Christopher Leonard (born c. 1975) is an American

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

. He has written three books, '' The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business'' the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

best-selling '' Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America'', and ''The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy''. His work has appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

'', and ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. Leonard is a native of

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

and a graduate of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

Journalism School. Leonard began his career at the Columbia, Missouri ''

Columbia Daily Tribune The ''Columbia Daily Tribune'', commonly referred to as the ''Columbia Tribune'' or the ''Tribune'', is one of two daily newspapers in Columbia, Missouri, the other being the '' Columbia Missourian''. It is the only daily newspaper in Columbia who ...

'' before moving to the ''

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of i ...

''. He moved to the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' in 2005 where he focused on agri-business issues. In 2014 Leonard joined the

New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a think tank in the United States founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, educa ...

where he finished his first book, ''

The Meat Racket ''The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business'' is a 2014 book by Christopher Leonard about the meat processing industry in the United States that focuses on Tyson Foods as the market leader. Widely reviewed on publication, t ...

'' which received positive reviews, and has been praised as tracing "the evolution of the modern American meat industry". While at New America he began work on his second book, ''Kochland'', which was published in 2019 to positive reviews. In 2019, Leonard helped to found the Watchdog Writers Group at the

Missouri School of Journalism The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in all areas of journalism and strategic comm ...

Reynolds Journalism Institute Reynolds may refer to: Places Australia *Hundred of Reynolds, a cadastral unit in South Australia *Hundred of Reynolds (Northern Territory), a cadastral unit in the Northern Territory of Australia United States * Reynolds, Mendocino County, Calif ...

, where he currently serves as Director.

Books

* '' The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business'' * ''

Kochland ''Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America'' is a 2019 book by Christopher Leonard that uses a deeply-researched account of how Koch Industries became one of the biggest private companies in the world to tel ...

: 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

from 2014 to 2017. In 2017 he was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for ''

''. In 2019, ''

'' was also a finalist for the

Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award ''Financial Times'' Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the ''Financial Times''. It aims to find the book that has 'the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern ...

References

External links

* American journalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-journalist-20thC-stub