Afterword: The Meaning of Mad Cow

Jason Stephenson February 2014 Deer Creek High School Pre-AP English 2

Claim

 McDonald’s has the power to stop the practices that lead to mad cow disease.

Summary

 The scientific name for mad cow disease is BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Summary

 The human form of BSE is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a fatal brain disease.

Summary

  After mad cow disease was discovered in Britain in 1996, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States took steps to prevent BSE in America.

By 1997, dead cattle could no longer be fed to cattle. Chickens, pigs, and pets could still have cattle in their feed though.

Summary

  In January 2001, BSE was discovered in cattle throughout Europe— Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Germany, and Italy.

Some feed rendering plants in America did not have systems in place to prevent contamination of their cattle feed, so McDonald’s required documentation of pure feed.

Summary

  Unsurprisingly, Schlosser received many criticisms for his book from the fast food and meatpacking industries.

Food safety should not be a political issue. Originally, it was Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who enacted the first national food safety law. Now Democrats seem more likely to fight for food safety.

Summary

  McDonald’s around the world cook their fries differently, depending on the cultural taboos, sometimes avoiding beef tallow, sometimes using it.

In 2000 fast food restaurants— including Taco Bell, Burger King, and McDonald’s—had financial troubles.

Summary

  McDonald’s hired the renowned animal handler Temple Grandin to devise a new system to make sure its beef and pork were treated humanely.

The mad cow epidemic in Europe resulted in many countries forming new plans to avoid outbreaks in the future.

Bonus Information

  The first cow with mad cow disease in the United States was discovered in Washington in

2003

. Three more were discovered in

2005

,

2006

, and

2012

.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/02/ health/mad-cow-disease-fast-facts/

Logos

  “At the time [mid 90s], American cattle were eating about 2 billion pounds of animal protein every year— mainly the remains of other cattle” (Schlosser 272) This statistic is especially alarming, given this is when the mad cow disease outbreak began.

Ethos

  “‘Because we have the world’s biggest shopping cart,’ a McDonald’s spokesman explained, ‘we can use that leadership to provide more focus and more order throughout the beef system’” (Schlosser 275-276).

McDonald’s has so much buying power, they can easily enforce rules on their suppliers. Their credibility is tied to economics.

Pathos

  “Eating a cow for a Hindu…would be like eating your own mother,” explained attorney Harish Bharti (Schlosser 278).

This lawyer uses charged language to make his point about upset his Hindu clients were about discovering beef in McDonald’s French fries. This simile evokes horror in the reader.

Anaphora (Syntax)

  McDonald’s was not a fan of Fast Food Nation. In a company statement, they wrote about Eric Schlosser, “He’s

wrong about our

people,

wrong about our

and

wrong about our

276).

jobs, food” (Schlosser This repetition portrays McDonald’s vehement denial of Schlosser’s accusations.

Euphemism (Word Play)

  After outrage erupted when it was learned McDonald’s use some beef product in their fries, they issued an apology. Instead of saying they had lied to their consumers, they merely said, “If there was confusion we apologize.” (Schlosser 279).

McDonald’s downplays its role in misleading customers with this euphemism.

Oversimplification (Logical Fallacy)

  “If McDonald’s were to demand that the line speeds be slowed down, preventing countless injuries and harms, it could be accomplished

in an instant

” (Schlosser 284).

No doubt such a reform would take time.

Passage

Today an IBP worker who gets hurt on the job in Texas faces a cruel dilemma: Sign the waiver, perhaps receive immediate medical attention, and remain beholden, forever, to IBP. Or refuse to sign, risk losing your job, receive no help with your medical bills, file a lawsuit, and hope to win a big judgment against the company years from now.

Passage, continued

Injured workers almost always sign the waiver. The pressure to do so is immense. An IBP medical case manager will literally bring the waiver to a hospital emergency room in order to obtain an injured worker’s signature.

Passage, continued

When Lonita Leal’s right hand was mangled by a hamburger grinder at the IBP plant in Amarillo, a case manager talked her into signing the waiver with her left hand as she waited in the hospital for surgery.

Passage, continued

When Duane Mullin had both hands crushed in a hammer mill at the same plant, an IBP representative persuaded him to sign the waiver with a pen held in his mouth.

Tone

 The previous paragraph has a

helpless

and about them.

cruel

tone. Words and phrases such as “no help,” “losing your job,” “mangled,” “crushed,” and “pen held in his mouth” depict workers in hopeless conditions whose company appears to care very little