His numbers will drop and, after a few lackluster growing periods, the manager, citing the low figures, will fire the farmer, leaving him to default on his bank loan. Contractually, he can do nothing about the hand Tyson deals him. Writing in the Virginia Quarterly Review, James McWilliams characterized Tyson's methods as described in the book as a 'rotten system', adding that 'Tyson’s vertical integration enables the company to dictate contracts that enfeeble growers in insidious ways.' McWilliams concluded that a chicken farmer 'has no control over the health of his birds or the quality of his feed', adding that 'an unruly contract grower will quickly become the unknowing recipient of inferior food and sick hatchlings-in essence, the season’s dregs. Having tight control over the whole supply chain paid off and Tyson Foods is now the largest meat producer in the world, with a practical monopoly on wings, nuggets and tenders plus a stronghold on pork and beef as well. He used his profits to buy chicken houses and eventually bought his own hatchery and feed mill, vertically integrating his company by buying up the firms that supplied it.' Christine Sismondo, writing for the Toronto Star, described how Tyson 'got into all aspects of the business, starting with chicken feed and hatcheries, until he owned practically every cog in the chain that linked the egg to the grocery store, ' adding that 'Business majors will recognize this as an early and successful instance of 'vertical integration,' something Tyson pioneered in agri-business. He headed with his wife, his son and his truck to Arkansas, where he began to invest in chickens, hauling birds from the South, where they were cheap, to Chicago, Detroit and St. Tyson 'left his nearly bankrupt family's farm in Missouri. Kirkus Reviews described the book's message as 'Using Tyson as a window on modern meat production, Leonard shows how the company has eliminated free market competition through vertical integration, buying up independent suppliers (feed mills, slaughterhouses and hatcheries) and controlling farmers through restrictive contracts.' In The Wall Street Journal, Moira Hodgson wrote that the book describes how the company founder John W. Several reviewers emphasized vertical integration as key to the growth of Tyson Foods as described in the book. He was a fellow at the New America Foundation when he wrote the book. Widely reviewed on publication, the book gained additional attention during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Ī graduate of the University of Missouri, Leonard was formerly an agribusiness reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Associated Press. The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business is a 2014 book by Christopher Leonard about the meat processing industry in the United States that focuses on Tyson Foods as the market leader.

The meat racket