McDonalds & Simplot

McDonald's and Simplot not aligned. Something very interesting has occurred in the agribusiness world. First let me begin with the observation that JR Simplot and the Simplot company made a fortune with their McDonald's liaison. Being from the potato state, knowing that this country, make that the world, has an appetite for French fried potatoes, my guess is that good old JR pointed out to the McDonald's brass that he could give them an opportunity to make all the french fries that they could sell. The rest is history. McDonald's franchises have popped up like mushrooms in a warm, soggy field all over the world. A big part of their business? Burgers and fries. So, while it is probably not wise to speculate on the emotional connection between the Simplot family and the Kroc family, one has to believe that there were a lot of warm fuzzies. Mutual wealth can create very good feelings.

Changing the platform a little bit, I think it's fair to say that french fries would probably not be featured in many health food dictionaries and menus. But along comes the Simplot company with a GMO potato that has been engineered to reduce the amino acid Asparagine because Asparagine converts into acrylamide when it is deep-fried. Acrylamide has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in laboratory animals. Doug Cole, Marketing and Communications for the J. R. Simplot Company, "reduces asparagine which, when the consumer cooks a potato at high temperature, it converts to lower acrylamide. The new potato called Innate has 70% less asparagine." It is something of a mystery then why McDonald's has said no to using Simplot's new "healthier" potato.