Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks of the Supermarket to the World, Archer Daniels Midland: James B. Lieber
Editorial Reviews
Archer Daniels Midland–popularly known as ADM, the “Supermarket to the World”–spends millions on ads during Sunday morning TV talk shows and on public radio to burnish its popular image. But behind the façade lies a vicious business eager to fix prices with its competitors and employ prostitutes in corporate espionage, according to JamesB. Lieber’s muckraking account, Rats in the Grain. Lieber tells the story of why the FBI raided ADM’s Illinois headquarters in 1995, as well as the events leading up to the raid and the trial that resulted. ADM was not an easy target–it’s extremely well connected in Washington (an appendix listing politicians who have received financial contributions from ADM reads like a who’s who of Beltway power brokers), and it was a leading recipient of federal largesse. In the end, ADM paid a criminal antitrust fine of $100 million, and two top executives were sent to prison for collaborating with competitors. But the case was messy. The FBI’s informant, Mark Whitacre–once believed to be in line to succeed the company president–twice tried to commit suicide following the FBI raid, and was eventually sentenced to nine years for fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.
But Lieber tells the story of ADM’s crisis well, and with a strong anti-ADM slant. He’s no master of prose style, but his writing is clear and to the point. His book simply crackles with detail–at times, it’s difficult to keep up with all the characters (there’s another appendix identifying them for easy reference). Throughout the text, readers will feel as if they’re in the middle of a 60 Minutes exposé of dirty business practices–a sense augmented by several pages of photos taken from hidden surveillance cameras spying on backroom deals. After reading Rats in the Grain, it will be impossible to look at one of those feel-good ADM ads the same way again. –JohnJ. Miller
From Publishers Weekly
Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, which bills itself as “supermarket to the world,” had its wholesome image tarnished in 1998 when a federal trial in Chicago found two of its top executives guilty of fixing prices with the firm’s competitors; each got two years in prison. The FBI informant who put them there, Mark Whitacre, former president of ADM’s bioproducts division, secretly made audio and video tapes of ADM meetings. According to Whitacre, ADM’s bizarre unofficial motto was: “The competitor is our friend and the customer is our enemy.” Thanks to Whitacre, ADM in 1996 agreed to pay a record antitrust fine of $100 million for price-fixing schemes that cost consumers much more than inflated prices for soft drinks, detergents, poultry and other products. Amazingly, Whitacre, who himself pleaded guilty in 1997 to money laundering and tax fraud, got a far more severe penaltyAnine years in prisonAthan the corporate crooks he exposed. In this thoroughgoing, devastating expos?, Lieber (Friendly Takeover) suggests one reason for this disparity may be that ADM, a premier beneficiary of federal subsidies and tax loopholes, is a politically well-connected behemoth whose law firm had unbridled influence at the Justice Department. The book’s centerpiece, a labyrinthine re-creation of the 1998 trial, includes testimony alleging that ADM used prostitutes to gather information on competitors, that it set up phony trade associations as camouflage and that it stole technology by bribing rival companies’ employees. Lieber meticulously serves up a seamy stew of sex, lies and videotape, revealing corruption that taints an entire industry. Photos include stop-action shots from the FBI tapes. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.