Austin Frerick

Writing - A Delicious Revolution. Wrote - Barons. Currently @Yale. Formerly @USTreasury/@CRS4Congress. #firstgen 🌽🐷🏳️‍🌈

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

@Scamateurism Only in person from what I know.

Laird Bell Law Quadrangle, Room A
1111 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637,

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

Windy City bound next Tuesday - presenting Barons at the University of Chicago Law School!

More info: https://t.co/PqEg5PL93S

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

But to [Frerick], the attorneys whiffed. “The settlement was such a joke. The free egg thing just made me laugh.” https://t.co/hqiBdi5AHX

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

Surprise Surprise!

Julie Duhn came to my talk w/her granddaughter this week at the University of Northern Iowa (my book opens with her fight against my Hog Baron)

Also, what a turnout: 100 folks for a book that came out over 2 years ago.

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

Correction: next Wednesday*

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

I'm excited to present Barons next Thursday at the University of Northern Iowa!

It’s gonna be a whirlwind, and honestly, I can’t wait. The talk is at 6pm and open to the public, but come early because there’s going to be a food truck.

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

For more info https://t.co/hhXJ8SzVba

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

Check out this new interview I did on Freakonomics, where I'm the lone voice saying the meatpackers aren't so great.

"FRERICK: You shouldn’t be allowed to keep a dominant market position through bribery, yet they have." https://t.co/n5pJy0hEu8

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

I got to interview one of my heroes for @thenation 🍟🍔 https://t.co/jlSNdVc5lm

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

“It’s like looking at a forest that is dry, that’s just waiting for a match,” said Frerick. “This production model is directly impacting people’s lives in a negative way, and they feel it. At some point, someone’s going to come along and tap into it.” https://t.co/sCVGdP4PSI

[Labyrinth Insights @LabyrinthPol]

NEW: In 2024, Wes Moore went on a limb siding with Reid Hoffman and other big donors who wanted Lina Khan out at the FTC.

Hoffman has backtracked, but Moore still won’t answer questions about Lina Khan - and he’s been asked, repeatedly.

New from @LabyrinthPol

https://t.co/A1nqKa8FzQ

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

This farm policy expert just exposed the monopoly holding independent poultry farmers hostage.

Austin Frerick: “A chicken farmer in America, you don’t own your chicken.”

“You’re given the bird, you’re given the feed by the company.”

“You take out a bunch of debt to build a building to their specifications.”

And farmers are not paid a “flat fee” for their birds.

They’re thrown into something called the tournament system, where corporations pit farmers against each other.

They rank each farmer based on how much weight their chickens gained and the amount of feed the farmers were given.

“Whoever adds the most gets paid the most.”

“Whoever adds the least gets paid the least.”

And the additional pay given to the best performers isn’t a bonus.

It’s money taken away from the lowest performers.

Corporations like Tyson and JBS-owned Pilgrim’s Pride realized that actually growing the birds is “the riskiest part.”

“So they basically contract that out to the farmer, put it on you, and then they do everything else.”

“They do all the value added.”

“They butcher it.”

“It is like textbook monopoly.”

“You’re basically shifting the cost on everyone else.”

The USDA was about to implement a new rule to reform this broken system this year.

The new rule would have banned payment deductions from lower-performing farmers, giving farmers some much-needed room to breathe.

But under President Trump and Secretary Brooke Rollins, USDA plans to roll back this important rule, despite our fierce opposition.

@AustinFrerick @PrairieFarmPod

[Sentient @Sentient_Media]

When the factory farming model came to Iowa, there was wide public pushback. But today, researcher @AustinFrerick says the worst actors continue to thrive.

As water pollution in the state grows, so do Iowa’s cancer rates.

Watch the full doc: https://t.co/LgxiUv3Qpr

[Illinois Stewardship Alliance @ILStewards]

Who holds the power in America’s food system?

Join us Sept. 2 at 7 PM for the next Cultivating Competition webinar with @AustinFrerick, author of Barons.

We’ll talk corporate consolidation, concentrated power, & how to build a fairer food system.

RSVP: https://t.co/0v7u5SvIKM

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

Over 900k+ YouTube views in the first 24 hours!

Honored to work w/this team on another video. The filmmakers used the story from my book about Driscoll’s, aka my Berry Baron, to explain the offshoring of America’s produce system.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

NEW: America’s biggest berry empire doesn’t actually grow berries.

Driscoll’s is the middleman that controls the genetics, reaps the profits, and then shifts blame.

A whistleblower alleges the Canadian government repeatedly flagged their berries for exceeding pesticide limits.

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

@GGunthorp @Parrtweets @strong_sistas @musharbash_b @MikeCallicrate @AJRichards @ChefGruel @RizomaSchool @ZachLahn I still think you could get some states to require their universities to serve good, local food like your pork.

But I'm over asking for them to do so - they should be required. All beef served in Texas colleges should be from Texas ranchers.

[Austin Frerick @AustinFrerick]

@rrpre @EOckerman I gotta ask -- what were some of the takeaways? And did any Baron folks find anything especially interesting?