The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
“Before there is a chicken or an egg, there is Tyson.” In his eye-opener to the inner workings of the corporations that control and manipulate the nation’s meat supply, journalist Leonard reveals how these vertically integrated behemoths operate to the detriment of both farmers, who do the hard and risky work of raising animals, and consumers, who have actually fewer true choices when shopping in the grocery store or ordering at the local fast-food franchise. Putting human faces on economic statistics, Leonard documents the stories of exploited farmers, some of them Laotian immigrants seeking the American dream but driven to bankruptcy. Market control by these near monopolies has spread beyond chicken into pork and beef production as well. Leonard recounts the history of the Tyson family and how the generations have structured the corporation’s exponential growth over the past decades, an expansion that even the American government appears powerless to rein in. --Mark Knoblauch