An Analysis of the Food Industry Issues Raised by Ozeki's My Year of Meats and Schlosser's Fast Food Nation

Recent publications have all criticized the hidden, brutal, and often corrupt mechanisms driving the modern cattle and meat industries. Similarly, Eric Schloesser's Fast Food Nation and Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats have both uncovered details about the food industry which the public would be otherwise blind to. Schlosser's documentary -esque chapters follow his experiences in the activities of the food industry, while Ozeki's novel centers around a narrating producer, Jane, who discovers the terrible truth about the meat industry as she films for a beef company practices involved with her. The mission of Ozeki's messages about the food industry compare with those of Schlosser's Fast Food Nation when exploring the overall deception of the public, the conditions in the slaughterhouses, and the monopolization of the industry by corporations, but the two works differ in their interpretation, techniques, and ability to persuade the audience.

To begin, both Ozeki and Schlosser present in their works the notion that the meat industry has managed to hoodwink the American public about the production of its food. Both works reveal the fact that average American consumer is blind to the fact that unknown ingredients and questionable practices are at the root of food production. However, the method of this trickery varies in both works; Schlosser's experience with food flavor-manipulation present this deception through explanations about the hidden enterprises of America who profit by secretly chemically-engineering the flavor of thousands of products. Schlosser illustrates modern food as a sort of illusion, where the flavor does not come from nature and its genuine ingredients, but from test-tube creations and empty vials filled with gases. Schlosser uses a factual basis for this argument, using his own hands-on experimentation and his own confusion to enlighten the readers about this alteration of the food. Ozeki, on the other hand, explores the public's deception from a more dangerous point of view, concentrating on the chemicals which farmers inject into cattle for economic reasons while hiding the practice from consumers. Unlike Schlosser's argument that "natural" may be a loosely defined term which corporations manipulate, Ozeki's narrator explores the lethal chemicals that may be illegally pumped into cattle. Today, no package of meat comes with a notice about the chemicals used in caring for the cattle, indicating a much bigger dishonesty on the part of corporations that the consumer is unaware of. Like Schlosser, Ozeki employs a factual basis for her argument as seen in a group of essays about medications about DES, but takes this technique a step further by painting Jane's face on the effects of DES, using the main character's tragedy to connect with readers on a more personal level. Ozeki manages to wrap her discoveries about the practices in the food industry around Jane's struggles with her deformed sexual organs and inability to have a child. This long relationship between the unethical practices and Jane's personal toll stands as the root to Ozeki's ability to persuade the reader more effectively than Schlosser's work. Ozeki offers a more morbid and desperate image through her use of Jane as a symbol of struggle, while some may argue that Schlosser's argument about the food chemicals may have simply served as an interesting read to the audience.

Moreover, Fast Food Nation and My Year of Meats dedicate some time to explore the issues seen in the slaughter houses of America. Schlosser and Ozeki would agree on the fact that the conditions in these factories of death are hazardous and largely unregulated, since the argument about the lack of proper sanitation can be traced back to The Jungle. The point behind both of their arguments is the fact that the slaughterhouses are inhumane and hideous parts of the food-processing cycle. However, Ozeki's work builds this argument on the cowboys who brutally murder and pain cattle herds, while Schlosser's argument centers on the way that corporations see no difference between the murder of cattle and the horrible conditions endured by the slaughterhouses' workers. Jane, the producer in My Year of Meats, becomes disgusted by the long lines of cattle marching to their death, tortured by fictional laughing, dim-witted cowboys who have dehumanized all parts of their trade. Jane's fall onto one piece of machinery and her subsequent drenching in the blood of cattle further illustrate Ozeki's use of the struggle of the animals as a point of argument. Schlosser, on the other hand, adds a factual to the monstrous murder of the cattle and pursues a human-rights perspective on the problem of slaughterhouse conditions. Rather than personifying the cattle as victims of heartless armed men as seen in Ozeki's work, Schlosser approaches the issue more factually, outlining and detailing the death of cattle at the slaughterhouse; also, Schlosser's argument of the slaughterhouse issue extends beyond animals, since a chapter of his book is dedicated to the men and women who suffer each day under the roofs of such plants. With the inclusion of personal accounts of loss of limbs, sexual harassment, and permanent disability under the roofs of the slaughterhouse, Schlosser creates a more realistic face for the issue at hand instead of relying on romanticized cruel "cowboys" to drive an issue of great importance. Thus, Schlosser's view surfaces as a more persuasive argument, since a combination of genuine, detailed facts about the slaughter and documented, personal stories about inhumanness in the business best paint a true image of the problem. Both authors present a similar disgust with slaughterhouses, but Schlosser manages to cover the issue from all angles and bring the facts to life with a does of gruesome imagery.

Finally, My Year of Meats and Fast Food Nation highlight the fact that corporations and business have industrialized the food production of modern America. With the assembly-line processes involved in the production of food, and the consequent increase in mechanization, has caused large corporations to monopolize the resources of food production, often forcing farmers to follow company wishes and guidelines or face bankruptcy. Ozeki presents this idea through the struggle between Gale and his father, John, where the younger-generation farmer resorts to tubs of medicine and "pharmacooticals" to survive in the food market, since bigger and better cattle allow Gale to survive against other competition. Ozeki's characters provide a contrast of views on the issue, personifying through John the natural way that farmers used to live, and providing the younger Gale as a foil to illustrate the new image and life of the struggling farmer. Unlike Gale's ability to cope with the new face of farming, Schlosser's portrayal of the new, modern farmer is much more tragic, as seen through Hank the cowboy. Hank represents the farmer who resists change and stands up to the food corporations; this resistance, however, leads to his eventual suicide due to his bankruptcy and inability to handle the pressure from the market. Ozeki relies on the description of a new world in her work, insinuating a certain revolution in the way companies handle modern America's food. Schlosser, on the other hand, employs a more tragic foreshadowing, leaving readers with a pessimistic personal note after his inclusion of Hank's suicide as the finality to his argument about the economic battery of now-desperate farmers. Due to the practical and realistic nature of Ozeki's argument where farmers would most likely turn to modern technology and medicine to increasing profitability, My Year of Meats is highly persuasive on the issue of industrialization, since the use of pharmaceuticals with cattle rather than the suicide of a farmer would concern average readers on a more personal level. The essence of persuasion lies in the ability to disturb inner views in a reader, and the potential presence of various agents due to the industrialization of the industry is more effective than a single, personal tragedy that may have little effect on the current crisis.

Schlosser and Ozeki disturbed audiences with their revelations about the terrors hidden behind the meat industry. While evaluating similar issues, the two authors used different arguments in order to connect with the reader and urge change. Ozeki's Year of Meats, however, created a stronger effect on readers, mostly due to its concentration on the interactions of a single highly-developed, realistic character affected by the terrors of the food industry. Such a writing style is associated with other controversial books throughout history, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Jungle, which led to change on various issues through their use of the fact-affected characters. However, it is the combination of such literature that will bring change, since the education of the public on issues which affect its members every day is paramount.

Ruth Ozeki, "My Year of Meats."

Eric Schloesser, "Fast Food Nation."