WESSEX
WESSEX
01 November 1999
Earlier this year Reuters (WASHINGTON, Feb 11th
1999) reported on the
development of global agri-business alliances who are achieving a
dominant
position in their control over the world's food supply.
These alliances
have been referred to as food 'clusters'.
Based on a University of Missouri study commissioned by the US
National Farmers Union Reuters reported that "four or five
clusters
will develop with numbers limited by access to biotechnology
rights".
According to Reuters the US NFU report
indicates that these clusters "will
dominate word food production in the future, deciding who eats
and
reducing farmers to day laborers."
One of the clusters already identified is the alliance between
biotechology
giant Novartis AG and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a US based
multinational
grain trader and processor. Others include the
Monsanto/Cargill strategic
alliance.
In this context a NEW BOOK (details below) is released TODAY on
the
commercial practices of Novartis's new strategic business partner
ADM.
The book is entitled: "Rats In The Grain: The Dirty Tricks
of the
'Supermarket to the World,' Archer Daniels Midland."
On the basis of the revelations contained in the book two
important
questions in particular arise:
1) How likely is it that biotechnology
generally, and genetic engineering in
particular, will be safely and accountably deployed in the hands
of such
people?
2) How useful is any biotechnology regulatory system, however
well
intentioned and constructed, in such circumstances?
Regulation-ignoring sewage in French cattle rations looks like
being only be
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to establishing what really
goes on in
the international agri-business food chain.
The launch of "Rats in the Grain" coincides with the
release of allegations
(see The
AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER Issue # 53 October 22, 1999,
copies obtainable from the editor: avkrebs@earthlink.net)
that FBI mole
Mark Whiteacre discovered between 1992 and 1995 that ADM was
illegally
disposing of 'genetic organisms' by adding them to corn gluten
animal feed
used for international export.
According to the alleged FBI transcript referred to in THE
AGRIBUSINESS
EXAMINER: "The organisms are in liquid form and are sprayed
on the corn
gluten feed rather than disposed of as required by the
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The liquid spray also added weight to
the feed."
The nature of the 'genetic organisms' is not specified.
However, an article
in Fortune magazine 13 May 1996 entitled 'THE ADM TALE GETS EVEN
STRANGER'
reported that:
"In the summer of 1992, ADM had serious trouble at its
lysine plant, the
flagship of Whitacre's BioProducts division. Bacteria that were
supposed to
convert dextrose, a product of corn processing, into lysine
weren't doing
their job. Up to 70% of what came out of the plant wasn't lysine
but some
useless glob of biochemical exudate."
(http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/magazine/1996/960513/adm.html).
Long before the arrival of GM crops, GM bacteria have been used
in
fermentation processes in the food chain including those used in
the
manufacture of the infamous L-tryptophan human food supplement
which killed
37 people and permanently disabled 1500 others in 1989
(http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/NewsNov-Dec97/GENews12-23Trypt.htm).
Lysine, threonine and tryptophan are all amino acids which are
frequently
produced synthetically by fermentation technology using
genetically modified
bacteria, in particular for use in animal feeds
(http://www.aecibio.co.za/nutrit/lysine_1.html)
.
According to the AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER David Hoech, co-founder of
ADM's
Shareholders Watch Committee, wrote last month to U.S. Attorney
General
Janet Reno on the subject. He expressed shock that the Department
of Justice
has chosen "to overlook" the alleged genetic spraying
activities on ADM's
corn despite the evidence gathered by the FBI, and he accused ADM
of finding
it "more economical to export the poisonous waste rather
than build a
treatment facility."
In his letter Hoech adds: "Our overseas customers don't
trust our regulatory
departments in this administration and most of all don't trust
the Justice
Department who lets corporate criminals such as ADM run amok
destroying what
took our ancestors decades to build....The Declaration of
Independence makes
it our duty to clean up this mess, and if you think the people
won't rise to
the occasion, you're wrong."
This should all make for interesting discussion at the WTO talks
commencing
in Seattle at the end of the month.
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
============================================================================
"Rats In The Grain: The Dirty Tricks of the 'Supermarket to
the World,'
Archer Daniels Midland."
by James B. Lieber
Four Walls Eight Windows: ISBN 1568581424
Hardcover: 326 pages
Available November 1, 1999
"Beneath the wholesome image of Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM, `Supermarket to the World') lie some of the dirtiest
practices in American business: price fixing, bribery, cover-up,
and
more.
`Rats in the Grain' exposes the crime and punishment of
ADM and the largest white-collar criminal trial of the
decade.
Lieber had exclusive access to the highest-ranking confidential
informant in American corporate history --- the FBI mole [Mark A.
Whitacre] --- currently incarcerated. The book features trial
transcripts and still photos from the FBI video to accompany the
text
and testimony."
============================================================================
Footnote:
Who are ADM? Find out more at http://www.admworld.com/
. Exerpts below:
"In 1995, ADM transported over 44 million tons of grain....
Last year ADM and its affiliates had $20 billion in combined
sales. .....
Today, ADM's worldwide transportation network (13,000 railcars,
2,250
barges, and 1200 trucks) is a vital link in our integrated
approach to
processing. Within a network of over 205 domestic and
internationally based
plants, eleven cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into a
multitude of
products used for food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial, and
animal feed
markets worldwide. ....
Our transportation network provides the ability to efficiently
transfer
agricultural products virtually anywhere in the world. ....
ADM is considered one of the largest and most competitive
commodity
merchants in the world, with grain origination capacity in excess
of four
billion bushels worldwide........
The USA’s largest and fastest growing grain trading and
origination group is
the primary building block in ADM’s value-added business.
Through a vast
worldwide network of ADM-owned facilities, as well as a number of
strong
joint ventures and partnerships, the merchandising group provides
the link
between the commodity producer and ADM processing operations. ADM
merchants
coordinate the trading and delivery of commodities necessary to
sustain ADM’
s vast worldwide processing and export facilities. .......
ADM recognizes its responsibility to manufacture natural products
and
ingredients that contribute to the health and well-being of
consumers around
the globe, so we offer an all-natural product line that contains
countless
items with real nutritional benefits, from soy protein to
vegetable oil to
vitamins and more. ....
ADM essentially pioneered the "one-stop shopping"
concept for food
producers, who know they can rely on ADM for a wide variety of
ingredients
that fit into their formulations. Of course, we match our
reliable supplies
with consistently high quality and functionality, too. As a
result, ADM's
value-added food ingredients can be found in countless items on
supermarket
shelves in cities and towns all over the country, and in other
parts of the
world as well. ....
ADM is very much an international business. In Europe we have the
only
processing plant that produces the full range of soy protein
products. And
in the past year alone, ADM acquired four crushing plants and two
refineries
in Brazil, and entered into a 50 percent joint venture with
Bolivia's
leading oilseed crusher, refiner, and bottler. We also have a
tocopherol
plant in Tianjin, China, which will help supply raw materials to
the vitamin
E plant in Decatur, Illinois. And there will be even more growth
in and out
of the United States in the future. ....
ADM complements its own resources with a worldwide network of
affiliates
engaged in processing, transportation, storage, and sales. This
network
enables us to effectively link farmers and food manufacturers
throughout the
world.......
ADM feed ingredients are used the world over by producers,
mixers, and
millers who wish to improve the protein quality, nutritional
standards, and
production efficiency of animal feeds. ...
Our line of amino acids—lysine, threonine, and a
tryptophan/lysine blend
called Tryptosine—is made specifically to help producers
meet the
nutritional demands of today's animals while balancing
environmental
concerns and the need for maximum feed efficiency. ...
ADM BioProducts is expanding production and its product line
rapidly to
satisfy the world demand for these high-value specialty feed
ingredients.
The division is served by sales offices in the United States,
Australia,
England, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Sao Paulo, Canada,
and
Singapore, and by ADM’s worldwide transportation network.
........
Natural ADM ingredients are used in countless food and beverage
items from
baked goods to dairy foods, from meats to confections, from soft
drinks to
sports drinks and just about everything in between. Every day we
turn the
bounty of the land into everyday products: vegetable oil and
lecithin from
soybeans, high fructose corn syrup and citric acid from corn,
flour from
wheat, cocoa powder and chocolate from cocoa beans, and more.
(And one
reason your pork chops are a little leaner these days is lysine,
another
product from corn.)
So whether you knew it before or not, ADM ingredients touch your
life every
single day. "
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