Chapter 5: Why The Fries Taste Good

Chapter 5: Why the Fries Taste Good (Page 111-132)
John Richard Simplot is the owner and founder of the J.R. Simplot plant. This plant is in Aberdeen, Idaho and process potatoes into french-fries. J.R Simplot was born on 1909 in Dubuque, Iowa and eventually moved to Idaho. When he turned fifteen, worked at a potato warehouse in Idaho, and when he turned sixteen, he became a potato farmer. In the 1920s Simplot and his partner Lindsay Margaret bought an electric potato sorter. Simplot wanted to expose and sell this device to the other farmers, but Margaret disagreed. In the end, Simplot won a bet against Margaret and was able to sell the equipment. After selling this equipment, he started his business of potato cellar in Delco with the money

Simplot plant. This plant is in Aberdeen, Idaho and process potatoes into french-fries. J.R Simplot was born on 1909 in Dubuque, Iowa and eventually moved to Idaho. When he turned fifteen, worked at a potato warehouse in Idaho, and when he turned sixteen, he became a potato farmer. In the 1920s Simplot and his partner Lindsay Margaret bought an electric potato sorter. Simplot wanted to expose and sell this device to the other farmers, but Margaret disagreed. In the end, Simplot won a bet against Margaret and was able to sell the equipment. After selling this equipment, he started his business of potato cellar in Delco with the money he earned from selling the machine. In his company, he delivered potatoes and onions, which was very successful. By the time he was thirty-six years old, he bought potato farms and cattle ranchers and built fertilizing plants and lumber

Because of this, most farmers are selling off their farms to large companies or taking other side jobs to support themselves. Another reason why farmers are going out of business is because most businesses are using only large companies for their products. For instance in 1968, McDonald's had 175 independent meat suppliers, but now there are only five meat suppliers. The large companies have shared their information and cut down meat prices in order to take over the small farms. In 1970, the top four companies produced twenty-one percent of the meat, but now they produce eighty-four percent of the