"Frerick said there are many ways to get around Iowa's anti-corporate laws, adding that it’s an open secret they're being ignored."

One of the coolest barns I've ever been in - and such an honor to be one of the keynotes at the Real Organic Project conference this weekend.

Catch me later this week if you're in the Bay Area.

New excerpt from my expanded paperback- "Sysco’s market dominance means that something essential is being lost. As local businesses fade away, a sense of a distinct regional and local identity disappears with them."

Three talks coming up -- Twin Cities Vegfest: Sept 21 230pm ET (Harriet Island Park) Stanford Law: Sept 23 4pm ET Real Organic Project: Sept 27 10am ET (Hudson, NY)

The League of Women Voters made a special drink for my last paperback book event 🥳🥹

And we're off -- first paperback event! Special thanks to the Iowa Center for the Book, Dog·Eared Books, League of Women Voters, and the Ames Public Library

@austinfrerick.bsky.social new paprback edition chapter features Milk & Honey restaurant in Harlan, Iowa.

@austinfrerick.bsky.social's @islandpress.bsky.social Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry out in paperback soon in Europe! Buy from your local bookseller or direct @ipsuk.bsky.social!

Exciting news -- I'll be back on the road later this week bopping around Iowa for the expanded paperback release of Barons. I'd love to see yah if you're in the area 🚗📚

Record-high prices for beef in the grocery store, record-high profits for the world's largest beef packer.

The McCloskeys run Fair Oaks Farms, an interactive “Dairy Disneyland” that also houses a factory farm with around 37k cows — producing enough milk for four million school milk cartons, every, single day, Frerick says in the documentary. New piece by @ninaelkadi.com

“ My book is called Barons and that’s intentional, like I’m playing off robber barons,” he says. “I’m harkening back to a previous moment in American history and part of that is to show people we’ve been here before, we know what to do."

Special thanks to the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and Republican Senator Lois Kolkhorst for inviting me to present Barons at Texas State University and the Texas State Capitol (talk about timing).

New Review: Journal of Economic Literature “Explores how a series of powerful actors in the American food industry built their empires by taking advantage of deregulation and promoting a radical laissez-faire ideology, highlighting the effects on workers, families, and communities.”

I spoke with @vox.com about the rampant animal abuse scandals at @fairlife.com "This is just the one classic textbook example of why self-policing just fails,” Frerick said... The story here, he added, “is the failure of regulators."

The single best thing you could do to lower grocery store prices is to end the ethanol mandate: "You're taking the best farmland in the world, and you're just wasting it," he says. "Instead of growing food, you're wasting it in your car."

"You can have clean water or you can have ethanol, but you can't have both," Frerick says.

I'm excited to be heading back down to Texas 🤠 More info 👉 www.southernfamilyfarmersconference.org

“Throwing gasoline on the inequality in America and in the food system.” - @austinfrerick.bsky.social Analysis from @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social and more in @grist.org's report: grist.org/food-and-agr...

Book 10 of 2025: “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry” by Austin Frerick. In-depth look at how the US’s food supply is SO concentrated - throughout production and in our grocery stores. Really shines a light on the race to the bottom for how/what we eat.

The result, said Frerick, is akin to “throwing gasoline on the inequality in America and in the food system.”

New Review of Barons 🌾 “[A book] I just can’t stop talking and thinking about... my favorite part of the book was how masterfully Frerick writes about the interconnectedness of our food systems with so many other aspects of our lives.”

Honored to have presented Barons and keynoted at the R_CALF National Convention earlier this month in Deadwood, South Dakota 🐂🇺🇸 I can't stress this enough -- addressing the concentration crisis in America's meat markets is one of the most bipartisan issues right now.

It felt fitting to do a book event for my expanded paperback edition in Harlan, IA. Ellen and Milk & Honey play a big role in the book’s new chapter, which profiles Sysco as my Distribution Baron. Join us if you're in the area for a great meal and a lovely time. More events to come.

More book talks in the works this Fall! Princeton: Nov 3 And as always, feel free to ping me with opportunities.

Special thanks to the worker-owned cooperative Equal Exchange for letting me keynote and present Barons at their annual Summit. Such an honor to such a cool org.

This will increase grocery prices.

On JBS’ public listing today, and why it is bad: “They're the largest [meatpacker] in the world, the largest we've ever seen in the history of mankind,” Frerick said. “This will just make everything we've seen in the meat system just get worse.”

What an experience yesterday to walk the red carpet at the premier of The Price of Milk, a docuseries hopefully coming soon to a streamer near you. It was such an honor to be in it and talk about my Dairy Baron 🥳🐮

Big Ag + Human Trafficking: "Recent graduates were told they were coming to the US for cultural exchange. They ended up trapped in a factory farm." Blockbuster piece by @ninaelkadi.com and incredible legal work by @farmstand.bsky.social

I've got exciting news to share. The paperback version of Barons will be published on Sept 2! And better yet, it’s an expanded edition w/a new chapter. In the new chapter, I explore the history of Sysco - my Distribution Barons - the largest global food distributor for eating out.

For context, Vilsack's family would personally stand to benefit immensely from this briefing document. See this @tomphilpott.bsky.social piece: https:// www.motherjones.com/food/2022/01...

“Iowa can be all red, top to bottom,” Frerick said. Illinois, on the other hand, has a “dem supermajority.” But “when it comes to ag policy, what is the difference?” If Illinois’ wetland bill fails again, it might confirm his fears: “There’s just not a difference.”

summer reading stack 🤓🙃

“This whole Farm Bill coalition is breaking down,” said Frerick,  “Many Democrats and some Republicans want to “copy and paste” from the 2018 Farm Bill, he said. “But the Republicans need to find cuts to pay for their tax cuts for the rich, and SNAP and Medicaid are the places to find those.”

In this episode of Unconfined, author @austinfrerick.bsky.social discusses the barons who dominate US food production, including an Iowa farm couple who spun enormous, manure-spewing hog operations into a vast fortune. clf.jhsph.edu/monopoly-mon...

"Underage workers have been hired to kill poultry flocks, handle dead carcasses and clean industrial poultry farms... showed workers self-identifying as young as 15." Blockbuster piece by John McCracken

From my chapter on the secret owners of: Panera, Keurig, Peet’s, Caribou Coffee, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Bruegger’s, Manhattan Bagel, Noah’s Bagels, Krispy Kreme, Pret A Manger, Insomnia Cookies, Stumptown, La Colombe, Intelligentsia, & Green Mountain.

The Delmarva Peninsula is home to some of the nation’s top producers of broiler chickens. These chicken-processing hubs often employ immigrant workers at low hourly wages and with little workplace protections.

“We need to put Driscoll’s in the bad company column" -Dolores Huerta Driscoll's refuses to produce organic berries next to schools. “I look at it like murder,” said Ann Aurelia López. “You’re exposing kids to things that will potentially kill them."

Just finished this book & it was AMAZING and so timely. While hard to digest, we need to make changes so our food industry stops being run by law breaking, abusive monopolies with millions of $$ our our own tax money. Thank you @austinfrerick.bsky.social for this gem islandpress.org/books/barons...

In this episode of #CLFUnconfined, author @austinfrerick.bsky.social discusses the barons who dominate US food production, including an Iowa farm couple who spun enormous, manure-spewing hog operations into a vast fortune.  clf.jhsph.edu/monopoly-mon...

This news immediately made me think of @austinfrerick.bsky.social's superb book Barons, which has a chapter about the horrible things that the family behind JBS has done. Should be mandatory reading for anyone working in food and ag. www.reuters.com/markets/us/b...

In ‘Barons,’ Austin Frerick explains that solutions will require restructuring who has power.

Special thanks to Middlebury, Dartmouth, and Vermont Law School for hosting me this week to talk Barons. PS Always happy to indulge in a Vermont icon: creemees (maple soft serve)

Talking dairy checkoffs (USDA tax on farmers): “There's just no oversight of the money, especially dairy. It's a $600 million pot of money yearly…” Frerick said in an interview with InBuckeye. “It’s just kind of an open secret slush fund.”

"🇺🇸 spend more money than the 🇬🇧🇪🇸🇲🇽🇨🇦🇬🇷🇯🇵🇫🇷 🇩🇪🇦🇺🇮🇹... [but] we shouldn’t be shocked. That’s economics 101: concentrated markets gouge. It’s what they do. But second, something that I’ve come to appreciate is how much the system makes bad tasting food. We’re actually paying more for garbage."