America's Great Potato Baron
America’s Great Potato Baron
Eric Schlosser’s biography “Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good” explains how this invention started out of a simple potato by a man named John R. Simplot who was raised on a farm, un-educated and by his own account, left home at a young age. According to Eric Schlosser’s claim, “John Richard Simplot, America’s great potato baron, whose seemingly inexhaustible energy and willingness to take risk built an empire base on French fries” (Schlosser par. 2).
The legacy of hard work, Simplot learned the business of processing potatoes. An early profit on pigs allowed J. R. Simplot to gain capital and buy machinery which let him to sort and process potatoes for farmers. According to Eric Schlosser’s statement, “Soon he was buying and selling potatoes, opening warehouses and forming relations with brokers” (Schlosser par. 4).
When war time shortages made it difficult to buy fertilizer, J. R. Simplot built a manufacturing plant in Aberdeen, Idaho and produced his own, adding laborer’s to assure the production lines and quality of the potatoes were running smoothly and processing “a million pounds of potatoes a day” (Schlosser par. 1). Eventually, J. R. Simplot started producing onions. Enormous amount of onions being shipped to a large corporation and out of his astonishment, J.R. Simplot could not understand why the orders were coming in large quantities. Therefore, J.R. Simplot did some investigation and the conclusion that other manufactures are producing dehydrated onions. Soon after, Simplot was also producing dehydrated onions and shipping dehydrated foods to the military.
Simply, it was the onions and now the new technology of producing a new method of dehydrated potatoes. A million pounds of spuds were being used by the military and being shipped by railcars. The leftovers of the potatoes were beneficial to feed the waste to cattle and livestock.
The kind of ingenuity and determination continued of producing foods
Eric Schlosser’s biography “Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good” explains how this invention started out of a simple potato by a man named John R. Simplot who was raised on a farm, un-educated and by his own account, left home at a young age. According to Eric Schlosser’s claim, “John Richard Simplot, America’s great potato baron, whose seemingly inexhaustible energy and willingness to take risk built an empire base on French fries” (Schlosser par. 2).
The legacy of hard work, Simplot learned the business of processing potatoes. An early profit on pigs allowed J. R. Simplot to gain capital and buy machinery which let him to sort and process potatoes for farmers. According to Eric Schlosser’s statement, “Soon he was buying and selling potatoes, opening warehouses and forming relations with brokers” (Schlosser par. 4).
When war time shortages made it difficult to buy fertilizer, J. R. Simplot built a manufacturing plant in Aberdeen, Idaho and produced his own, adding laborer’s to assure the production lines and quality of the potatoes were running smoothly and processing “a million pounds of potatoes a day” (Schlosser par. 1). Eventually, J. R. Simplot started producing onions. Enormous amount of onions being shipped to a large corporation and out of his astonishment, J.R. Simplot could not understand why the orders were coming in large quantities. Therefore, J.R. Simplot did some investigation and the conclusion that other manufactures are producing dehydrated onions. Soon after, Simplot was also producing dehydrated onions and shipping dehydrated foods to the military.
Simply, it was the onions and now the new technology of producing a new method of dehydrated potatoes. A million pounds of spuds were being used by the military and being shipped by railcars. The leftovers of the potatoes were beneficial to feed the waste to cattle and livestock.
The kind of ingenuity and determination continued of producing foods
Cited: Schlosser, Eric. “Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good.” POV -Food, Inc. Aug. 2001. Web. 10 June 2011. .