I'm not completely sure the author is making the case they intend... growing up, my uncle spent decades in the fry business - if you ate a french fry in a QSR anywhere west of the Mississippi anywhere from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, there's a strong likelihood he was responsible for growing the potatoes. There was far more technology, competition, and corporate espionage than one might expect for such a seemingly dull product. And, historically there was market segmentation too - QSR vs consumer, fries vs hash browns vs tots, things like sweet potato fries were an altogether different deal. Has there been consolidation in agriculture? Of course - but that's been going on for decades, and there's a reason one of the biggest players is named Con[solidated]Agra[culture]. Industry (QSRs, for example) expect consistency and timeliness, where the companies that could grow and consolidate the fastest beat out the regional players - decades ago. So while the author makes many factual observations, it's not clear why this article is timely for today rather than a couple decades ago when the war was actually being fought.