Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser

What does it have to do with Kern County?

Bakersfield is # 1 in California in having more fast food options as it has supermarkets. How can we as engaged citizens encourage commercial development that is diverse yet balanced?

27% of adults in Kern County are obese on the body mass index scale, 7% have diabetes and 11% have heart disease.

E. coli outbreaks and food-borne illnesses, which author Eric Schlosser researched extensively in the late 1990’s, are still occurring. What measures must be taken to ensure a safe, yet still affordable food supply?

Local adults 50 and over remember a time when most of our shopping and restaurant visits were to locally owned neighborhood establishments. The historical significance of our now widely franchised American marketplace deserves our recognition, study, and discussion.

Each of us as citizens needs to look at and examine the effect our food choices as a society have on our national and personal health, our culture, and our environment.