The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.99 (594 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00DX0F4J6 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 445 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Thought-provoking and deeply reported This is a fundamentally compassionate book. It is compassionate towards the small meat producers who are squeezed by modern economies of scale, and compassionate towards the titans of industry that created these economies.Leonard gets out of the way of the story he is trying to tell. He manages to square the paradox of conveying admiration for the ambition and accomplishments of pioneers like Don Tyson while . "Gutsy! The truth that NOBODY in the meat business or government wants you to know." according to Sandra Thomas. Corruption is king and Mr. Leonard lays it out there for you to see. Our governmental agencies that are in place to prevent these very circumstances are in on the ground floor of layers and layers of corrupt business practices with plenty of money in a lobby group that can pay to see it done. The chicken and hog farmers depicted in this book are only a miniscule percentage of the number of people whose lives . Another level of awareness Crazy88Line Cook This is not an easy read either factually nor philosophically. One would hope people would know better, act better and correct mistakes made but one thing history has taught me is that we are not out of the Middle Ages yet.This is basically a history of the Tyson Food mega-corp., with less in-depth reporting on the beef and pork giants as well, and how one man and his offspring basically turned rural America
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.. 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. An investigative journalist takes you inside the corporate meat industry—a shocking, in-depth report every American should read.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. You’ll discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. You’ll learn how the food industry got to where it is today, and how companies like Tyson have escaped the scrutiny they deserve
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. 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. Market control by these near monopolies has spread beyond chicken into pork and beef production as well. --Mark Knoblauch . From Booklist “Before there is a chicken or an egg, there is Tyson.” In hi