Prairie Lights invites you to join agricultural and antitrust policy expert Austin Frerick as he reads from his new book on the titans of today’s food industry, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry. He will be joined in conversation by Gazette reporter Erin Jordan.
Hailed as “An urgently important book,” by Eric Schlosser, Publishers Weekly says, “In this eye-opening debut study, Frerick, an agricultural policy fellow at Yale University, reveals the ill-gained stranglehold that a handful of companies have on America’s food economy…It’s a disquieting critique of private monopolization of public necessities.”
Austin Frerick advised candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg on agricultural policy during the 2020 presidential campaign, he before ultimately serving as Co-Chair of the Biden campaign’s Agriculture Antitrust Policy Committee. He is a Fellow of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University, an initiative that brings together faculty, students, and scholars to collaborate on research related to competition policy and antitrust enforcement. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Common Good Iowa and the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project.
In 2022, The Advocate named Frerick a "Champion of Pride.” He worked at the Open Markets Institute, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Congressional Research Service before becoming a Fellow at Yale University. He is a 7th generation Iowan and 1st generation college graduate, with degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
This event is co-sponsored by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.