What does Fast Food Nation reveal about American culture?

Schlosser's Fast Food Nation is an unflinching look at American culture through the prism of the fast food industry. One of the themes of the book is the degree to which this really is an industry: we are a nation of industrial food.
The book also addresses the ways in which Americans have adopted a monoculture, meaning that there are the same chain restaurants, department stores, movie theaters, and retail shops in nearly every city in America. Schlosser asserts that fast food is so beloved because it answers a typical American problem: our need for convenience.
That desire for fast and convenient food is also necessary at this point because it has created millions of jobs and, in some cases, entire new business models. He discusses the Idaho farmers who, essentially, farm potatoes for one or two companies, most notably McDonald's. Schlosser is particularly hard on the meat packing industry that supplies fast food with virtually all of our protein, calling it "The most dangerous job in America."
Fast food has other influences on American culture: it is directly linked to obesity, particularly in children, and it has created millions of jobs, virtually all of which are low-paying positions for the working poor. US culture has also been affected by fast food's willingness to market to children, inextricably linking food with the characters in their children's meals, which has probably been a major factor in the obesity crisis.