thanks! im very lucky/grateful to do what i do.
04.03.2026 17:05
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thanks! im very lucky/grateful to do what i do.
Check out the alert Big Ag put out about my testimony later today.
Later that night --
Join us at the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union Hall, talking about what you can do.
Honored (and excited) to testify next week to the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee, presenting aspects of my book Barons.
Special thanks to @reprickhansen.bsky.social for inviting me.
"The Land Report just came out with a Top 100 ranking of who owns the most land in America. The Walmart family now owns more land in America than all the farmland owned by black farmers combined."
"To me the single best thing you can do to make food more affordable in America right now is do away with the ethanol mandate. It’s been more than 20 some years. Ethanol should [survive] on its own. It should not have a government mandate."
Antitrust expert Austin Frerick @austinfrerick.bsky.social explains how corporate monopolies captured farm bill policy, and how farmers and eaters can unite locally to fix our broken food system. barnraisingmedia.com/big-ag-has-c...
"Last week, the NYT ran a story saying farmers are going to let their crops rot because the prices are so bad. At the same time, we’re having a food affordability crisis. That juxtaposition captures how broken our food system is"
New Academic Review of Barons:
Journal of Law & Political Economy
"a powerful exposé of the transformation of the American food system... Frerick’s extensive empirical work adds a fresh perspective" 😜
What a year of putting on the miles - gave my final talk this year a few days ago in Great Falls, Montana. Thanks again to MOA for inviting me. 🥩🌾
“We’re not seeing normal herd expansion because farmers don’t think [cattle] prices will be there, and that goes back to market dominance” among meatpackers, Frerick says.
Honored to be included 😅🤗
..."what a writer! Absolutely engaging. For the foreseeable future, this is the book I'm recommending to anyone who wants to learn about our food system more deeply."
What do you think?
yup.
and thanks for reading it!
“The first anti-monopoly laws in the world came from Iowa.”
How the Trump Administration Is Deepening Food Monopolies: A Q&A with Antitrust Expert Austin Frerick #iowa
We can't recommend @austinfrerick.bsky.social's writing on Big Ag highly enough. Check out our conversation with him from February of this year: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/02/19/h...
“I don’t even like the term ‘factory farm’ because I don’t want to give them the dignity of being called a farm,” antitrust expert @austinfrerick.bsky.social tells @greymoran.bsky.social:
"The Farm Bill is designed to [over]produce grains at the expense of everything else," Frerick said. "It’s built for Wall Street and no one else."
Read AGweek's coverage of the book talk Sonja Trom Eayrs and I gave in Landesboro, MN, earlier this month.
“The land is producing the most that it has ever produced, but none of that wealth is staying there,” antitrust expert @austinfrerick.bsky.social tells @greymoran.bsky.social. “So we shouldn’t be shocked that we’re seeing the politics of rage fill that void.”
“Trump shouldn’t underestimate the Yellowstone effect,” says Frerick.
I spoke to the FT about how ranchers loom large in the public consciousness, and about the danger of siding with foreign corporations like JBS against independent American ranchers.
Since 1982, America has lost 80% of its dairies and 90% of its hog farms, mostly small, independent family operations.
(stat from @austinfrerick.bsky.social 's book "Barons.")
Whirlwind week 🍃💨
Monday: Princeton University
Tuesday: Land Stewardship Project in Lanesboro, MN
Wednesday: IACP Awards in Brooklyn
So lucky to be presenting Barons more than a year after publication
“You’re a winner, baby!” 🥳😜
Honored to have won the best “Food Issues” book from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).
Haha, thanks! I really enjoyed it, and it went by super fast.
I went back on Bloomberg’s biggest podcast, Odd Lots, to discuss the Distribution Baron in my paperback: Sysco. I chatted with Tracy and Joe about how Sysco built its empire, what we’ve lost because of it, and, more importantly, what we can do about it.
Enjoy!
Let's use reality, not libertarian pie-in-the-sky.
Take crop insurance.
It existed going back to the 1930s, but was a tiny program for family farms. Fast forward to massive consolidation post-80s from deregulation - that program gets turbocharged for corporate interest and drives overproduction
Where? Lawyer isn't on that webpage.
Take JBS, the largest meatpacker the world's ever seen. They've been accused of bribing meat inspectors, buying off politicians, hiring children in packing plants, and using slave-like labor.
Their not going to let any regulator change get in their way. Hence, they were Trump's largest inaug donor.
Our fundamental disagreement: I believe no meaningful regulatory change can be made without first trust-busting. It's step one before anything else. The money and power will undermine any reforms.
I also have no legal training.
I also think we might differ on the fundamental problem here. You seem to think govt is the problem whereas I see the regs reflecting unchecked corporate power. In this case, it being the largest private company in America: Cargill.