The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business - Hardcover

Leonard, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1451645813 ISBN 13: 9781451645811

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2014

Synopsis

An investigative journalist takes you inside the corporate meat industry—a shocking, in-depth report every American should read.

The biggest takeover in American business that you’ve n ever heard of

The American supermarket seems to represent the best in America: abundance, freedom, choice. But that turns out to be an illusion. The rotisserie chicken, the pepperoni, the cordon bleu, the frozen pot pie, and the bacon virtually all come from four companies.

In The Meat Racket, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation’s meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the greatest capitalist country in the world has an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat and a high-tech sharecropping system to make that possible.

Forty years ago, more than thirty-six companies produced half of all the chicken Americans ate. Now there are only three that make that amount, and they control every aspect of the process, from the egg to the chicken to the chicken nugget. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And tragically, big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system.

We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us. In that sense, Leonard has exposed our heartland’s biggest scandal.

About this title

Review

"Cruelty, greed, and monopoly power--that is what Christopher Leonard has found at the heart of America's meat packing industry. This book offers a devastating portrait of an industry's irresponsible behavior."--Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

"Leonard's primary concern is the grim and gripping story of how American meat went industrial. But he also spins a nuanced tale of how the family farm was America's first small business--and what we've lost by letting it go. A fascinating read."--Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating

"I will admit when I picked up this book, it was more with the sense that it was something I should read than something that would be a page turner. And yet it immediately drew me in. Christopher Leonard's power is the ability to capture the human lives caught within the system, particularly the farmers but also the employees who helped build the corporations... this book is a compelling reminder that we all have a stake in how this business is conducted."--Sarah J. Gardner "Radish Magazine "

"A meticulous exposé of the meat industry . . . also telling a broader story about American business, consumerism, and--most of all--greed. . . . What makes The Meat Racket stand out is Leonard's superb storytelling and his clear passion for the topic. . . . He is a man on a mission--and that is clearly the best kind of reporter to write a book like this."--Jessica Valenti "Bookforum "

"Brilliant...a book that at times burns slow and hot with outrage and at other times proceeds at the ecstatic pace of a thriller."--New York Times Book Review

"Only a very good writer could turn a story about chickens, hogs and cattle into a thriller, and Leonard is that. He brings his characters to life. . . . The book is a scary portrait of capitalism run amok."--Bethany McLean, The Washington Post

"Gripping...The Meat Racket is a riveting book, and the picture Mr. Leonard paints is a disturbing one."--Wall Street Journal

"Leonard's book argues that a handful of companies, led by Tyson, control our meat industry in ways that raise concerns about the impact on animals and humans alike, while tearing at the fabric of rural America."--Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

"One of the best books of investigative reporting that I've seen in quite a while...if you think muckraking is dead or even on its last legs, The Meat Racket is proof positive that it's very much alive. The big question is whether or not there are any reformers and regulators left who have the will and the strength to pick up the ball and run with it."--Strategy + Business

"A fascinating look at what has happened in the past decades to the meat business as huge companies essentially staged a takeover while no one, except struggling farmers, paid mind."--New York Daily News

About the Author

Christopher Leonard is a Schmidt Family Foundation Fellow with The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, DC. He is the former national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press and a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He lives outside Washington, DC.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1451645813
• ISBN 13: 9781451645811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 370