Re: More on ADM

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This doesn't shed any light on GM crops. It shows that ADM is completely
irresponsible in allowing (GM) corn that is approved only for animal feed
into human foods. ADM then tries to make some of its opponents responsible
for ADM's own misdeeds. Of course the fact that it is GM has implications
for export but even if the corn were non-GM animal-feed corn it would be
irresponsible. However, I am not sure how great any health risks might be as
contrasted with taste deterioriation. How many seniors subsist on pet food?
    Cheers, Ken Hanly

----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000 12:56 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:3239] More on ADM


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