Christopher Leonard

The Robber barons are back and Tysons Foods has a starring role. The meat industry is so heavily concentrated that a few companies are raking in record profits (even during the recession) while consumers pay ever higher prices and farmers receive an ever smaller percentage of the profits. Farmers are pitted against each other in a tournament system that penalizes those whose "feed to pound" ratio is less than the average. Farmers go bankrupt and then the farm is bought by a new farmer who show more takes out huge loans to buy the newest equipment, until they too go bankrupt. From the perspective of those who work in the slaughterhouses or farms, it's like "The Jungle" all over again. show less

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 show more 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. show less

It came as no surprise to me that the United States meat supply is run by a small number of huge companies, but I had no idea the level of control over the economy and our eating that these companies have obtained. And all of this has happened in just over 50 years’ time.

The main focus of the book, and the entry to discussion is Tyson Foods. Leonard details how this company went from a small chicken distribution company to an unheard of size company that controls everything poultry from show more the hatchlings to the grain to the slaughter with vertical integration. There is one piece of the puzzle that they do not own, however, and it happens to be the most uncertain aspect of the business.

In a reprehensible fashion, Tyson delivers baby chicks to chicken farmers to raise, the farmers can only use the grain that Tyson delivers, the chicks are picked up by Tyson at their discretion, and when the chicks are weak or diseased, the farmers have no recourse for their loss of time and effort. These farmers are ham-strung by Tyson, under large bank loans, and pressured to go further in debt to upgrade their farms. Meanwhile, Tyson pays farmers in a tournament system in which farmers never know how much they will be paid for their work.

Tyson got larger and larger as they swallowed up smaller poultry companies and forced others to also go with vertical integration. It was only a matter of time before Tyson delved into pork and beef with more efforts at vertical integration, though they were not as successful as with chicken. For all of the success these companies achieved, it didn’t trickle down to cause improved conditions in the counties where these companies operate or to lower food prices for consumers.

Now that I know what I know about how these companies got so huge and how lobbying efforts have thwarted most attempts to bring things back on more equitable terms, I am more soured by the current state of our industrial agricultural system. Even more disheartening is the fact that this meat is almost impossible to escape because the companies reach so far into the food production and distribution network. show less

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 show more 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. show less