2-22 IAT JR Genius

 In Idaho, JR Simplot is a legend. A self-made man who made more money than anybody knows what to do with. Will find out why in a minute.

 I had a fascinating conversation recently with Don Odiorne, from the Idaho Potato Commission and he reminisced about how much respect he had for JR Simplot and gave examples of why JR was so successful. “JR Simplot’s ability to look at business and leave no stone unturned at one point in time started a tilapia farm. It’s amazing that he picked a warm water fish to bring up to Idaho. He created a market that is now very strong for tilapia but back then was pretty much an unknown. He had filets going to food service and bones going to bone meal for fertilizer and bits and pieces going to cat food. If it was wasting or sitting in a pile someplace, he would say what are we going to do with this stuff, how can we sell it? He was finding all kinds of applications all the time. Over in Pocatello he bought some fertilizer and put it on a field after hearing that it would give you better yield for potatoes. When he applied it he only got halfway through the field and then when the potatoes were harvested there was a huge difference between the part of the field that had fertilizer and the part that did not so he started a fertilizer plant over in Pocatello.