In Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good excerpt, the audience gets a peek inside of the not-so-private Simplot plant whose conveyor belts and white coat workers fostered J.R Simplot’s empire of french fries. Today, the Simplot plant is located in Aberdeen, Idaho, although Simplot’s family originated in Dubuque, Iowa. Simplot was willing to gamble his life away at the ripe age of fifteen when he left home to become a potato farmer at age sixteen. Simplot’s success started with the flip of a coin which gave him the power to hold his future as a multibillionaire in the mechanics of his electric potato sorter. Being the processed food prophet of his era, Simplot, again, put all his chips in and invested in the new-aged frozen food technology and hit it big when he met with Ray Kroc and sealed the deal to McDonald’s. The nation’s eating habits were forever changed as Americans no longer desired boiled, mashed, or baked; they now preferred their potatoes as french fries.
Simplot’s success had just as much to do with the hand-held potato sorter devices as it did his understanding of the culture that he lived in. He was conscientious of what working men, stay-at-home moms, and children were craving in life and on their plates. Much to Stephen Schneider’s dismay, Simplot redefined the term gastronomy for the human race, just not in a good, clean, and fair way. He put food behind the steering wheel instead of at the center of our tables, an endeavor that ultimately reconstructed the human culture as we knew it.
"POV - Food, Inc. . Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good (Excerpt) | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Nov. 2010.
Simplot’s success had just as much to do with the hand-held potato sorter devices as it did his understanding of the culture that he lived in. He was conscientious of what working men, stay-at-home moms, and children were craving in life and on their plates. Much to Stephen Schneider’s dismay, Simplot redefined the term gastronomy for the human race, just not in a good, clean, and fair way. He put food behind the steering wheel instead of at the center of our tables, an endeavor that ultimately reconstructed the human culture as we knew it.
"POV - Food, Inc. . Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good (Excerpt) | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Nov. 2010.
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