Frank Ford

{{Infobox person | name=Jesse Frank Ford​ (Founder of Arrowheas Mills; pioneer of the natural foods industry)​ | birth_date = January 16, 1933​ | birth_place=Hereford, Deaf Smith County, Texas, USA​
Resident of Irvine, Orange County, [[California) | death_date=February 2, 2011 (aged 78) | death_place=Fallbrook, San Diego County,
California | party=Democrat​ |religion=Nondenominational Christian​
Alma mater:
Texas A&M University
Notes:

• Ford was the chief advertiser for the natural foods industry, as it was developing during the 1960s and 1970s.​
  
• Ford has worn many hats: commander of the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets, founder of Arrowhead Mills, social and political activist, environmentalist, and organizer for the Campus Crusade for Christ.​
  
• In 2008, health problems forced Ford to abandon his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Representative Darrell Issa in California.​

}}​ ​ Jesse Frank Ford, known as Frank Ford (January 16, 1933 – February 2, 2011), was a Texas farmer and health-foods advocate who in 1960 founded Arrowhead Mills, the largest natural foods wholesaler in the United States. The company is based in his native Hereford in Deaf Smith County west of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. Arrowhead Mills removes impurities from corn and wheat and farms without pesticides.​

Background

​ Ford was the son of Jesse Ford (1894–1969). As a teenager, Ford worked in a grocery store in Hereford. He graduated in 1955 from Texas A&M University in College Station with a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy. He was commander of theTAMU Corps of Cadets] and was active in the Campus Crusade for Christ and its related Athletes in Action. Himself nondenominational, Ford supported the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and advocated a "less-is-more" approach to living and spirituality.​ ​ ==Arrowhead Mills==​ ​ Arrowhead Mills operates four warehouses, containing more than 30,000 square feet of storage space, and holds tons of food for shipment to a nationwide network of distributors.​ ​ Ford sought to provide large-scale stone grinding of grain and to maintain natural soil nutrition. He took the view that all farming should first maintain and then improve the soil. He served as chairman of the National Nutritional Food Association. During the formative years of Arrowhead Mills, Ford personally did most of the growing, grinding, sacking, trucking, warehousing, shipping, and bookkeeping. Slowly, the investment of time, money, and energy began to pay dividends from the increased national awareness of organic foods and sound nutrition. Ford also was an advertising spokesman for the natural food industry during the 1960s and 1970s.​ ​ Ford said that he is convinced that "the natural-foods movement is [not] over the hill at all. In fact, I think it's just coming into its own. The rest of the country is finally beginning to realize that we have to conserve our resources and utilize them correctly . . . that whole foods are best and natural growing methods are really the most efficient."

References

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