Fall 2002 CAPE Events

Three Part Series on Ethical Issues on the topic of Fast Food and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation

Dr. Greger will discuss the health and ethical implications here and abroad of Mad Cow Disease and its human form variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as well as the role of contemporary animal agribusiness in the coming crisis. The number of European cases of this frightening and mysterious disease continues to increase rapidly with no end in sight. Dr. Greger will argue that the American beef industry continues to risk public safety and the USDA remains complacent, protecting business interests over those of the consumer.
Dr. Greger is a nationally recognized speaker on a number of important public health and social justice issues. An expert on Mad Cow Disease, he debated the National Cattleman's Beef Association Director before the FDA and was as an expert witness to defend Oprah Winfrey in the infamous "meat-defamation trial." Dr. Greger is a general practitioner specializing in vegetarian nutrition. He is the author of Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student and has contributed to a number of books on veganism and food safety issues. Dr. Greger is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine, where he was on the staff before deciding to participate full time in speaking engagements across the country.

Dr. Michael Greger, MD

What are the implications of a society in which hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day? How does the manner in which we eat and---and what we eat---impact the quality of our lives? What are the market and technological forces that, perhaps, without our knowing it, impact lifestyle decisions about what we eat? Does the fast food industry shape or merely respond to consumer demand? What is all the fuss about fast food? Is "slow food" better than fast food? If so, why?

Dennis Rothermel, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of Undergraduate Education (moderating)
Cindy Wolff, Nutrition and Food Sciences
Lee Altier, College of Agriculture
Jim Williams, President, CEO and Founder of Burger Hut

In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote of the beef industry: "This is no fairy story and no joke... [T]he meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one---there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit." In The Jungle, out of which this quote is taken, Sinclair argues that the incessant drive for corporate profits in a capitalistic society such as ours would inevitably result in a long list of practices in the meatpacking industry that would jeopardize human health. Was Sinclair right or was his depiction sensationalist? Is fast food, and in particular the beef products that serve as its constituent ingredients, safe? These days, with the impact of technology (e.g., genetic engineering; flavor factories) on the fast food industry and with the increasing reports of outbreaks of deadly strains of bacteria, such as E. coli 0157:H7, on the American public, Sinclair's concerns seem at least as pressing as they did 100 years ago. This panel will discuss the safety of the fast food industry as well as ask whether the corporate control of its food supply has impacted farmers and ranchers, as well as consumers, nation and worldwide.

Andrew Flescher, Director, CAPE (moderating)
Sam Beattie, Biological Sciences
Mark Stemen, Sociology
Dave Daley, Department of Agriculture