Outline+for+Chapter+5

=Ch 5-Why the fries taste good=

__Main Points__ The potato industry found its roots in the fields of a man named John Simplot. He began the production of mass agriculture for the potato and was the first to dehydrate and process potatoes for long shelf lives. At the time, he was the only name in the potato industry. Due to the food processing boom of the 1950's, he began the mass production of frozen French fries for home use. Due to low sales, he began selling his frozen French fries to McDonalds, who quickly began using them in all of their stores, allowing them to have a greater consistency of product, and 4 times as many stores around the country. In 1960 the average American ate 4 pounds of French fries. That number today is 30 pounds. The potato industry neglects the farmers. For every case of fries, only 2 cents of the money goes to the famers, and the companies mark up the price of the potatoes by 2000%. The system of mass agriculture makes it impossible for independent farmers to survive. In 1990 when McDonalds switched from beef oil to vegetable oil, they needed a new source of flavor for their fries. They now rely on chemical compounds that taste like beef. The flavor industry is led in America by a company named IFF, who produces flavors from Pop Tarts to burger meat. They do this because processing food takes away its flavor, and the aroma of food accounts for 90% of its flavor. They produce chemicals which mimic the smells of food. The smell of food is most closely related to its desirable taste as well, creating a fond memory and desire for the food. The texture of food is also chemically engineered. These chemicals are not required to be put on the food label by the FDA and many if the "natural" flavors are produced in labs as well. All of the processed food served at fast food restaurants is mass produced off site in a mechanical factory. __Rhetorical Strategies__
 * Ethos: This chapter starts out describing your average farmer with the name of John Richard Simplot. Simplot built his potato businesses from the ground and worked his way to the top. The author goes and interviews the people and the "flavorists" at the factory.
 * Logos: There were many interesting stats.
 * "Fast food companies purchase frozen fries for about 30 cents a pound, reheat them in oil, then sell them for about $6 a pound," (117).
 * "Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of fries at a fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer who grew the potatoes," (117). This could also be pathos because it makes the reader feel sorry for the farmer.
 * Cataloging: All of the chemicals found in a strawberry Burger King milkshake are listed on pages 125-126.
 * Antithesis: "J.R. Simplot, an eighth-grade dropout, is now one of the richest men in the United States," (115).
 * Pathos - He sepcifically states how children are the most succeptible to becoming dependent and addicted to the chemical flavoring.

__Quotes__ __Vocab__
 * "The basic science behind the scent of your shaving cream is the same as that governing the flavor of your TV dinner," (122).
 * "Besides being a multibillionaire, J.R. Simplot has few pretentions. He wears cowboy boots and blue jeans, eats at McDonald's, and drives his own car, a Lincoln continental with license plates that say 'MR. SPUD,'" (116).
 * The last sentence of chapter 5 reads as follows: "the fries were delicious--crisp and golden brown, made from potatoes that had been in the ground that morning. I finished them and asked for more," (131).
 * "You increasingly find two classes of people in rural Idaho: the people who run the famrs and the people who own them" (118).
 * "The only thing I did smart, and just remember this-- ninety nine percent of people would have sold out when they got their first twenty five or thirty milllion. I didn't sell out. I just hung on" (Simplot).
 * p.131 centrifugal (adj) moving or directed outward from the center
 * p.127 cosmopolitan (adj) familiar and at ease in many different countries and cultures.