The interest in convenience foods merged with a change in eating habits as rising incomes meant consumers could afford more expensive foods, such as meats and fresh leafy green vegetables. This threatened many old staples of the American diet such as the potato, worsening the chronic problem of overproduction. Indeed, by the middle of the 20th century potato growers – especially in the eastern United States – suffered crop surpluses and lower prices. At the same time as demand diminished, production increased even as farmers planted fewer and fewer acres of potatoes. The reduction in acreage devoted to potato growing was more than offset by a phenomenal rise in yields per acre, from 122 bushels in 1939 to 250 by 1955.²

Potatoes were hardly the only U.S. crop plagued by overproduction as mechanization and newer and better crop varieties resulted in farmers producing more on less land. The inflation of the 1920s led to higher costs for consumer goods at a time when the prices farmers could charge for their goods were declining. The Great Depression followed, a deflationary era which drove commodity prices even lower, forcing many off the land and impoverishing those who remained. Congress responded to the crisis of American agriculture with the 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act which set up four United States Department of Agriculture regional research laboratories. Each center was to be in a major farm producing area and each was charged with finding new markets and uses for regional farm commodities.³

Philadelphia was chosen as the site for the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC), originally named the Eastern Utilization Research and Development Division (EURDD).⁴ The commodities traditionally assigned to it included fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, animal fats, and tanning materials. Much of the chemical engineering work at the ERRC has focused on developing processes to finding ways to converting perishable commodities into stable and convenient forms.⁵ By the 1950s a multidisciplinary team of chemists, chemical engineers, and food technologists at the ERRC zeroed in on the potato, attempting to reverse the decline in U.S. potato consumption.

¹ There are many excellent works on the 1950s, but for a good overview, see David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York, Villard Books, 1993).

² Philip B. Dwoskin and Milton Jacobs, Potato Flakes – A New Form of Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes: Market Position and Consumer Acceptance in Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City, New York, U.S, Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Marketing Division: Marketing Research Report No. 186 (1957): 2. The researchers were aware of the problems plaguing the potato crop. Interview with Michael Kozempel, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, January 30, 2007; interview with John Sullivan, conducted by Judah Ginsberg, January 31, 2007.

³ On American agriculture in the 20th century, see Bruce Gardner, American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002).

⁴ To avoid confusion, the facility will be referred to by its current name, the Eastern Regional Research Center.

⁵ Roderick K. Eskew, Howard I. Sinnanmon, Joseph B. Claffey, Nicholas C. Aceto, and James Cording, Jr., Engineering Research at the Eastern Utilization Research and Development Division: A 25th Anniversary Review, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (April 1966).