Christopher Leonard (born c. 1975) is an American investigative journalist. He has written three books, The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business,[1] the New York Times best-selling Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America,[2] and The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek.[3]
Leonard is a native of Kansas City, Missouri and a graduate of the University of Missouri Journalism School.[4]
Leonard began his career at the Columbia, Missouri Columbia Daily Tribune before moving to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.[5] He moved to the Associated Press in 2005 where he focused on agri-business issues.
In 2014 Leonard joined the New America Foundation[4] where he finished his first book, The Meat Racket which received positive reviews,[6] and has been praised as tracing "the evolution of the modern American meat industry".[7] While at New America he began work on his second book, Kochland,[4] which was published in 2019 to positive reviews.[8] In 2019, Leonard helped to found the Watchdog Writers Group at the Missouri School of Journalism Reynolds Journalism Institute, where he currently serves as Director.[9]
Books
- The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
- Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America
- The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy (2022)
Awards
Leonard was a Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation from 2014 to 2017.[4]
In 2017 he was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for Kochland.[10]
In 2019, Kochland was also a finalist for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.[11]
References
- ^ Leonard, Chris (February 24, 2015). The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-4583-5.
- ^ Leonard, Chris (August 13, 2019). Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-7538-8.
- ^ "Christopher Leonard". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Christopher Leonard". New America Foundation. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
Christopher Leonard was a Schmidt Family Foundation Fellow at New America. As a fellow, Leonard published The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business, which explores the modern American meat system, and began writing a book about Koch Industries.
- ^ "Is Tyson Foods' Chicken Empire A 'Meat Racket'?". National Public Radio. February 19, 2014. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
- ^ McLean, Bethany (February 28, 2014). "Book review: 'The Meat Racket' by Christopher Leonard". Washington Post. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
- ^ Schaefer, K. Aleks (October 2014). "The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business". American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 96 (5): 1507–1508. doi:10.1093/ajae/aau075. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
[T]he book traces the evolution of the modern American meat industry from its post-Depression origins to the present through the eyes of Tyson Foods' innovators and contract farmers. Readers experience first-hand the exhilaration of a young couple breaking ground on their first chicken farm and suffer the sorrow of that same couple, years later, as their farm is foreclosed. We sit in Neal's Café, a small diner in Springdale, Arkansas, as John and Don Tyson, in their matching khaki coveralls, discuss corporate strategy and contrive the McDonalds McNugget.
- ^ Burrough, Bryan (August 15, 2019). "The Truth About Koch Industries". New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
- ^ "Missouri School of Journalism launches new investigative fellowship program to support authors | RJI". www.rjionline.org. 24 July 2019.
- ^ "Gary Younge, Christopher Leonard and Tyler Anbinder named winners of the 2017 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards". Nieman Foundation.
- ^ "FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing.au.
External links