CYOA - French Fry Connection

For our CYOA, in anticipation of our next assignment, we decided to find an example of explanatory narrative. We considered choosing the Ted Conover article, but while we recommend everyone read that anyway at their leisure, we instead opted for Richard Read's Pulitzer Prize-winning four-part article "The French Fry Connection," which follows a shipment of McDonalds french fries from potato crop to preparation in McDonalds locations in Asia, and explores the Asian economic crisis through this lens.

This narrative was originally published in The Oregonian in four parts over the course of four issues in 1998. The first part can be found here, at the University of Chicago Press website; each subsequent part is linked at the bottom of each page.

As you read, we urge you to consider the following questions:

1. How effective is this as an explanatory/enterprise-type narrative?
2. How does Read develop the relationship between the Pacific Northwest farmers and Asian business partners in his narrative?
3. Did this capture your attention as a reader? Could you follow the narrative with your current level of familiarity with the subject matter?
4. After reading this, have you taken away more knowledge of the world economy? Did the subject matter explored in this narrative change your understanding of the intricacies of business relationships?

Happy reading!
Saskia and Tanj