Here's the short answer to why fast food is so successful: it's quick, cheap and tasty. Plus, you never have to leave your car. But like the reeking dumpster behind a brightly lit McDonald's, there's a nasty side to fast food success. It's quick because of an assembly line kitchen that relies on low-paid, unskilled workers. It's cheap thanks to subsidized agribusiness giants that control massive factory farms. It's tasty because fast food is loaded with three things humans crave: sugar, salt and fatÉplus plenty of preservatives, dyes, antibiotics and growth hormones. And the drive-thru window is emblematic of the car culture and the sprawling development of American cities.

Eric Schlosser
Journalist Eric Schlosser examines both marijuana and immigrant labor in his book "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market". He's also the author of the widely acclaimed best-seller, "Fast Food Nation." Eric Schlosser is an award-winning correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.