Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World (50 page)

“Those who hope we shall move”:
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World
(New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 36.

237
“And the merry clowns”:
George Cohon,
To Russia with Fries
(Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999), p. xi.

He reportedly earned $160,000:
Cited in Maura Reynolds, “Russians Watch Gorbachev Pizza Ad,”
AP
, December 23, 1997.

“all my money is gone”:
The German publication was
Bunte
. Quoted in James Meek, “How Last Soviet Leader Lost His Roubles,”
Guardian
(London), December 30, 1998.

a fee of $150,000 and the use of a private jet:
Cited in Margaret Coker, “Siegfried and Gorby?”
Business Week
, February 15, 1999.

“As if things weren’t good enough”:
The executive was Bob O’Brien, president of NPD Foodservice Information Group.

“sensory evaluation specialist”:
The speaker was Richard Popper, vice president of Peryam & Kroll Marketing Sensory Research.

238
“A growing number of groups”:
Mr. Nugent’s speech, as well as all the others, was recorded by Convention Tapes International, Miami, Florida.

240
the highest obesity rate:
Cited in Elizabeth Gleick, “Land of the Fat,”
Time International Edition
, October 25, 1999.

More than half of all American adults and about one-quarter of all American children:
Cited in James O. Hill and James C. Peters, “Environmental Contributions to the Obesity Epidemic,”
Science
, May 29, 1998.

The rate of obesity among American adults… among American children:
See Gary Taubes, “Demographics: As Obesity Rates Rise, Experts Struggle to Explain Why,”
Science
, May 29, 1998.

“We’ve got the fattest, least fit”:
Quoted in Maggie Fox, “U.S.: Obesity Will Be Hard to Treat, Experts Say,”
AAP Newsfeed,
May 29, 1998.

about 44 million American adults are obese… 6 million are “super-obese”:
The adult population of the United States is about 200 million. Twenty-two percent of the nation’s adults are obese and 3 percent are super-obese. See Jeffrey P. Koplon and William H. Dietz, “Caloric Imbalance and Public Health Policy,”
Journal of the American Medical Society
, October 27, 1999; “Resident Population Projections, by Age and Sex,”
Statistical Abstract
, p. 17.

A recent study:
Ali H. Mokdad, Mary K. Serdula, William H. Dietz, Barbara A. Bowman, James S. Marks, Jeffrey P. Koplon, “The Spread of the Obesity Epidemic in the United States, 1991–1998,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
, October 27, 1999.

when people eat more and move less:
See Hill and Peters, “Environmental Contributions”; Eric Ravussian and Elliot Danforth, Jr., “Human Physiology: Beyond Sloth — Physical Activity and Weight Gain,”
Science
, January 8, 1999.

241
per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks:
Cited in Jacobson, “Liquid Candy.”

During the late 1950s the typical soft drink order:
Cited in Judy Putnam, “U.S. Food Supply Providing More Food and Calories,”
USDA Food Review
, October 1, 1999.

more fat than ten of the chain’s milk shakes:
See “Nutritional Information,” CKE Restaurants.

“Consumers savor the flavor”:
Kate MacArthur, “Fast Feeders Find Sizzle by Bringing on the Bacon,”
Advertising Age
, March 27, 2000. See also Michael Pearson, “Lower Production, Higher Demand for Fast Food Bacon Restores Profitability to Hog Farming,”
AP
, April 20, 2000.

A decade ago, restaurants sold about 20 percent:
Ibid.

second only to smoking:
See Koplon and Dietz, “Caloric Imbalance.”

about 280,000 Americans die every year:
Cited in Joyce Howard Price, “Fat Chance: The Goverment’s War on Obesity,”
Washington Post
, January 30, 2000.

242
now approach $240 billion:
See Maggie Fox, “Obesity Costs U.S. $238 Billion a Year — Survey,”
Reuters
, September 15, 1999.

$33 billion on various weight-loss schemes:
Cited in Robert Jablon, “Studies Show Obesity on Rise in U.S.,”
AP,
October 26, 1999.

Obesity has been linked to:
See William C. Willett, William H. Dietz, and Graham A. Colditz, “Guidelines for Healthy Weight,”
New England Journal of Medicine
, August 5, 1999; Aviva Must, Jennifer Spadano, Eugenie H. Coakley, Allison E. Field, Graham Colditz, and William H. Dietz, “The Disease Burden Associated with Overweight and Obesity,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
, October 27, 1999.

A 1999 study by the American Cancer Society:
See Katherine Webster, “Study: Obesity Can Shorten Lifespan,”
AP
, October 6, 1999.

“The message is we’re too fat”:
The researcher is Eugenia Calle, quoted ibid.

Severely obese American children:
See Dennis Michael Styne, “Childhood Obesity: Time for Action, Not Complacency,”
American Family Physician
, February 15, 1999.

the number of fast food restaurants in Great Britain:
Cited in Gleick, “Land of the Fat.”

and so did the obesity rate among adults:
Cited in Gary Taubes, “Demographics: Weight Increases Worldwide?”
Science
, May 29, 1998

The British now eat more fast food:
Cited in Kate Watson Smyth, “Britons Eating 7M Pounds of Fast Food Every Day,”
Independent
, May 13, 1999.

They also have the highest obesity rate:
Cited in Gleick, “Land of the Fat.”

less of a problem in Italy and Spain:
Ibid.

where spending on fast food is relatively low:
See Smyth, “Britons Eating 7M Pounds”; “Fast Food Is Taking Over the World,”
USA Today Magazine
, May 1, 1999; Dita Smith, “What on Earth? Fast-Food Feast,”
Washington Post
, May 27, 2000.

In China, the proportion of overweight teenagers:
Cited in Simon Pollock, “China’s Biggest ‘Little Emperors’ Struggle to Tone Up,”
Japan Economic Newswire
, August 18, 1999.

In Japan, eating hamburgers:
For a good account of how eating habits were transformed in Japan, see Mark Hammond and Jacqueline Ruyak, “The Decline of the Japanese Diet: MacArthur to McDonald’s,”
East West
, October 1990.

242
the sale of fast food in Japan more than doubled:
Ibid.

the rate of obesity among children:
The statistic comes from the Japanese Education Ministry. Cited in “Western Fast Food Is Blamed for Overweight Children,”
Food Labeling News
, May 13, 1998.

about one-third of all Japanese men in their thirties:
See Joseph Coleman, “More Japanese Men Are Overweight,”
AP
, June 15, 1998; “Time to Trim the Fat of the Land,”
Japan Times
, November 14, 1999.

243
a study of middle-aged Japanese men:
The Ni-Hon-San Study is described in Hammond and Ruyack, “MacArthur to McDonald.” See also Jeanette G. Kernicki, “A Multicultural Perspective on Cardiovascular Disease,”
Journal of Cardiovascular Nurses
, July 1997.

American children now get about one-quarter:
Cited in Janet McConnaughey, “Chips, Fries Big Part of Kids’ Diet,”
AP
, September 5, 1999.

A survey of children’s advertising:
See “A Spoonful of Sugar — Television Food Advertising Aimed at Children: An International Comparative Survey,” Consumers International, London, November 1996; “Advertising to Children: UK the Worst in Europe,”
Food Magazine
, January/March 1997.

“Resist America beginning with Cola”:
Quoted in Philip F. Zeidman, “Globalization: A Hard Pill to Swallow?”
Franchising World
, July/August 1999.

“Maybe they think it’s Italian”:
Quoted in “U.S. Companies in China Keeping Low Profile,”
Colorado Springs Gazette
, May 11,1999.

“lousy food”:
The French phrase for what Bove scorns is “la mal-bouffe.” See Sophie Meunier, “The French Exception,”
Foreign Affairs
, August 2000.

244
largest purchaser of agricultural commodities in France:
Cited in Carla Power, “McParadox,”
Newsweek International
, July 10, 2000.

“servile slaves at the service of agribusiness”:
Quoted in John Lloyd, “The Trial of Jose Bove,”
Financial Times
, July 1, 2000.

“Non à McMerde”:
Quoted in John Lichfield, “St. Jose Makes His Stand Against the Chicken ‘McMerde,’”
Independent
, July 1,2000.

“epitomises everything we despise”:
Quoted in Christopher Dunkley, “The Greens Take a Bite at Big Mac,”
Financial Times
, May 17, 1997.

245
“What’s Wrong with McDonald’s?”:
See “What’s Wrong with McDonald’s? Everything They Don’t Want You to Know,” London Greenpeace, 1986.

246
McDonald’s threatened to sue at least fifty:
See Vidal,
McLibel
, pp. 46–47.

about $18 billion:
“McDonald’s History Listing,” McDonald’s Corporation, 1996.

the court record included 40,000 pages of documents:
Cited in Colleen Graffy, “Big Mac Bited Back,”
American Bar Association Journal
, August 1997.

247
McDonald’s did “exploit” children:
Quoted in Dick Beveridge, “McDonald’s Wins Marathon Libel Case, but Loses Publicity Battle,”
AP
, June 19, 1997.

“McDonald’s don’t deserve a penny”:
Quoted ibid.

248
During the trial, Sidney Nicholson… officers belonging to Special Branch:
See testimony of Sidney Nicholson,
McDonald’s, McDonald’s Restaurants, Ltd., v Helen Steel, David Morris
, Day 249, May 14, 1996, pp. 32–38.

“At no time did I believe they were dangerous”:
Quoted in “Interview: McDonald’s Spy Fran Tiller on Infiltration and Subterfuge, Big Mac Style,”
www.McSpotlight.org.

248
For Dave Morris, perhaps the most disturbing moment:
Interview with Dave Morris.

249
some of the similarities between Dave Morris and Ray Kroc: See Vidal, McLibel
, pp 58–62.

“Fitting into a finely working machine”:
Quoted in Nick Hasell, “McDonald’s Long March,”
Management Today
, September 1994.

250
Plauen has lost about 10 percent of its population:
Interview with Markus Schneider.

251
Plauen’s unemployment rate is about 20 percent:
Ibid.

“It was dumb luck”:
Quoted in Roger Thurow, “For East German Pair, McDonald’s Serves Up an Economic Parable,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 8, 1999.

a third of the young people in eastern Germany:
Cited in Leonard Ziskin, “Fa and Antifa in the Fatherland,”
Nation
, October 5,1998.