Two Midwest Authors on What It’s Like to Expose Big Ag

LANESBORO, Minn. — How can rural America fight back against Big Ag? It can start by addressing the dynamics.

A southeast Minnesota community heard from authors Austin Frerick and Sonja Trom Eayrs on their journey to open the dialogue.

Frerick published his debut book in March of last year, entitled Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry. He was part of the panel discussion held by the Land Stewardship Project on Nov. 4 inside the Lanesboro Community Center gymnasium, along with Sonja Trom Eayrs, author of Dodge County, Incorporated : Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America. 

Both books explore the corporate capture that is impacting rural communities and pushing small and medium-sized farms off the land for good.

Laura Schreiber, Land Stewardship Project’s government relations director and moderator of the panel, asked how daunting it was to come forward with stories exposing the “entrenched, heavily resourced power” of Big Ag.