Publisher Simon & Schuster is promoting a
new book that slams the chicken and meat-packing industries, claiming the industry
is a racket in control of a handful of large companies.
The National Chicken Council and American Meat
Institute are fighting back saying it’s not true.
Author Christopher Leonard, whose book is
titled The Meat Racket, says four dominant meat packers run an “industrial
system that is rigged against all of us,” according to promotion from the
publisher.
Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken
Council, said Leonard tells a one-sided story and the book “offers no
solutions, no constructive criticism. It is just another hit piece.”
The American Meat Institute, noting Leonard’s focus on four companies that dominate livestock
and poultry, said criticisms of the industry should be examined against the
results.
“His book makes clear his nostalgic vision for
the U.S. meat and poultry industry: a vision pining for a return to an earlier
part of the 20th century where meat companies secured their livestock at
auction barns, buying stations and from farmers they knew.
“Although wrapped in a ‘good old days’ theme,
such a system was less efficient and less precise in delivering products
consumers wanted while forcing them to pay a higher potion of their income to
obtain meat and poultry products,” AMI said.
Tyson Foods said it paid more than $15 billion
last year to thousands of independent farmers who supply the company.
“We depend on them and want them to succeed.
Some of them have been raising livestock and poultry for us for decades, and in
some cases, for multiple generations,” Tyson said.
Tyson also said no single company is big enough
to control the market and prices.
