"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."
Publishers Weekly, starred

"Wow.  This is one important book… If you want to know how corporations control the food supply, start here."
Marion Nestle, Food Politics

"[Frerick] dissects not only the food barons’ business practices, but also the disastrous impacts of these practices… The author, who frequently sounds as though he is fighting to control his personal rage at the people he’s writing about, backs up his statements with facts and figures. This is an angry and accusatory book, but also a fair and well-documented one."
Booklist

"After reading [Austin's] book, I have come away with a completely different idea of agriculture that I cannot unsee."
Bloomberg Odd Lots

"For readers with a serious interest in public policy and food production."
Library Journal

"In a carefully researched book, Frerick makes ordinary insider knowledge both compelling and urgent."
Daily Yonder

"[Frerick] has a knack for making explicit the connections between policy and the concrete realities of people’s lives... [Barons is] an indictment of our regulatory system and the many ways the government — under both Democratic and Republican administrations — has failed to break up monopolies, prevent them in the first place, or meaningfully hold them accountable for wrongdoing. "
FERN

"[One of] my top book picks so far this year."
Bloomberg Odd Lots Newsletter

"Frerick’s skill as both a serious academic and gifted storyteller keeps the pages turning as his colorful cast of characters build empires with everyday dinner items like pork chops, milk, coffee and strawberries."
Alan Guebert, Farmers Advance

"Frerick’s greatest strength is in drawing out the federal, state, and local policies (and policymakers) that fueled the rise of the captains of industry he profiles."
American Prospect

"Some may herald Barons as an overdue update of 'The Jungle,' the 1906 book by Upton Sinclair."
Bleeding Heartland

"Rookie Austin Frerick has smacked a homerun in his first swing at authoring a book."
Milkweed

"Time will tell whether Austin Frerick’s Barons joins that elite list [of classic books on the food system]. It certainly could given how well he’s structured the story, how seamlessly he grapples with complex policy, and how effortlessly he guides readers through the consequences to so much of American real estate, so many communities, and so many people."
Mode Shift

"It’s an important and compelling read...Frericks book... is a shot across the bow of the corporatocracy."
Robert Leonard, Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture

"Through engaging and richly researched storytelling...Frerick deftly illuminates how decades of big-business-friendly government officials have worked to undermine and reverse labor, environmental and other laws."
Little Village Mag

"Frerick takes apart [the barons’] strategies patiently and methodically, almost as though he is turning an engine upside down to figure out its workings... Though his writing style is restrained, it simmers with damning facts and figures."
Ambrook Research

"Although the vehicle of stories about each of these barons in turn is an interesting read, what I found most valuable was the final chapter where frerick lays out a way forward."
Organic Broadcaster

"Each chapter of Frerick’s book is based on a tremendous amount of research, as well as anecdotal scenes of the author’s personal contacts with US agriculture. His prose is refreshingly accessible and nonacademic."
Los Angeles Review of Books

"Frerick’s prose throughout is both direct and masterfully controlled, with every point supported by extensive references and notes. This is no alarmist screed but rather a careful, systematic, and utterly damning demolition job—an exquisitely informed exposé.... A genuinely revelatory look at mass food production in the United States."
Kirkus Reviews, starred

“Frerick (fellow, Yale Univ.) exposes the regulatory conditions that allowed seven barons to amass power and financial fortunes through the US food industry….This book could be used in the disciplines of social justice studies, political science, food studies, sociology, and urban planning.”
Choice

"Frerick is a staunch Democrat, but if there is one issue where the left and the populist right can make common cause, it’s farm policy.... Conservatives should read Frerick’s book."
American Conservative

"The Best Books of Spring 2024… Frerick yanks back the curtain on a truly astonishing collection of violations, legal and moral in the American food system… Despite the dire subject matter, Frerick is able to inject moments of humor and ends the book with sincere hope for change in the future if we are willing to work together to make a difference."
Electric Literature

"[Barons] Illuminates some dark and shady corners of our food system, where companies you’ve heard of and others you surely haven’t operate in ways that ruthlessly seek profit at everyone else’s expense."
The Equation, Union of Concerned Scientists

"In his highly readable book, Frerick describes the businesses of barons who dominate seven sectors of the US food industry. In the process he illuminates much in recent American history and goes a long way towards diagnosing environmental ills, socio-economic ills, and the ill health of so many food consumers…. For people not already deeply familiar with industrial agribusiness and its associated environmental, labor, health and political ills, Barons is a compelling read."
Resilience

"The impact of these companies can be felt globally and makes the book essential reading."
Slow Food UK

"Frerick’s Barons is a breath of fresh air because it repeatedly calls out the corruption in the U.S. agriculture and food system and the U.S. political system… well written and accessible for multiple audiences… valuable for undergraduate and graduate courses. In fact, I intend to assign the book in my undergraduate courses"
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

"Over the past half-century, we have witnessed a massive consolidation of every aspect of the agriculture and food industries into corporate megaliths, with a profound effect on American politics, culture and welfare. Austin Frerick’s Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry is a brisk economic and social history of this dark revolution, steeped in policy and enlivened by anecdote."
Times Literary Supplement

"Author Austin Frerick peppers the book with action and lurid anecdotes, but he prioritises deep analysis …a highly researched yet digestible book."
The Grocer

"In this vivid and engaging book, author Austin Frerick exposes the chokehold that seven families have over the global food industry, and the ramifications of their consolidated power on farmers, consumers, ecosystems, and even democracy…Intensely readable..."
The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener

 "What is interesting about Barons is that it appeals to people on different spectrums politically and that's a rare achievement these days."
Michael T. Roberts, Professor of Policy at UCLA School of Law and Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy

"Barons is an explosive and absolutely riveting tour through a hidden world of big-money powerhouses that control our food system. Frerick is a fantastic storyteller, with the rare combination of on-the-ground empathy for rural communities and sparklingly brilliant analysis. This book is essential to understand our new food system, and the dangers it poses to everyone who eats."
Christopher Leonard, author of 'The Meat Racket' and 'Kochland'

"Austin is one of the most important and exciting voices in the next generation, and he lays out a road map to bring about a delicious revolution that addresses climate, health, and taste."
Alice Waters, founder and owner of Chez Panisse

"Frerick traces the items in our grocery carts to uncover a radical consolidation of economic power that has put our communities and democracy in jeopardy. Most importantly, he shows how none of this is inevitable, but rather the outcome of decisions that are in our power to change."
Stacy Mitchell, Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of 'Big-Box Swindle'

"Austin Frerick shows just how much consolidation has devastated family farmers. But what makes Barons so good is how clearly he explains how those changes were caused by policies that benefit Wall Street and corporate America at the expense of everyone else."
Rob Larew, President of the National Farmers Union

"Well-written, maddening, and inspiring, Frerick takes us into the power networks of food, and brings the reader out the other side deeply informed about the structural problems in the food system."
Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law at Fordham Law School and author of 'Break 'Em Up and Corruption in America'

"Austin breaks down complex issues with plain language that is incredibly readable and engaging. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the food we eat and how it is produced."
Wenonah Hauter, founder and Executive Director of Food & Water Watch

"Like Fast Food Nation and Omnivore’s Dilemma, Austin Frerick’s Barons tells a darkly fascinating story about our food system. With startling accounts of corporate behemoths and the regulatory failures that allowed them to amass unchecked power, destroying the family farm and the rural heartland along the way, Frerick makes an urgent case to structure our markets to protect our environment, our health and ultimately our democracy."
Robert Kenner, Director of 'Food, Inc.' and 'Food, Inc. 2'

"Gripping and important - Frerick’s portraits are vivid and unsettling about what America's radical laissez-faire ideology has done to the global food system."
Tommaso Valletti, Professor of Economics at Imperial College London and former Chief Competition Economist at the European Commission

"A roadmap for people to think through these issues and think deeper about what is needed to bring the food system back to principles of economic democracy, environmental quality, and opportunity in rural America."
Ken Cook, Founder and President of the Environmental Working Group

"This is an exceptional, beautiful and absolutely absorbing book. Barons is one of the most important books on the food system published this century. In fact, it’s one of the best ever. The brilliant clarity of Frerick’s writing and his profound understanding of this issue ensures that Barons reads more like a thriller than the work of scholarship that it is. This book is essential for anyone who wants to understand the global food system that controls what we all eat. Hugely enjoyable and, at moments, hilariously terrifying."
Chris van Tulleken, author of 'Ultra-Processed People'

"Barons is a powerful reminder of the stakes involved and the need for change in a food system that only works for a few."
Carrie Balkcom, Executive Director of the American Grassfed Association