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.
Corporate Governance
In 1996, ADM was the subject of the largest price fixing investigation in history. Senior ADM executives were indicted on criminal charges for engaging in price-fixing in the international lysine market, and the company was fined $100 million, the largest antitrust fine ever. [1]
ADM has been criticized for having a board of directors that does not serve stockholder interests. Business Week has singled ADM out as being one of the worst-governed corporations in the US for three years in a row: 1998, 1999 and 2000. Specifically, the publication charged, ADM had a board packed full of management's incompetent cronies.
Public Relations
ADM has been energetically attempting to improve its image in the public eye. It provides substantial financial support for public broadcasting in the US, and also advertises extensively, in a way that seems unusual for a company whose products are used exclusively by other corporations.
Text of radio ad in US in 2003: "What if the world were one gigantic farm field? When crops grow where they grow best, we improve agricultural efficiency, make food more affordable, and feed a hungry world."
References