Othello, Wash., produces 1.5 billion pounds of french fries a year.

Consider, if you will, the french fry. It is no more than a slice of potato that is fried and served with ketchup — or, for our neighbors to the north in Canada, gravy.

Yet the french fry is a perfect example of how well the free market system works. In places like Othello, Wash., 1.5 billion pounds of french fries are produced every year. That’s the weight of seven aircraft carriers and represents 15% of french fry production in North America.

For the record, Othello has a population of 8,700.

Othello is at the center of the “Potato Belt,” which stretches from Hermiston, Ore., north to Coulee City, Wash. This is where an additional 4.5 billion pounds of fries are produced each year. 

That massive production is the result of efficient farmers growing potatoes perfectly suited for efficient processing plants to make french fries and other frozen potato products.

It’s a symbiotic relationship. 

Processors need farmers to be profitable, and farmers need processors to be profitable, said Dale Lathim, executive director of the Potato Growers of Washington.

We occasionally hear critics talk about “fixing” the U.S. food system. They say it’s somehow “unfair.” We assume that’s because they don’t control it. 

That thought makes us shudder. 

The U.S. free market system is a modern miracle, and the way food is a grown and sold is perhaps the best example of what’s right with it. Around the nation, farmers, ranchers and orchardists grow a wide variety of crops to meet the demands of 326 million Americans.

A shopper can walk into any grocery store in the U.S. and find fresh fruits and vegetables and a massive variety of meats, seafood and other foods available to buy. The typical super market carries 39,500 items on its shelves.

These items are available year-round. Our readers who have a few gray hairs will remember when that wasn’t the case. Winter meant that fresh vegetables were off the menu.

Today, fruit and vegetables that are out of season in the U.S. are imported from Mexico, Chile and other nations whose climates are appropriate.

Shoppers in the U.S. — and many parts of the world — can choose any foods they want. Whether their diet is vegetarian, vegan, organic and anything else, those foods are readily available and affordable.

Othello, Wash., and a thousand other cities and towns large and small combine their efforts to feed the nation. They process every food from french fries to filet mignon and from bacon bits to baking flour.

It is a credit to them and the free-market economy. The “food system” continues to work very well, thank you.