Review by Choice Review
Frerick (fellow, Yale Univ.) exposes the regulatory conditions that allowed seven barons to amass power and financial fortunes through the US food industry. Using textual analysis, Frerick scaffolds sources to trace the corrupt paths of the seven barons' food areas: hogs, grain, coffee, dairy, berries, slaughterhouses, and grocers. For instance, in chapter 3, Frerick details how the "coffee baron" JAB Holding Company creates the veneer that its purchased coffee companies are financially independent by maintaining the multitude of original brand names. From environmental destruction to flagrant political manipulation, these food industry barons have built their fortunes while using appealing, fictitious advertising that positions them as local, family-friendly philanthropists. Frerick calls for restoring, expanding, and enforcing antitrust and competition policies; connecting schools to sustainable, local producers; and guaranteeing fair salaries and safe conditions for workers. This book could be used in the disciplines of social justice studies, political science, food studies, sociology, and urban planning. Instructors might use Achbar and Abbott's The Corporation (2003) or Kenner's Food, Inc. (2008) for documentaries or Linklater's Fast Food Nation (2006) for a movie with interwoven sub-narratives to illustrate corruption in the American food industry. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals. --Catherine Lara Lalonde, SUNY Brockport
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Frerick, whose career has been devoted to matters of agriculture and antitrust, profiles the corporate leaders of seven food-related industries whose successes spell disaster for the American consumer, for free trade, and for the environment. These "barons" have created virtual monopolies in such industries as coffee production, hog farming, dairy production, and the retail grocery business. They have, the author says, capitalized on the deregulation of the food industry, bought themselves key members of state governments and "impartial" analysts, relied on cheap labor, and circumvented (or ignored) laws regarding waste disposal and other environmental concerns. The author dissects not only the food barons' business practices, but also the disastrous impacts of these practices, including widespread health issues among workers and people who live near production facilities, the wiping-out of small businesses, and the destruction of land and properties. The author, who frequently sounds as though he is fighting to control his personal rage at the people he's writing about, backs up his statements with facts and figures. This is an angry and accusatory book, but also a fair and well-documented one.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this eye-opening debut study, Frerick, an agricultural policy fellow at Yale University, reveals the ill-gained stranglehold that a handful of companies have on America's food economy. Tracing the paths various corporations took to achieve market domination, he repeatedly demonstrates how their rise was aided by infusions of corrupting money into the political process. Frerick, who grew up in Iowa, came to this topic out of curiousity about why his state had changed so much over the decades. Once known for its "strong middle class," Iowa is "now defined by... decaying towns," Frerick writes, but "the most jarring change is that the animals have disappeared from view." His investigation tracks how the Hansen family, through their company Iowa Select Farms, have "built an empire of hog confinements," an innovation in the pork industry that is disastrously toxic for nearby communities. Despite overwhelming public opposition, the Hansens triumphed by capturing the regulatory system through lobbying, including for state policy changes that undermine county-level regulation. Such unsettling revelations are peppered throughout Frerick's deep dive; for example, despite entering the coffee industry only a decade ago, "the mysterious Reimanns, a reclusive German family with historical ties to the Third Reich," have become second only to Nestlé by buying up trusted independent brands like Green Mountain, Intelligentsia, La Colombe, and Stumptown. It's a disquieting critique of private monopolization of public necessities. (Mar.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A report on the dangerous and disgraceful state of the American food industry. In his nonfiction debut, Frerick provides in-depth profiles of seven American food companies and the families who own and run them. The author charts how the growth of these companies has exploded in the last century: Politicians have been bought, regulatory laws have been gutted or completely repealed, and "seven food industry barons" have each "built an empire by taking advantage of deregulation to amass extreme wealth at the expense of everyone else." Frerick writes about the meatpacking giant JBS, noting that in 2017 investigators from the Brazil government accused some of the company's employees of bribing meat inspectors to allow tainted meats to be served in public schools. He also discusses the Cargill-MacMillan family, owners of Cargill, Inc. (the largest private company in America), identifying their business as one of the "huge, regional-scale corporations owned by just one or a few families who use their political connections to overpower both local democracy and local businesses." His overview of the tiny handful of companies that provide the vast majority of all kinds of food for Americans naturally includes an analysis of Walmart, the mega-company that, per Frerick, "has triggered a race to the bottom in every imaginable way" by playing a central role in shifting food-shopping to a "private, for-profit space." Frerick's prose throughout is both direct and masterfully controlled, with every point supported by extensive references and notes. This is no alarmist screed but rather a careful, systematic, and utterly damning demolition job--an exquisitely informed exposé. In these pages, the author unflinchingly explores the graft involved in suborning politicians, the guile used in circumventing the few regulations that do exist, the staggering cruelty of livestock farming, and sobering societal ramifications ("one's income will increasingly be reflected in one's waistline"); the result is quietly devastating. A genuinely revelatory look at mass food production in the United States. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
