Schlosser, Eric. "Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good (Excerpt)." PBS. 26 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. <www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/fastfoodnation_01.php>.
In Eric Scholsser's Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good excerpt, we initially visit J.R. Simplot at his potato plant in Aberdeen, Idaho. And although the plant is square and unassuming, the inside activity, and J.R. himself, are not. A million pounds of potatoes are processed here daily. They are washed, sorted, peeled, sliced, blanched, blow dried, fried, and flash frozen. At sixteen, J.R. Simplot took the initial steps to becoming one of the richest men in the United States. He became a potato farmer after quitting school at fifteen, leaving home, where he became a potato sorter for a while. After winning a flip of the coin argument with his landlord over an electric potato sorter they shared, his business took off. Eventually, J.R. Simplot "invested heavily in frozen food technology", and wanted to think of a frozen food that would be appealing and profitable to homemakers...enter the frozen fry. With his chemists, Simplot "wanted to create an inexpensive frozen fry that tasted just as good as a fresh one." He did, and what came next was extremely profitable. With the shake of their hands, Ray Kroc of McDonald's and J.R. Simplot made a deal to produce the best tasting frozen fries in the fast food business. By using frozen as opposed to fresh, Kroc was able to "ensure uniformity and maintain the quality/consistency of the fries." Today, Simplot is still the sole producer of McDonald's french fries.
Simplot was not just successful in the potato business. He is also one of the nation's largest landowners. His company has acquired over 85,000 of irrigated farmland, and he personally owns more than twice that amount of ranchland. Between the acreage and other land holdings, Simplot controls land that's bigger than the state of Delaware. That's a lot of land indeed!!
This excerpt is in contrast to Steven Schneider's Good, Clean, Fair: The Rhetoric of Slow Food Movement article. Schneider tries to keep the food relationship intertwined within the land's geography, helping us return to a slow paced way of life, savoring life and food itself. Simplot and his food processing businesses on the other hand, contributes and promotes to mass food production, the fast paced life, and the fast food nation as a whole. What irony.
In Eric Scholsser's Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good excerpt, we initially visit J.R. Simplot at his potato plant in Aberdeen, Idaho. And although the plant is square and unassuming, the inside activity, and J.R. himself, are not. A million pounds of potatoes are processed here daily. They are washed, sorted, peeled, sliced, blanched, blow dried, fried, and flash frozen. At sixteen, J.R. Simplot took the initial steps to becoming one of the richest men in the United States. He became a potato farmer after quitting school at fifteen, leaving home, where he became a potato sorter for a while. After winning a flip of the coin argument with his landlord over an electric potato sorter they shared, his business took off. Eventually, J.R. Simplot "invested heavily in frozen food technology", and wanted to think of a frozen food that would be appealing and profitable to homemakers...enter the frozen fry. With his chemists, Simplot "wanted to create an inexpensive frozen fry that tasted just as good as a fresh one." He did, and what came next was extremely profitable. With the shake of their hands, Ray Kroc of McDonald's and J.R. Simplot made a deal to produce the best tasting frozen fries in the fast food business. By using frozen as opposed to fresh, Kroc was able to "ensure uniformity and maintain the quality/consistency of the fries." Today, Simplot is still the sole producer of McDonald's french fries.
Simplot was not just successful in the potato business. He is also one of the nation's largest landowners. His company has acquired over 85,000 of irrigated farmland, and he personally owns more than twice that amount of ranchland. Between the acreage and other land holdings, Simplot controls land that's bigger than the state of Delaware. That's a lot of land indeed!!
This excerpt is in contrast to Steven Schneider's Good, Clean, Fair: The Rhetoric of Slow Food Movement article. Schneider tries to keep the food relationship intertwined within the land's geography, helping us return to a slow paced way of life, savoring life and food itself. Simplot and his food processing businesses on the other hand, contributes and promotes to mass food production, the fast paced life, and the fast food nation as a whole. What irony.
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