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Panera Bread Is Fast Food The 25th Anniversary Of Fast Food Nation With Eric Schlosser · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's not just a podcast. It's a podcast network. That
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: was my vision in 2010, to create a network where
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: you had the power of choice and owned it like
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: you live it every day. Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net. One of the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: top shows, Street Speak with Alexa and Clarence. It really
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: is Alexa from Amazon. You're having the conversations, but do
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: they go as deep as these two? Only on Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. Can you believe that it's the 25th
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  Speaker 1: anniversary already? I swear to God, you were in my
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  Speaker 1: control room not even five minutes ago, but yet it's
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  Speaker 1: 25 years ago. We have used everything that you share, Eric,
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  Speaker 1: as a tool in the radio business.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: To be in this moment of now, this many years later,
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  Speaker 1: and you look at Chick-fil-A, who's now offering chicken and waffles.
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  Speaker 1: What does that do for you when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the 25th anniversary edition of Fast Food Nation?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I tell your listeners, it sounds pretty delicious
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  Speaker 2: to me. Have one every now and then, but maybe
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  Speaker 2: you don't have it twice a day. You know, for
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  Speaker 2: the next five years, you might have a problem. My
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  Speaker 2: goal with Fast Food Nation really wasn't to tell people
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  Speaker 2: to eat one thing or another thing. It was really
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  Speaker 2: to give a sense of how this food system operates
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  Speaker 2: and what corporations are profiting enormously from it when it comes.
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  Speaker 3: To chicken in the United States. I think it's great
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  Speaker 3: that people eat chicken.
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  Speaker 2: I just wish there wasn't as much salmonella in our
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  Speaker 2: chicken as there is at the moment. I'm not saying
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  Speaker 2: a Chick-fil-A, but the food safety system of this country...
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  Speaker 2: It's being dismantled, and it's unfortunate that 25 years later
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  Speaker 2: I have to be saying so many of the same
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  Speaker 2: things and encouraging the same sort of changes, particularly in
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  Speaker 2: how the government interacts with these big companies.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you bring up a very interesting point because I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to let you out on my guilty truth here.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I was at the big Taco Bell yesterday. They did
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  Speaker 1: not have lettuce because they won't serve it, and we
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  Speaker 1: are in that position that you are talking about. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, here's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: If friends of mine want to ride a motorcycle without
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  Speaker 2: a helmet, you know, that's what you got to make
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  Speaker 2: these choices. If friends of mine, you know, want to
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  Speaker 2: have a few too many drinks, that's a personal choice.
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  Speaker 2: And if you want to go to Jack in the Box,
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  Speaker 2: you know, that's your choice. But man, I would find
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  Speaker 2: out where their meat is coming from. Yes. There are
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  Speaker 2: some fast food chains that are saying that they only
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  Speaker 2: will serve American beef, but I wrote a couple of
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  Speaker 2: weeks ago about the 660 million pounds that are coming
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  Speaker 2: in probably from Brazil. And personally, I still eat meat,
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  Speaker 2: but I prefer not to eat that meat. It's pretty
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  Speaker 2: crazy about the iceberg lettuce. They don't have iceberg lettuce
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  Speaker 2: at Jack in the Box. And 30 years ago, maybe
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  Speaker 2: even when I wrote Fast Food Nation 25 years ago,
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  Speaker 2: the iceberg lettuce, they had heads of lettuce in the
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  Speaker 2: back of the restaurant. And they'd wash the lettuce and
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  Speaker 2: they'd cut it up and they'd put it in your
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  Speaker 2: taco or in your burger. And the iceberg lettuce that
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  Speaker 2: was linked to the cyclospora outbreak, it was coming from
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  Speaker 2: central Mexico, from a part of Mexico where there's all
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  Speaker 2: kinds of sanitation problems. And look, it was human feces
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  Speaker 2: that contaminated that lettuce. And one of the reasons it
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  Speaker 2: became a nationwide outbreak is because they weren't sending heads
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  Speaker 2: of iceberg lettuce to fast food restaurants. They take thousands
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  Speaker 2: and thousands of heads of lettuce. They chop them up
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  Speaker 2: with gigantic machines and they package them in these plastic bags.
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  Speaker 2: And it's the plastic bags that get sent to the restaurant.
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  Speaker 2: They rip open the plastic bags of pre-shredded Mexican lettuce.
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  Speaker 2: And I got nothing against Mexico, but hey, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you eat that lettuce, you may be in the bathroom.
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  Speaker 3: For a while. So the food looks like the kind
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  Speaker 3: of food that you'd make at home.
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  Speaker 2: But, you know, again, it's a free country and people
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  Speaker 2: should be allowed to eat it. But my job really
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  Speaker 2: as an investigative reporter is to tell you what it is.
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  Speaker 2: And then if you still want to eat it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: go ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and take a step into those grocery
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  Speaker 1: stores as well, because I work at one of those.
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  Speaker 1: If you knew how many times people are bringing their
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  Speaker 1: lettuce back to me, dude, they are. And it's in
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  Speaker 1: those damn plastic bags and it's coming back in. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, again, We've been eating lettuce for a long time,
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  Speaker 2: but we've never eaten lettuce that's produced this way. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's just it's just a fact there. There's
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  Speaker 2: always going to be risk in life. I mean, you
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  Speaker 2: leave the house and you're already going to encounter some risk.
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  Speaker 2: But but the dismantling of the food safety system of
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  Speaker 2: the United States greatly increases that risk.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm I'm sorry to say, and maybe my prediction
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  Speaker 3: is wrong.
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  Speaker 2: But I think we're going to see more and more
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  Speaker 2: outbreaks because the government isn't testing the food the way
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  Speaker 2: it used to. And if you're not testing the food,
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  Speaker 2: that means contaminated food is making it to the supermarket shelves.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't this because they're all in such a competitive mode
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  Speaker 1: right now to reinvent themselves? I personally, I love the
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  Speaker 1: idea that they're having to revamp their menus like Burger
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  Speaker 1: King right now. And does that mean I'm going to go?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 1: But it's just so fascinating to see these fast food
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  Speaker 1: restaurants struggling a bit.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, to be honest, I wish they'd struggle a little more.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, what I eat hasn't really changed
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  Speaker 2: in the last 25 years.
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  Speaker 3: But where I buy it does.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, I like to go when I travel
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  Speaker 2: and I travel all over the United States for my reporting.
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  Speaker 2: I'd stop at little mom and pop diners. And sometimes
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  Speaker 2: the food is horrible and maybe I'm going to get poisoned. But, man,
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  Speaker 2: you go to a good diner where they're actually a
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  Speaker 2: shorter cook. who's making something from scratch. I went to
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  Speaker 2: this place, I went to this place the other day,
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  Speaker 2: I had the best hash browns I've ever had in
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  Speaker 2: my life. I don't even know it was but I
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  Speaker 2: can tell you this, it wasn't frozen hash browns that
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  Speaker 2: was being reheated in a microwave oven. They were making
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  Speaker 2: it with onions and stuff like that. So, you know, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know, if you if you want to seek out
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  Speaker 2: authentic food by real people who are making it. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be gourmet French food. There are great
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  Speaker 2: hamburger places and great Mexican food places that aren't parts
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  Speaker 2: of chains that have 20,000 restaurants that are selling new
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  Speaker 2: industrial food.
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  Speaker 1: Please don't move. We're still talking food, fast food that is.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be back with Eric Schlosser. The 25th anniversary edition
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  Speaker 1: of Fast Food Nation. We are back with the man
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  Speaker 1: that started it all, Eric Schlosser. Can we officially declare
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Panera Bread a fast food restaurant? I mean, since they
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  Speaker 1: have that to-go window now, I mean, it's like, uh-oh,
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  Speaker 1: that right there is a warning sign.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I mean, it is. There's another segment called
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  Speaker 3: Fast Casual.
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  Speaker 2: But a lot of these, and I'm not going to
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  Speaker 2: mention any names, a lot of these fast casual restaurants,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not putting down Panera Bread. They have frozen
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  Speaker 2: food that they're just reheating in the kitchen. I spoke
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  Speaker 2: to someone who worked at a relatively high-end Italian restaurant,
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  Speaker 2: and they were getting their lasagna at Costco, frozen Costco lasagna,
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  Speaker 2: and just reheating it in the kitchen and selling it
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  Speaker 2: at a huge markup.
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  Speaker 3: If you're going to go to a restaurant a lot,
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  Speaker 3: it helps to know the owner. It helps to know
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  Speaker 3: the waitress or the waiter behind that behind the counter.
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  Speaker 2: And it's real food from real people, as opposed to
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  Speaker 2: highly processed food from fast food workers who are being
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  Speaker 2: treated poorly, who.
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  Speaker 3: Often hate their jobs. And there's a huge turnover.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you get what you pay for. And you're
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  Speaker 2: actually putting it in your body. So bon appetit.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to think I'm weird, but here in Charlotte, dude,
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  Speaker 1: if it's not owned by a Greek person, I ain't going.
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  Speaker 1: I just know that when I go to the Greek restaurants,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going because they're going to take care of me.
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  Speaker 1: It's all about family and community.
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  Speaker 3: But, you know, I'd say the same thing for Thai restaurants.
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  Speaker 3: All over the United States, there are these families that
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  Speaker 3: run restaurants. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, look, some of them are cooks, crooks,
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  Speaker 2: and some of them, I'm not mentioning by any nationality,
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  Speaker 2: but some of them, maybe serving bad meat or you
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  Speaker 2: never know.
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  Speaker 3: If it's cat or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: But for the most part, a family takes pride in
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  Speaker 2: what they're doing. And if it's a multi-generational restaurant that's
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  Speaker 2: been in the community for a while and it's like
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  Speaker 2: the kids are the owner, you know, that's the exact
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  Speaker 2: opposite of going to Jack in the Box, Burger King
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  Speaker 2: and McDonald's.
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you, Eric?
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  Speaker 1: Because I love your book. I study your book and
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  Speaker 1: I laugh with your book because you're telling the truth
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  Speaker 1: and the truth hurts so bad that you have to laugh.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I don't have any social media. I don't, I don't,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't want followers or anything like that.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to open people's eyes, give them the information.
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  Speaker 3: They can do.
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  Speaker 2: You can do with the information what you want, but
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  Speaker 2: you should know. And You know, the book Fast Food
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  Speaker 2: Nation is out after 25 years of.
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  Speaker 3: The new chapter.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: You know, get it at an independent bookstore. And then
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: when you finish reading it, give it to a friend.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not, I like selling copies of books,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: but at the same time, I think this is really
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  Speaker 2: important information for people, especially if you've got kids.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: The door is always going to be open for you, sir.
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  Speaker 3: All right, man. Thank you.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: You be brilliant today, all right?
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Okay.