roared after them. That damn minivan bounced over the prairie like a horse at full gallop, Hank wild behind the wheel . . . we had a Chrysler engine, power steering, and disk brakes, but the antelope had a much superior grace, making sharp and unexpected turns, bounding effortlessly . . . .
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Many ranchers now fear that the beef industry is deliberately being restructured along the lines of the poultry industry. They do not want to wind up like chicken growers—who in recent years have become virtually powerless, trapped by debt and by onerous contracts written by the large processors.
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The suicide rate among ranchers and farmers in the US is now about three times higher than the national average. The issue briefly received attention during the 1980s farm crisis, but has been pretty much ignored ever since. Meanwhile, across rural America, a slow and steady death toll mounts. As the rancher’s traditional way of life is destroyed, so are many of the beliefs that go with it.
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Ranchers Symbol Timeline in Fast Food Nation
The timeline below shows where the symbol Ranchers appears in Fast Food Nation. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: On the Range
Schlosser describes his first meeting with Hank, a rancher in Colorado Springs, who takes Schlosser on a tour of his property. The ranch lies...
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...for the federal government to dismantle the beef industry’s trust, and encourage open competition among ranchers, which improved their businesses and kept prices lower. This marketplace lasted for about fifty years...
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...espoused mostly by Republicans—enabled large agricultural and food businesses (agribusinesses) to consolidate once again. Small ranchers now had relatively few places where they could sell their beef—their profits shrank, those of...
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...any one time, to keep prices steady. This system makes it extremely difficult, however, for ranchers to make a profit per head of cattle, and though ranchers have sued large meatpackers...
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...a means of feeding a family. In closing the chapter, Schlosser writes that Hank, the rancher whom he interviewed at the beginning of the chapter, wound up taking his own life,...
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Epilogue: Have It Your Way
...fast-food industries behaves the way that the companies described earlier in the book have. One rancher in Matheson, Colorado, Dale Lasater, runs his cattle ranch in part as a wildlife preserve,...
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