Austin Frerick Book Discussion on Food System Concentration
When: April 2, 2024 – 11:30am-12:30pm
Where: Taylor Hall, room 103
Austin Frerick will discuss his new book, Barons: Money, Power and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, in Taylor Hall room 103, 11:30-12:30, on April 2, 2024. Frerick is a Thurman Arnold Fellow at Yale, 7th generation Iowan, 1st generation college grad, and alumnus from UW-Madison LaFollette School of Public Affairs. Frerick paints a stark portrait of corporate consolidation and its consequences, especially to rural communities. He presents market solutions to consolidation, such as changes to federal agencies that monitor and ensure fair markets, reforms that put animals back on the land, improvements to labor conditions, and sunsetting the Farm Bill.
“As a society, we make decisions about how markets are structured, about the rules that govern them and what constitutes fair play, about who holds power and who does not. Once we acknowledge how these decisions have shaped the food system we have now, we can opt to create a different system that better reflects our values.”
The event is hosted by the UW Center for Cooperatives, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology, the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, and the LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
For more information, contact: Michelle Miller, mmmille6@wisc.edu