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Christopher Leonard (author)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Leonard
Leonard in 2019
Born
Alma materUniversity of Missouri (B.A.)
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Notable workThe Meat Racket (2014)
Kochland (2019)
Websitewww.christopherleonard.biz

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

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Awards

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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

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  1. ^ Leonard, Chris (February 24, 2015). The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-4583-5.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "Christopher Leonard". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Is Tyson Foods' Chicken Empire A 'Meat Racket'?". National Public Radio. February 19, 2014. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  6. ^ McLean, Bethany (February 28, 2014). "Book review: 'The Meat Racket' by Christopher Leonard". Washington Post. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Burrough, Bryan (August 15, 2019). "The Truth About Koch Industries". New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  9. ^ "Missouri School of Journalism launches new investigative fellowship program to support authors | RJI". www.rjionline.org. 24 July 2019.
  10. ^ "Gary Younge, Christopher Leonard and Tyler Anbinder named winners of the 2017 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards". Nieman Foundation.
  11. ^ "FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing.au.
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