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

Written by Christopher Leonard

Narrated by John Pruden

How much do you know about the meat on your dinner plate? Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country's biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. Now he delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation's meat supply.



Leonard's revealing account shines a light on the inner workings of Tyson Foods, a pioneer of the industrial system that dominates the market. You'll learn how the food industry got to where it is today and how companies like Tyson have escaped the scrutiny they deserve. You'll discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And you'll even see how big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system, from a years-long legal fight in Iowa to the Obama administration's recent failed attempt to pass reforms.



Important, timely, and explosive, The Meat Racket is an unvarnished portrait of the food industry that now dominates America's heartland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781494570712

Christopher Leonard

Christopher Leonard is a business reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Meat Racket and Kochland, which won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award.

Reviews for The Meat Racket

[corliss12000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If I didn’t already loathe Tyson Foods, I certainly would now.

[librarycin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book looks at the meat industry, with more of a focus on the chicken industry: the way factory farming built up, the history of it. It started with the chicken industry first via Tyson Foods in 1929 with Jim Tyson. His son, Don, later took over and continued to grow the business, eating up all the different steps in the process, in addition to most of the smaller competitors. They control every step of the chicken business and have incredible power over the farmers, who are often driven to bankruptcy. But the banks continue to fund more farmers to take the places of the bankrupt farmers, because the banks get their money back on those defaulted loans from a federal program (that was not originally meant for this purpose!).

While reading the book, it hadn’t occurred to me to rate it as high as I am, but I feel like my reaction to the book warrants it. The anger, the swearing at the book, the emotions the book brought out it me, I think, warrants the 5 stars. It did make me angry and frustrated that things are going this way, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop it… unless the government gets some teeth and stops bowing to the corporate lobbyists for the good of the regular people, the good of the farmers. Well worth the read for anyone who wants to know (and even those who don’t!) what is going on with our modern-day food (or, at least meat) industry.

[kaitanya64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast Food Nation made many people aware of the dangers of our current food system to consumers. The Meat Racket uncovers and explains the development of monopoly in the American meat industry that has largely destroyed the independent family farm level control of meat production. Through careful and thorough research, Leonard is able to explain how a few large companies, led by Tyson in the poultry industry and followed by Smithland and a few others in the pork and beef industries, have entrapped farmers into contract farming that makes them basically powerless employees in vertically integrated production. The meat we buy at the grocery store may have labels that imply different companies produce and market it, but, in fact, most of the meat we eat is produced by a few companies through a system that bankrupts farmers and limits our choices as consumers.Leonard uses lots of examples but he is also careful to demonstrate that his examples are representative of what is happening across the nation. I thought I was well informed on this topic, but Leonard's book clarifies food production trends that are troubling for consumers and farmers alike.

[addunn3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author details the history of Tyson Foods as it grew to dominate the meat markets of the US and beyond. Well documented information and well written. If you wonder how chicken McNuggets came to be, and why it is important to know - this is the book to read!