In that time, he amassed a trove of information on Tyson Foods. “The Meat Racket” is primarily a book of reportage, the culmination of Leonard’s decade as a national agribusiness reporter, formerly for The Associated Press. Meanwhile, “In Meat We Trust” leans right, with a historian’s compulsive research largely sparing Big Food, instead placing the blame squarely on the American consumer. “The Meat Racket” leans left, with a journalist’s tireless reporting and uncommon empathy for small producers of chicken and pork, making it easy to fault Tyson for everything that ails us. What’s so fascinating about their books - and so revealing about our confusion regarding their subject - is how little else they have in common.

Leonard and Ogle would surely agree with both points. Second, we loathe industrial food production, even as we continue to move en masse to cities and suburbs, thereby deepening our dependence on cheap, ubiquitous edibles. The first is that we are suspicious of big businesses, even as we worship the individuals who build them. Both books elucidate two guiding contradictions of the American experience.

This is in some way the point of both Christopher Leonard’s brilliant, in-depth portrait of Tyson Foods, “The Meat Racket,” and Maureen Ogle’s “In Meat We Trust,” her fascinating history of what she calls “Carnivore America.” Food production is not just about food - it’s about almost everything else, too, from politics to culture to economics. Important, timely, and explosive, The Meat Racket is an unvarnished portrait of the food industry that now dominates America's heartland.Boy, are we ever conflicted about our food, and never is this more obvious than when it comes to the thing that we, as a nation, consume more of than just about anyone else on earth: meat. And you'll even see how big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system, from a years-long legal fight in Iowa to the Obama administration's recent failed attempt to pass reforms. You'll discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. You'll learn how the food industry got to where it is today and how companies like Tyson have escaped the scrutiny they deserve.

Leonard's revealing account shines a light on the inner workings of Tyson Foods, a pioneer of the industrial system that dominates the market. Now he delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation's meat supply. How much do you know about the meat on your dinner plate? Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country's biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press.

The meat racket