The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
March 31, 2014
In the heated debate on food safety and availability, there have been other serious tomes about the national leviathan farming firms, but Leonard, former national agribusiness reporter for The Associated Press, pulls off a stunning feat in putting the heat on the major industrial meat giants. The hardest body blows are landed by Leonard on Tyson Food, the nation's biggest meat company, whose production and distribution practices were previously hush-hush, due to a rigid code of silence and potential retaliation on those who snitch. Founded during the Great Depression, Tyson Foods fashioned a highly profitable empire through smart alliances with bankers, creating a network of local contract farmers and keeping them on a short economic leash while controlling the entirety of the supply chain. Most alarming is the portion of the book that deals with the shortening of the amount of time it takes to raise a chicken, going from 73 days to 52 days during 1955 to 1982. Although Leonard devotes the lion's share of this exposé to Tyson Food, he also catalogues the feverish lobbying, clever patronage, and masterful financial and political schemes among the other giants, all in service of providing product cheaper and faster to the market. Best for those readers who want to know the origins of the animal products they are putting in their mouths.
June 30, 2014
In this history of Tyson Foods, veteran agriculture journalist Leonard details the impact of the company’s industrial model on family farmers, meat packers, and consumers. Pruden provides competent delivery as the narrative continually shifts from business biography to hard-hitting exposé. He is especially effective inhabiting the blunt essence of the three generations of Tyson men who, while very different in temperament and talents, all brought a bottom-line perspective to every facet of how animals reach the family dinner table. The boardroom mastery of the late Don Tyson—who took his father’s regional poultry operation and transformed it into a global powerhouse—especially shines through. Pruden, despite all of his acting skill, does not choose to tackle the full range of accents and dialects, particularly related to the racial and class transformations of chicken farming in Arkansas and surrounding states. He also handles some of the most emotionally charged content with understatement, though listeners already steeped in food-supply issues will feel sufficiently stirred by the content itself. A Simon & Schuster hardcover.