NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE...
Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America
By Sonja Trom Eayrs
with Katherine Don
University of Nebraska Press: 2024
* Finalist, 2025 Minnesota Book Awards *
* Featured in Vox, Forbes, Civil Eats & more *
In Dodge County, Incorporated (November 2024, University of Nebraska Press), attorney and rural advocate Sonja Trom Eayrs provides a riveting insider’s account, detailing how American livestock farming has been wrested from small family farmers and transformed into today’s corporate control of meat production and pricing. Trom Eayrs argues that this corporatism can and should be fought and curbed, not only for the sake of land, labor, and water, but for democracy itself.
"Sonja Trom Eayrs rings the alarm in Dodge County, Incorporated, speaking poignantly from her personal experience about how the American dream ... has been taken away from so many. It reminds us that the people have the power to fight back and reclaim our broken food system for farmers, rural communities, and all Americans."
— Cory Booker, U.S. Senator
“For more than a generation, the relentless—and reckless—profiteering of Big Ag corporations has decimated the rural economy. . . Sonja Trom Eayrs brings this Kafkaesque upheaval to life in a narrative as personal as it is essential."
— Corban Addison, author of Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial
“This book is an absolutely urgent warning sent from America’s heartland. Sonja Trom Eayrs has spent years fighting the corporate takeover of the rural community where she grew up, and the story she tells here is riveting."
— Christopher Leonard, New York Times best-selling author of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business
About Sonja
Attorney | Author | Activist
Sonja Trom Eayrs, author of Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America, is a farmer’s daughter, rural advocate, and attorney. She is involved in several rural advocacy organizations, including the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Farm Action, Land Stewardship Project, and Dodge County Concerned Citizens. Trom Eayrs also serves as the business manager for the Trom family farm in Dodge County, Minnesota.
In the MEDIA
Articles
TwinCities.com: 2025 Minnesota Book Awards Finalists Announced. Dodge County is named a finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards.
Vox: In this feature article, “How Big Meat silences its critics,” Vox reporter Kenny Torrela details Sonja’s story and discusses the book.
Booklist: Dodge County, Incorporated received a starred review from Booklist and was a “review of the day” selection in October 2024.
Kirkus Reviews: “A smart, militant update to Wes Jackson’s and Wendell Berry’s writings on smallholder farming, her book demands immediate reforms.” Full review here.
Civil Eats: Sonja's author Q&A with Civil Eats, which also selected Dodge County as a top book for gifting in December 2024.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Sonja's author Q&A with Star Tribune ag reporter Christopher Vondracek.
Interviews & Podcasts
NPR, Heartland Politics with Robin Johnson: Author Describes Battles Against CAFOs and Big Ag in Rural Minnesota
Farm Aid Series: Breaking Bread with Sonja Trom Eayrs
