Austin Frerick
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austinfrerick.bsky.social
Austin Frerick
@austinfrerick.bsky.social
Wrote - Barons. Currently Yale. Formerly US Treasury/CRS. #firstgen 🌽🐷🏳️‍🌈
Haha, thanks! I really enjoyed it, and it went by super fast.
November 4, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Let's use reality, not libertarian pie-in-the-sky.

Take crop insurance.

It existed going back to the 1930s, but was a tiny program for family farms. Fast forward to massive consolidation post-80s from deregulation - that program gets turbocharged for corporate interest and drives overproduction
October 28, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Where? Lawyer isn't on that webpage.
October 28, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Take JBS, the largest meatpacker the world's ever seen. They've been accused of bribing meat inspectors, buying off politicians, hiring children in packing plants, and using slave-like labor.

Their not going to let any regulator change get in their way. Hence, they were Trump's largest inaug donor.
October 28, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Our fundamental disagreement: I believe no meaningful regulatory change can be made without first trust-busting. It's step one before anything else. The money and power will undermine any reforms.

I also have no legal training.
October 28, 2025 at 12:26 AM
I also think we might differ on the fundamental problem here. You seem to think govt is the problem whereas I see the regs reflecting unchecked corporate power. In this case, it being the largest private company in America: Cargill.
October 28, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Because it's an interview about food distribution, not the Farm Bill. I have an entire chapter on the Farm Bill via a Grain Baron chapter that we did an entirely different Odds Lots episode last year on.
October 28, 2025 at 12:11 AM
aw, thanks :)
October 25, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Yup! It's in the paperback. Here's a snippet published recently, too.
Tonight’s Dinner Fell Off the Sysco Truck
Sysco’s market dominance means that something essential is being lost. As local businesses fade away, a sense of a distinct regional and local identity disappears with them.
www.thenation.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Thanks!
September 11, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Oh, I'm not. I sent them a copy of the book a year ago, but radio silence.
September 11, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Yup! Figuring out exactly when as we speak. I've never been and I think I missed the boat on snagging a concert ticket but I'm coincidentally in town so I figured why not swing by.
September 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM