The Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is an American global food-processing and commodities-trading corporation, headquartered in Decatur, Illinois. The company operates more than 270 plants and 420 crop procurement facilities worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial, and animalfeed markets worldwide. On Sept. 24, 2013 ADM announced a planned mid 2014 move of its headquarters out of Decatur, and Chicago was announced as the new site for the world headquarters of the agricultural processing conglomerate.
It was named the world’s-most-admired food-production company by Fortune magazine for three consecutive years: 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The company also provides agricultural storage and transportation services. The American River Transportation Company along with ADM Trucking, Inc., are subsidiaries of ADM. ADM’s revenues for fiscal year 2012 were US$89 billion.
In 1970, Dwayne Andreas became the chief executive officer of ADM, and is credited with transforming the firm into an industrial powerhouse. Andreas remained CEO until 1997 before his nephew G. Allen Andreas was named to this position. He was one of the most prominent political campaign donors in the United States, having contributed millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates alike.
In September 1999, executive Marty Andreas announced, under pressure from the European agricultural industry, they were going to separate crops into genetically modified and non-genetically modified groups to give its customers a choice. Previously the company had not disclosed its crop sources.
In 2001, Paul B. Mulhollem became the company’s president. Under his guidance, the company was the first U.S. company to sign a contract with Cuba since the embargo against Cuba was imposed October 1960.
In May 2006, Patricia A. Woertz became the company’s chief executive officer. Formerly of Chevron, she was expected to focus on developing ethanol and biofuels. In February 2007, Ms. Woertz was elected Chairman of the Board at ADM.
On August 22, 2011, the company announced that the soybean processing facility in Galesburg, Illinois, was closing immediately, and its operations would be transferred to other ADM oilseeds facilities. The facility has been idle since April 2011. Some of the 31 employees were to be offered the opportunity to transfer to other ADM facilities.
Starting in October 2012, the company sought to acquire strategic holdings to support serving Asian markets through acquisition of GrainCorp, an Australian grain firm with a network of storage and port facilities in Australia. On 29 Nov 2013, this acquisition was blocked by the Australian Treasurer.
On July 7, 2014, the company said that it will buy Swiss-German natural ingredient company Wild Flavors for $3 billion, a move aimed at diversifying the company and helping brands appeal to consumers who increasingly favor foods with natural ingredients and flavorings.
Community Giving: ADM Cares
For more than a century, Archer Daniels Midland Company has connected the harvest to the home, transforming crops into products that serve vital needs for food and energy.
ADM Donates the Nonprofit Organizations. Today, we are a global leader in the production of food ingredients, animal feeds, and renewable fuels and chemicals, with 31,000 colleagues worldwide. Although our company has grown over the last century, the foundation of our business remains unchanged: our commitment to agriculture, our stakeholders, our colleagues and our communities.
Through our ADM Cares program, we’re working to sustain and strengthen this commitment by directing funding to initiatives and organizations around the world that drive meaningful social, economic and environmental progress.
As a global agricultural processor whose purpose is to serve vital needs, Archer Daniels Midland Company connects the harvest to the home worldwide. We source crops from farmers in the world’s major growing regions, transport them to more than 270 processing facilities, and convert them into a wide variety of food ingredients, animal feeds and renewable industrial chemicals and energy products.
ADM operates in more than 75 countries around the world, and our 31,000 colleagues are united by six values that demonstrate our insistence on achieving the right results, the right way: Integrity, Respect, Excellence, Resourcefulness, Teamwork and Responsibility. ADM’s commitment to human rights embodies and reflects these values, particularly Respect, which we define as follows:
“We feel a deep and genuine regard for the safety and well-being of all people, communities and resources, and we treat them with care and consideration. We demonstrate trust and openness. And, we are good stewards of the environment.” We believe that although governments have the primary duty to protect and ensure fulfillment of human rights, we have a responsibility to respect human rights and can play a positive role in the communities where we operate. While we generally are not growers, ADM’s scale, reach and vast supplier network give us the opportunity to help improve the conditions under which crops are grown, transported and marketed around the world, as well as the lives of those who grow them and of other workers and communities along the supply chain.
We work collaboratively with stakeholders—including other industry participants, governments and NGOs—to address opportunities for improvement in the agricultural supply chain, including worker rights and conditions, on-farm health and safety, and the land rights of indigenous peoples.
ADM also maintains its own standards, policies and practices to ensure that our colleagues, our suppliers and their contractors respect workers’ rights and comply with all applicable local, national and international laws governing working conditions.
