Barons : money, power, and the corruption of America's food industry
(Book)

"Barons tells the stories of seven companies that have amassed tremendous power over America's food industry, to the detriment of workers, eaters, the environment, and communities alike. Readers will learn about the hog barons, who built an empire in Iowa through confinement sheds: massive warehouses that hold thousands of pigs and are polluting the state with unimaginable amounts of manure. They will meet the coffee barons, a reclusive German family that traces its wealth back to the Third Reich. They will marvel at the ruthlessness of the slaughter barons, who did not hesitate to bribe the Brazilian president for favors-or to rat him out to authorities in order to stay out of jail. Though unusually large and wealthy, these companies are not unique, but instead represent a pattern of corporate consolidation and deregulation that dominates the entire food business. The result has been hollowed-out rural towns, a workforce built on exploitation of immigrants, horrifying cruelty to animals, once-idyllic landscapes awash in pollution, and a political system that is bought and paid for by wealthy business owners. Barons traces this devastation across the country, arguing that the only way to stop it is to challenge power and regain control of the food system on which we all depend"--,Provided by publisher.