Join the University of Maryland Agriculture Law Education Initiative and University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law's Environmental Law Program for a lecture and conversation with Austin Frerick on his debut book, "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry." In the book, Frerick profiles a series of powerful magnates to illustrate how various factors — including how the American legal system and evolving Farm Bill policy — led to the concentration of power in the global food system. Frerick explores the humble (or not-so-humble) beginnings of magnates in berries, pork, grain, coffee, dairy, meat processing, grocery, and food distribution sectors, and the scenarios that have allowed them to grow into international titans in spite of antitrust laws.
Frerick is an expert on agricultural and antitrust policy who previously worked at the Open Markets Institute, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Congressional Research Service before serving as a Thurman Arnold Project Fellow at Yale University. During the 2020 presidential campaign, he advised candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg on agricultural policy before ultimately serving as co-chair of the Joe Biden campaign’s Agriculture Antitrust Policy Committee. He is a seventh-generation Iowan and a first-generation college graduate with degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Wallace Centers of Iowa and as vice president for Common Good Iowa.
This a hybrid event, free to attend online and in person, but registration is required.
Free copies of the book will be given to the first 25 in-person attendees to sign in. Dinner will be provided for registered in-person attendees. The event will be hosted 4:30-6:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in the first-floor Krongard Boardroom, Maryland Carey Law.
You will receive information on how to access the event in a separate email 48 hours before the webinar begins. If you have questions, please contact Margaret Todd at motodd@law.umaryland.edu. The event will not be recorded.