Our guest at Repast this month is Austin Frerick, author, and expert on agricultural and antitrust policy, talking with us about his new book, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry (March 2024).  In Barons, Frerick depicts the structure of the American food system by telling the story of seven food industry tycoons, delving into the monopolization of the food system and the resulting corruption.  Here, Austin, Michael, and Diana discuss the problems with industry concentration, when strange bedfellows can make meaningful reforms, and how all roads eventually lead to Arkansas.

You can buy Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry here.

You can read about Austin Frerick and more about Barons here.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.