cover image The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business

The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business

Christoper Leonard, read by John Pruden. Tantor Media, , unabridged, nine CDs, 11.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-49450071-9

In this history of Tyson Foods, veteran agriculture journalist Leonard details the impact of the company’s industrial model on family farmers, meat packers, and consumers. Pruden provides competent delivery as the narrative continually shifts from business biography to hard-hitting exposé. He is especially effective inhabiting the blunt essence of the three generations of Tyson men who, while very different in temperament and talents, all brought a bottom-line perspective to every facet of how animals reach the family dinner table. The boardroom mastery of the late Don Tyson—who took his father’s regional poultry operation and transformed it into a global powerhouse—especially shines through. Pruden, despite all of his acting skill, does not choose to tackle the full range of accents and dialects, particularly related to the racial and class transformations of chicken farming in Arkansas and surrounding states. He also handles some of the most emotionally charged content with understatement, though listeners already steeped in food-supply issues will feel sufficiently stirred by the content itself. A Simon & Schuster hardcover. (Apr.)