Re: More on ADM

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

I'm reading Eichenwald's book on ADM and it reads like FBI spin or even a
print of handouts from the FBI.  It is clear that he was fed enormous
helpings of FBI genetically engineered pap, and then defecates it for the
reader.  The premise of his book is that the FBI was doing a great job but
got undercut by the informant who brought the case to their attention, and
recorded meetings for them.  I've read about one third of it so far and it
is really, really bad.  It is not even good mystery writing.

Gene Coyle

Michael Perelman wrote:

> I took this from Al Krebs' AgBiz Examiner.  It is useful because it
> throws light on
>
> 1) Corporate control of the news.
>
> 2) GM crops.
>
> as well as some intresting speculations about ADM.
>
> NEW YORK TIMES:
> ?ALL THE NEWS THAT?S FIT TO PRINT?
> . . . . .  EXCEPT WHEN IT CONCERNS ADM?
>
> An article appearing on October 14 in the New York Times --- ?New
> Concerns Rise on Keeping Track of Modified Corn? ---  by Kurt
> Eichenwald raises new questions not only about Eichenwald?s association
> with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), but also the possibility
> of a new chapter in that company?s continuing model of a corporate
> culture of corruption and manipulation, a story which James B.
> Lieber, has described so vividly in his authoritative book ?Rats in the
> Grain.?
>
> Kurt Eichenwald has written a number of stories in recent years in The
> Times concerning the scandal at ADM where the ?Supermarkup
> to the World? pled guilty to price fixing in the world lysine feed
> additive market and paid $100 million fine and had three of its
> executives
> convicted of price fixing, fined and sent to jail.
>
> Eichenwald critics point out that they believe he wrote stories on the
> ADM scandal for the Times rather than reported on the scandal
> because as his latest book, ?The Informant,? published by Doubleday,
> illustrates his role as a reporter for the ?paper of record? leaves a
> lot to be desired.
>
> Those who have closely covered the ADM scandal over recent years have
> been voicing serious questions about Eichenwald?s reporting
> skills as opposed to his story telling. The fact that many details in
> his book are erroneous, that he makes no mention, either in his Times
> stories or the  book, of many aspects of the coverup of the scandal by
> the Department of Justice. Nor does he discuss the influence
> peddling role of Williams & Connelly, the high-powered law firm in
> Washington which not only represented ADM in the price fixing
> scandal and argued Bill Clinton?s defense against impeachment on the
> floor of the U.S. Senate, but also is now representing FOX
> television in its legal battle with Florida reporters Jane Akre and
> Steve Wilson after they were fired for refusing to lie, distort and
> slant an
> on-the-air report on the use and dangers of rBGH. (see below)
>
> Eichenwald?s continued coziness with the Department of Justice and
> Williams & Connelly is troubling  to critics when one considers the
> fact that while he was writing about the ADM scandal he reportedly told
> David Hoech of the ADM Stockholders Watch Committee that
> he controlled what was printed in the Times concerning Archer Daniels
> Midland.
>
> Now comes his latest article in the Times on genetically engineered
> corn.
>
> ADM is currently the nation?s leading corn processor with elevators
> scattered all over the nation and the world. It boasts of numerous
> food products which we buy every day which contain its ingredients.
>
> Eichenwald in his story relates certain details concerning the growing
> scandal of the genetically engineered corn seed StarLink, which is
> not fit for nor has it been approved for human consumption.  He writes:
> ?Millions of bushels of the unapproved corn, known as
> StarLink, have been found in flour delivered to more than 350 grain
> elevators around the country.?
>
> He goes on to tell that ?StarLink corn was first found last month in
> store-bought taco shells distributed under the Taco Bell brand by
> Kraft Foods, which issued a nationwide recall. On Wednesday, a similar
> finding was made in house-brand taco shells sold by the
> Safeway supermarket chain. The two products were made of yellow corn
> from the same mill, run by Azteca Milling in Plainview, Tex.
>
> ?Yesterday, Mission Foods, which produced the Safeway shells, announced
> a recall of all its tortilla products made with yellow corn on
> the  chance that some might contain StarLink corn. The company, a
> subsidiary of the Gruma Group of Mexico, which is based in Irving,
> Tex., sells products under the Mission name as well as numerous
> private-label brands. . . . . . .
>
> ?Azteca Milling, also a Gruma subsidiary based in Irving, announced its
> own voluntary recall of all yellow corn flour yesterday. Dan
> Lynn, the company's president, said it would mill only white corn
> because that was the "surest way to bolster confidence" that no corn
> unapproved for human consumption had entered the food chain.?
>
> What Eichenwald does NOT report in his story is that the company Gruma
> Group of Mexico is a joint venture with Archer Daniels
> Midland whose mills located in Texas ground the corn used to produce the
> taco shells.
>
> Curiously, Eichenwald also infers in his story that it is the
> responsibility of the farmer and Adventis, the seed?s manufacturer, to
> guarantee the quality and safety of foods ingredients rather than the
> responsibility of the food processor to test all ingredients used in
> preparation of its product to insure its quality and insure food
> security.
>
> The fact that suddenly a story on serious questions surrounding the
> contamination of genetically engineered corn products appears in the
> New York Times (?All the news that?s fit to print.?) under Eichenwald?s
> byline raises some troubling questions. Troubling because
> Eichenwald has claimed that he controls  what is printed in the Times
> concerning ADM, the nation?s number one corn processor and a
> party to a joint venture where such contaminated corn has already been
> found, and yet no mention of ADM is made in his story.
>
> But the StarLink contamination has also raised other questions relative
> to ADM?s role in this latest scandal. One long-time ADM critic
> Nick Hollis of the Agribusiness Council poses a rather thoughtful
> question in that regard.
>
> Could ADM, as the nation?s largest corn processor, Hollis asks, ?be
> using its `inside info? on which food processors are receiving the
> tainted flour (from their milling operations) to `plant problems? and
> sabotage the food from certain companies which had stood up to
> them several years ago during the civil phase of the pricefixing case on
> lysine??
>
> Hollis notes that Kraft Foods was one of the biggest "holdouts" in the
> civil case, requesting more damages from ADM as a result of
> pricefixing. Kraft had led a group of dissenting companies, including
> Hudson Foods and others in the "holdouts" column and, as a result,
> they did receive more settlement money.
>
> ?While this was underway,? he adds, ?a story broke in November 1997 in
> the Chicago Tribune, by Nancy Milman which pointed out
> Kraft's efforts to get the U.S. Department of Justice action surrounding
> allegations that Dwayne Andreas himself had used coercion and
> bribes to derail a cooperative from building a high fructose corn syrup
> facility in North Dakota (which would have supplied Kraft).
>
> ?This story dried up as key witnesses suddenly refused to talk about
> their meeting with Dwayne. If you look carefully at Aventis, a key
> focus of the corn shell recall, you may find a similar disturbing
> pattern since just a few days ago, this company was mentioned within a
> larger group of firms settling a civil suit on pricefixing of vitamins.
>
> ?Many observers believe that ADM and its partner Rhone Poulenc were
> provided a "pass" from prosecution in the vitamin price-fixing
> scandal which rocked European firms, because the Decatur-based firm had
> been caught on tape and agreed to cooperate with the DOJ
> --- the same tapes which incriminated them on lysine may also have
> yielded additional information on other criminal cartels they were
> involved in,? Hollis speculates.
>
> For additional details on the Agribusiness Council, its activities and
> commentary on the ADM scandal see
> http://www.agribusinesscouncil.org/
>
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx