Investigative reporter Christopher Leonard lifts the veil covering the powerful practices of the United States' industrial meat suppliers. Focusing primarily on the formation and expansion of Tyson Foods, The Meat Racket uses extensive research and firsthand accounts by farmers to expose how one company took control of and set industry standards for chicken production across rural America.
John Tyson, founder of Tyson Foods, knew that in order to make money and continue to grow, his company needed to control the ebb and flow of chicken, from egg-laying hens to the chicken farms and slaughterhouses onward to fast food menus. So the company bought up feed mills, slaughterhouses and small chicken producers until Tyson (along with one other company) controlled more than half the national chicken market. Defenseless, bankrupt farmers call this state of affairs chickenization, "a miserable state of existence [that] describes a system where massive federal subsidies help keep a company like Tyson afloat at the expense of working families."
Not content to stick to poultry, Tyson edged into the pork and beef industries as well, forming an oligarchy with the biggest meat companies in the country. As Leonard adeptly explains, even the Departments of Agriculture and Justice have little sway over these companies--their lobbying power makes mincemeat of the federal justice system. This eye-opening investigation into the semi-shady practices governing one of the nation's fundamental industries will make readers question how these megacompanies were ever allowed to grow so large and powerful. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer