The Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM), based in Decatur, Illinois, operates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into numerous products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed markets worldwide.

ADM also provides agricultural storage and transportation services. Company divisions include: ADM Cocoa, ADM Corn Processing, ADM Food Additives, ADM Lecithin, ADM Milling, ADM Monoglycerides, ADM Vitamin E, ADM Protein Specialties, ADM Food Oils. The American River Transportation Company is a subsidiary of ADM. ADM's revenues for fiscal 2005 (ending June 30, 2005) were US $35,943.8 millions.

Products

Typical products include oils and meal from soybeans, cottonseed, sunflower seeds, canola, peanuts, flaxseed and corn germ, syrup, starch, glucose, dextrose, crystalline dextrose, high-fructose sweeteners, ethyl alcohol, and wheat flour. End uses are consumption by people and livestock, and fuel additives.

History

In 1902, George A. Archer and John W. Daniels began a linseed crushing business. In 1923, Archer-Daniels Linseed Company acquired Midland Linseed Products Company, and the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company was formed. Every decade since its corporate inception, ADM has added at least one major profit center to its agribusiness: milling, processing, specialty feed ingredients, specialty food ingredients, cocoa, nutrition, and more.

Price Fixing Investigation

In 1996, ADM was the subject of a price fixing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Senior ADM executives were indicted on criminal charges for engaging in price-fixing within the international lysine market. Three of ADM's top officials, including vice chairman Michael Andreas, were eventually sentenced to federal prison in 1999. Moreover, the company was fined $100 million, the largest antitrust fine in U.S. history.^[1] In addition, according to ADM's 2005 annual report a settlement was reached under which ADM paid $400 million in 2005 to settle a class action antitrust suit.^[2] Kurt Eichenwald wrote a non-fiction book The Informant describing the investigation.

Using the investigation as an example, Ronald W. Cotterill of the Food Marketing Policy Center at the University of Connecticut shows that 100 percent or more of overcharges resulting from price fixing are passed through to consumers. ^[3]

Howard Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, served at one time as an ADM vice president and as a member of the Board of Directors. However, Buffett resigned as VP in the wake of the FBI price fixing investigation. In addition, he has since resigned his seat on the board.