Who is Nathan Meeker from Fast Food Nation and what is their importance?

Nathan Meeker is a New York newspaper editor who envisioned a better life in the west, Meeker founded Greeley, Colorado, a small town dedicated to education, agriculture, and morality. His town thrived, growing beans, grains and sugar beets. Though he was killed by Ute Indians, Greeley survived intact until the meat packing industry moved in after the Depression. Today, Greeley is a filthy, smelly place, populated by poverty-stricken meat-packing workers. Education is of poor quality, there is little agriculture to speak of, and the slums spawn drugs and crime.