Eric Schlosser: Fast food is inexpensive, convenient, and it tastes go...

The fast-food industry is in very good company with the lead industry and the tobacco industry in how it tries to mislead the public, and how aggressively it goes after anybody who criticizes its business practices.

Eric Schlosser

practice food trying

The fear of murder has grown so enormous in the United States that it leaves a taint, like the mark of Cain, on everyone murder touches.

Eric Schlosser

cain united-states murder

If the market does indeed embody the sum of all human wishes, then the secret ones are just as important as the ones that are openly displayed.

Eric Schlosser

important secret wish

During my school visits, I really enjoy the feedback I get from them much more than anything I might tell say to them.

Eric Schlosser

feedback might school

By birth and upbringing, I think I'm emotionally resilient. I don't feel like I'm a depressive person.

Eric Schlosser

resilient birth thinking

There's been a growing effort to kick soda out of the schools. And governors as different as Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Mike Huckabee in Arkansas have worked hard to get soda and junk food out of their state schools, which is good.

Eric Schlosser

california effort school

As an investigative reporter, I'm trying to uncover things and expose them to create a dialogue.

Eric Schlosser

reporters dialogue trying

Point of view is present in anything I write, but I really try to let the subject and facts speak for themselves.

Eric Schlosser

views writing trying

Basically, I'm a perpetual student. I start by finding a subject I really don't know very much, but that I'm curious about. I learn about it through books in a library, by doing interviews with people who know a lot about the subject, and by going out on my own and seeing for myself what's happening.

Eric Schlosser

library book people

There's also a growing trend toward having gardens in schools to literally show kids where food comes from by having them grow and prepare their own food. There's also a movement that's bringing farmers into schools and creating relationships between local farms and local cafeterias, so that instead of frozen mystery meat, you have fresh produce that's coming from the area that has a name and a face associated with it.

Eric Schlosser

garden kids school

The obesity epidemic among American children is becoming so bad that I think there's a growing realization across the country that we've got to change what we're feeding our kids and that school may be a really good place to start.

Eric Schlosser

country kids children

I think it's possible to have food that's healthy, that's good for you to eat, that's also inexpensive. We don't have to have this cheap, unhealthy food being so aggressively promoted.

Eric Schlosser

inexpensive healthy thinking

I really like visiting schools, but what I tell students isn't anywhere near as interesting to me as what they tell me.

Eric Schlosser

students interesting school

I find that one of the most important things, as a writer, is to just show up - to just stay in the chair and fight through the difficult patches. As long as you're at the desk, and you're willing to fight it out, eventually the right words will come.

Eric Schlosser

fighting important long

We're all connected by the system, and we all have to be a part, I think, of changing it.

Eric Schlosser

connected thinking

The people designing the weapons literally often didn't know how they were being handled in the field by the Air Force - and a lot of people in the Air Force didn't understand some of the dangers. There's a very strong element of madness in this.

Eric Schlosser

strong air people

I hate the word "inevitable" because I feel like things don't have to be the way they are.

Eric Schlosser

inevitable hate way

So for everything I do, I'm very clear about what I'm doing, and I tell people what it's about. They get a sense of what I'm thinking. I don't let people think I'm going to write something in praise in the meatpacking industry, and then they read it and it's actually attacking the meatpacking industry.

Eric Schlosser

writing people thinking

Hey, I used to eat at McDonald's: I liked the taste of the food, especially the French fries.

Eric Schlosser

mcdonald eat taste food

Studies have found that preparing your own food is usually healthier and less expensive than buying fast food. But most people just don't have the time.

Eric Schlosser

your time food people

Fast food is inexpensive, convenient, and it tastes good. I'm all in favor of that. My problem is how heavily processed it is - how full of salt, fat, and sugar it is.