Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World (44 page)

the dominant flavor of bell pepper:
The chemical is isobutylmethoxy pyrazine. Its minute taste recognition threshold is noted in “Flavor Chemistry Seminar,” International Flavors & Fragrances.

The flavor in a twelve-ounce can of Coke:
An industry source, who shall go unnamed, provided me with the cost of the flavor in a six-pack of Coke, and I did the rest of the math.

A typical artificial strawberry flavor:
This recipe comes from
Fenaroli’s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients
, vol. 2, p. 831.

127
“A natural flavor”:
Interview with Terry Acree.

“consumer likeability”:
Quoted in “What Is Flavor? An IFF Consumer Insights Perspective.”

128
The TA.XT2i Texture Analyzer:
For a description of similar devices, see Ray Marsili, “Texture and Mouthfeel: Making Rheology Real,”
Food Product Design
, August 1993.

the ones being synthesized by funguses:
See Leticia Mancini, “Expanding Flavor Horizons,”
Food Engineering
, November 1991; and Kitty Kevin, “A Brave New World: Capturing the Flavor Bug: Flavors from Microorganisms,”
Food Processing
, March 1995.

McDonald’s did acknowledge:
See Jeanne-Marie Bartas, “Vegan Menu Items at Fast Food and Family-Style Restaurants — Part 2,”
Vegetarian Journal
, January/ February 1998.

Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich:
See “Wendy’s Nutrition/Ingredient Guide,” Wendy’s International, Inc., 1997.

Burger Kings BK Broiler:
See “Nutritional Information,” Burger King, 1999.

Sam Bingham,
The Last Ranch: A Colorado Community and the Coming Desert
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996), and Peter R. Decker,
Old Fences, New Neighbors
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998), are two fine books about the current struggles of Colorado ranchers. “The Rancher’s Code,” a chapter in Charles F. Wilkinson’s
Crossing the Next Meridian
(Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1992), outlines the steps progressive ranchers are taking both to preserve and to remain profitably on the land. Among the many interviews I conducted in the ranching community, a number deserve mention. Dave Carlson, at the Resource Analysis Section of the Colorado Department of agriculture, helped me understand the economic forces now changing the state’s landscape. Dave Carter, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmer’s Union, outlined many of the development pressures and well-entrenched political interests that ranchers now confront. Dean Preston, the
Pueblo Chieftain’
s agriculture correspondent for nearly three decades, described the changes he’s witnessed in rural Colorado. Lee Pitts, the editor of
Livestock Market Digest
, helped place the experience of Rocky Mountain ranchers in a broader national perspective. Over the years his work for the
Digest
has represented independent American journalism at its finest.

For the history of cattle ranching and the Beef Trust I relied mainly upon Willard F. Williams and Thomas T. Stout,
Economics of the Livestock-Meat Industry
(New York, Macmillan, 1964); Mary Yeager,
Competition and Regulation: The Development of Oligopoly in the Meat Packing Industry
(Greenwich, Conn.: Jai Press, 1981); and Jimmy M. Skaggs,
Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986). John Crabtree, at the Center for Rural Affairs in Walt Hill, Nebraska, helped me see today’s formula pricing arangements in the proper historical context. Two of the center’s publications were especially useful:
Competition and the Livestock Market
(April 1990) and
From the Carcass to the Kitchen: Competition and the Wholesale Meat Market
(November 1995), the latter written by Marty Strange and Annette Higby.
Concentration in Agriculture, A Report of the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Concentration
(Washington, D.C.: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, June 1996) is an official and belated acknowledgment of the problems faced by American ranchers and farmers.
A Time to Act
, the report of the USDA’s National Commission on Small Farms, does an even better job of portraying the harms of concentrated power in agriculture.

Mike Callicrate, one of the plaintiffs in
Pickett v. IBP, Inc
., provided a great deal of information about the misbehavior of the large meatpacking firms and the rural unrest now growing in response to it. And Dave Domina, one of the attorneys representing Callicrate et al., explained the legal basis for the case and supplied hundreds of pages of documents.
Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. International Trade Commission, USITC Publication 3148, December 1998) gives a thorough overview of the American poultry industry. Marc Linder, a professor at the University of Iowa Law School, introduced me to the subject of poultry growers, poultry workers, and their misfortunes. Linder’s article “I Gave My Employer a Chicken That Had No Bone: Joint Firm-State Responsibility for Line-Speed-Related Occupational Injuries,”
Case Western Reserve Law Review
46, no. 1 (Fall 1995), contains an excellent history of the industry and its labor relations. Steve Bjerklie’s three-part
article on contract poultry growing, which appeared in
Meat & Poultry
(August, October, and December 1994), is a scathing indictment of the large processors by a longtime observer of the industry. The investigative reports by Dan Fesperman and Kate Shatzin, published by the
Baltimore Sun
in February and March of 1999, chronicle the latest processor abuses. For the story of the McNugget, I largely relied on Laura Konrad Jereski’s account in “McDonald’s Strikes Gold with Chicken McNuggets,”
Marketing and Media Decisions
, March 22, 1985; Timothey K. Smith, “Changing Tastes: By End of the Year Poultry Will Surpass Beef in the U.S. Diet; Price, Health Concerns Propel Move Toward Chicken; The Impact of McNuggets,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 17, 1987; and John F. Love,
Behind the Arches,
pp. 338–43.

Page

133
Hank was the first person:
At the request of Hank’s family, I have not used his real name.

136
about half a million ranchers sold off:
Based on numbers provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

In 1968, McDonald’s bought ground beef:
For the consolidation of the chain’s beef purchasing, see Love,
Behind the Arches
, pp. 333–38.

137
at the height of the Beef Trust:
Cited in
Competition and the Livestock Market
, Report of a Task Force Commissioned by the Center for Rural Affairs (Walt Hill, Neb.: April 1990), p. 31.

In 1970 the top four meatpacking firms
: Cited ibid., p. 31.

Today the top four meatpacking firms:
The figure comes from a USDA study, cited in George Anthan, “2 Reports Focus on Packers’ Profits,”
Des Moines Register
, May 30, 1999.

138
the rancher’s share of every retail dollar:
Estimate cited in “Prepared Statement of Keith Collins, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Before the House Committee on Agriculture,”
Federal News Service
, February 10, 1999.

control about 20 percent of the live cattle in the United States:
1997 estimate of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, cited in “Prepared Statement of Keith Collins.” See also “Captive Supplies — Who, What, When, Where and Why,”
Colorado Farmer
, October 1997.

as much as 80 percent of the cattle being exchanged:
Cited in
Concentration in Agriculture
, p. 31.

“A free market requires”: Competition and the Livestock Market
, p. v.

139
Eight chicken processors now control:
Cited in
Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry
, p. 8.

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi now produce
: Ibid., p. A-3.

“I have an idea”:
Quoted in Monci Jo Williams, “McDonald’s Refuses to Plateau,”
Fortune
, November 12, 1984.

140
a new breed of chicken:
See Love,
Behind the Arches
, p. 342.

the second-largest purchaser of chicken
: Cited in Williams, “McDonald’s Refuses to Plateau.”

A chemical analysis of McNuggets:
The researcher was Dr. Frank Sacks, assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard University Medical School, and he utilized gas chromatography to analyze McNuggets for
Science Digest
. See “Study Raises Beef over Fast-Food Frying,”
Chicago Tribune
, March 11, 1986, and Irvin
Molotsky, “Risk Seen in Saturated Fats Used in Fast Foods,”
New York Times
, November 15, 1985.

140
still derive much of their flavor from beef additives:
The ingredients and fat profile of McNuggets can be found in “McDonald’s Nutrition Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, 1997.

“The impact of McNuggets”
: Quoted in Smith, “Changing Tastes.”

Twenty years ago, most chicken was sold whole: Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry
, p. 21.

In 1992 American consumption of chicken:
Cited in Linder, “I Gave My Employer a Chicken That Had No Bone,” p. 53.

Tyson now manufactures:
Cited in Sheila Edmundson, “Real Home of the McNugget Is Tyson,”
Memphis Business Journal
, July 9, 1999.

and sells chicken to ninety of the one hundred largest restaurant chains:
Cited in Douglas McInnis, “Super Chicken,”
Beef
, February 2000.

A Tyson chicken grower never owns:
Interview with Larry Holder, executive director of the National Contract Poultry Growing Association.

141
Most growers must borrow:
See Steven Bjerklie, “Dark Passage,”
Meat & Poultry
, (August 1994), as well as Dan Fesperman and Kate Shatzkin, “The Plucking of the American Chicken Farmer; From the Big Poultry Companies Comes a New Twist on Capitalism,”
Baltimore Sun
, February 28, 1999.

A 1995 survey by Louisiana Tech:
“Economic Returns for U.S. Broiler Producers,” National Contract Growers Institute study, completed with cooperation of researchers in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Louisiana Tech University, October 11,1995.

About half of the nation’s chicken growers:
Cited in Sheri Venena, “Growing Pains,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, October 18, 1998.

“We get the check first”:
Quoted ibid.

when the United States had dozens of poultry firms:
See Marj Charlier, “Chicken Economics: The Broiler Industry Consolidates, and That Is Bad News to Farmers,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 4, 1990.

142
“Our relationship with our growers”:
Quoted in Venena, “Growing Pains.”

A number of studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
The most recent study, issued by the USDA’s Economic Research Service in May 1999, found “no evidence… that increasing [packer] concentration results in lower farm prices” — a finding considered absurd and ridiculed by a number of ranchers and economists. Quoted in Anthan, “2 Reports Focus on Packers’ Profits.” See also “Meatpacking: Where’s the Big Beef?”
Bismarck Tribune
, May 9,1999.

Annual beef consumption in the United States:
See Chris Bastian and Glen Whipple, “Trends in Supply and Demand of Beef,”
Western Beef Producer
, October 1997.

A pound of chicken costs:
Cited in
Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry
, p. 19.

“alternative methods for selling fed cattle”:
Quoted in Alan Guebert, “Chew on This: USDA, Congress, Take on Meatpackers with Little Success,”
Pantagraph
, June 7, 1998.

143
Three of Archer Daniels Midland’s top officials:
For the prison terms, see Sharon Walsh, “Three Former Officials at ADM Get Jail Terms,”
Washington Post
, July 10, 1999. For the cost to farmers, see Sharon Walsh, “ADM Officials Found
Guilty of Price Fixing,”
Washington Post
, September 18, 1998. For a detailed account of the conspiracy, see Angela Wissman, “ADM Execs Nailed on Price-Fixing, May Do Time, Government Gets Watershed Convictions, But Company Still Dominates Lysine Market,”
Illinois Legal Times
, October 1998.

143
“We have a saying at this company”:
Quoted in Kurt Eichenwald, “Videotapes Take Star Role at Archers Daniels Midland Trial,”
New York Times
, August 4, 1998.

many ranchers were afraid to testify: See Concentration in Agriculture
, pp. 7, 29–30.

144
“It makes no sense for us”:
Quoted in Kevin O’ Hanlon, “Judge Clears Way for Al-abama Lawsuit Against Nation’s Largest Meatpacker,”
Associated Press
, May 4, 1999.

Colorado has lost roughly 1.5 million acres:
Cited in “A Report on the Conversion of Agricultural Land in Colorado,” Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Governor’s Task Force on Agricultural Lands, 1997.

eight of the nation’s top ten TV shows:
Cited in White,
It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own
, p. 613.

145
The median age of Colorado’s ranchers and farmers:
Cited in Sam Bingham, “Cattlemen Organize Land Trust: Ranchers’ Group Works to Keep Colorado Properties Agricultural,”
Denver Post
, June 22, 1997.