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Cargill
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Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held, multinational corporation, and is based in the state of Minnesota in the United States. It was founded in 1865, and has grown into the country's largest privately held corporation (in terms of revenue). Were it a publicly held company, it would rank in the top 20 companies in the Fortune 500. Cargill's business activities include purchasing, processing, and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, and the manufacture and sale of livestock feed and ingredients for processed foods and pharmaceuticals.
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Encyclopedia
Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held, multinational corporation, and is based in the state of Minnesota in the United States. It was founded in 1865, and has grown into the country's largest privately held corporation (in terms of revenue). Were it a publicly held company, it would rank in the top 20 companies in the Fortune 500. Cargill's business activities include purchasing, processing, and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, and the manufacture and sale of livestock feed and ingredients for processed foods and pharmaceuticals. It also operates a large financial services arm, which manages financial risks in the commodity markets for the company. In 2003 it split out a portion of its financial operations into a hedge fund called Black River Asset Management, with about $10 billion of assets and liabilities. It owns 2/3 of the shares of The Mosaic Company, one of the world's leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients.
Currently the largest privately owned company in the United States, Cargill declared revenues of $120 billion USD, and earnings of $3.64 billion USD in the 2008 fiscal year. Employing over 160,000 employees at 1,100 locations in 67 countries, it is responsible for 25 percent of all United States grain exports. The company also supplies approximately 22 percent of the United States domestic meat market, exporting more product from Argentina than any other company and is the largest poultry producer in Thailand. All of the eggs used in McDonald's restaurants in the United States pass through Cargill's plants. It is the only producer of Alberger process salt in the U.S.A., which is highly prized in the fast and prepared food industries. It operates a unique (and antique) plant in St. Clair in the Thumb of Michigan.
Despite its size, the corporation is still a family owned business; descendants of the founder (from the Cargill and MacMillan families) own about 85% of the company. This means that most of its growth has been due to reinvestment of the company's own earnings, rather than public financing. Greg Page is the chief executive officer of Cargill; he succeeded Warren Staley in mid 2007.
History
Cargill was founded in 1865 by W. W. Cargill when he bought a grain flat house in Conover, Iowa. A year later W.W. was joined by his brother Sam forming W. W. Cargill and Brother. They built grain flat houses and opened a lumberyard. In 1875 W.W. moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin and brother James joined the family business. The city of La Crosse was strategically located at the junction of the Milwaukee Road and the Southern Minnesota Division. Sam left La Crosse in 1887 and moved to Minneapolis to manage the office there, which was identified as an important emerging grain center. Three years later the Minneapolis operation incorporated under Cargill Elevator Co., years after that the La Crosse operation was incorporated under W. W. Cargill Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1898 John H. MacMillan, Sr. and his brother Daniel began working for W.W. John Sr. would marry W.W.'s eldest daughter, Edna. Sam's death in 1903 W.W. became the solo owner of the La Crosse office. John Sr. was named as general manager of Cargill Elevator Co. and moved his family to Minneapolis. W.W. died in 1909 creating a fiscal crisis for the company. John Sr. worked to resolve the credit issues and to force his brother-in-law, William S. out of the company. The current owners are descended from John Sr. two sons, John H. MacMillan Jr. and Cargill MacMillan Sr., and his youngest brother-in-law, Austen S. Cargill I.
John Sr. ran the company until his retirement in 1936. Under his leadership Cargill grew several fold, expanding out of the Midwest by opening its first East coast offices in New York in 1923 and first Canadian, European and Latin American office in 1928, 1929 and 1930. During this time Cargill saw both record profits and major cash crunches. The first of these crisis was the debt left by the death of W.W. The company issued $2.25 million in Gold Notes, back by Cargill stock to pay off its creditors. The Gold Notes were due in 1917. But thanks for record grain prices caused by World War I all debts were paid back in 1915. As World War I continued into 1917 Cargill made record earning and faced criticisms of war profiteering. Four years later as a fallout from the financial crash of 1920 Cargill posted its first loss.
One of the company's biggest criticisms has been its perceived arrogance. The MacMillans' aggressive management style led to a decades long feud with the Chicago Board of Trade. The feud began in 1934 when Cargill was denied membership by the Board. The U.S. government over turned the Board's ruling and force them to accept Cargill as member. The 1936 corn corp failed and with the 1937 crop unavailable until October, the Chicago Board of Trade ordered Cargill to sell some of its corn. Cargill refused to comply. Cargill was then accused of trying to corner the corn market by the U.S. Commodity Exchange Authority and Chicago Board of Trade. In 1938 the Chicago Board of Trade suspended Cargill and three of its officers trading floor. When the Board lifted its suspension a few years later, Cargill refused to rejoin. Cargill instead traded through independent traders. In 1962 Cargill did rejoin the Chicago Board of Trade, two years after the death of John Jr.
Cargill's quarterly profits crossed $1 billion for the first time during the quarter ending on February 29, 2008 ($1.03 billion); the 86% rise was credited to global food shortages and the expanding biofuels industry that in turn caused a rise in demand for Cargill's core areas of agricultural commodities and technology.
Business Strategy
Cargill's long-term business strategy is to shift its business from trading and processing large volumes of agricultural commodities, to higher margin activities. One of them is the research and development of advanced processing techniques, particularly at its plant in Eddyville, Iowa. For example, in a joint venture with Hoffman-LaRoche, it has developed a process for converting a waste by-product of soybean oil refining into vitamin E. It also produces fuel-grade ethanol, citric acid, and phytosterol esters from grain. The company intends to work as consultants for its customers to create new ingredients and new food processing methods.
Political and Economic views
Cargill is an active proponent of free trade policies. It lobbied for China's membership in WTO, as well as for increased trade with Cuba and Brazil. Cargill's position is based on its strong support of neo-liberal economic principles. First, lesser trade barriers in countries where Cargill does business will lower prices on Cargill's products, and likely increase their volume of business. Second, the decreases in the cost of food in developing countries theoretically result indirectly in higher income per capita but lower income for local farmers. Cargill benefits from increases in consumer income, because better-paid consumers become inclined to eat a diet higher in wheat, protein, vegetable oil, and processed foods. This improves opportunities for Cargill to sell its products. Cargill's economists have reasoned that this is true of the lower income countries in particular. As a developing country grows from $1,000 to $6,000 in mean income per capita, Cargill expects the greatest profit growth from its businesses in that country.
Cargill has maintained a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI) released by the Human Rights Campaign since 2003.
Countries in Which Cargill Operates
Asia
Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
Africa
Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe
Central America/Caribbean
Bonaire, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
Europe
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
Middle East
Egypt, United Arab Emirates
North America
Canada, Mexico, United States of America
South America
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Criticism
Deaths and Injuries
Mercury Poisoning in Iraq
In 1970, Cargill sold 63,000 tons of seed grain to Basra, Iraq. Although banned in many Western countries - Cargill agreed to treat the seed grain with Methylmercury. The shipment was sprayed red to mark its danger and indicate that it was not intended for human or animal consumption but only for use in agriculture. Once it arrived in Iraq in early October however, the surplus seed was given away by the government, and a number of recipients used it as food, since the only printed warnings about the poison were written in English and Spanish, as warnings to American dock workers. This led to the deaths of 93 people.
2007 Beef Recall
In October 2007 Cargill announced the recall of nearly 850 000 frozen beef patties produced at its packing plant in Butler, Wisconsin. The patties, processed between the 9th and 17th of August 2007, were suspected of being contaminated with E. coli. The beef was sold mainly at Walmart and Sam's Club stores.
Human Rights Abuses against Malian Children
In July 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed suit against Cargill, Nestle and Archer Daniels Midland in Federal District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of a class of Malian children who were trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast and forced to work twelve to fourteen hours a day with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent beatings. The three children acting as class representative plaintiffs are proceeding anonymously, as John Does, because of feared retaliation by the farm owners where they worked. The complaint alleges their involvement in the trafficking, torture, and forced labor of children who cultivate and harvest cocoa beans which the companies import from Africa.
Uzbek Cotton
Cargill operates in Uzbekistan despite admissions made by two of its representatives on separate occasions that the company is concerned about the possible use of child labor in the production of its crops. Their concerns have been public since 2005 however they have not yet taken action to investigate or correct any possible labor violations existent in their Uzbek operations.
The Environmental Justice Foundation named Cargill as a major buyer of Uzbek cotton, which is produced widely using uncompensated workers and is implicated in human rights abuses. Cargill claims to have no knowledge of misconduct in either case.
Environmental Damage
Broken Wastewater Pipeline in Australia
June 2007 the Australian operation of Cargill was fined $37,500 (AUD) by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court after a waste water pipeline ruptured in January 2006 which flowed into a stormwater system and into the Bomen wetland.
Filling of San Francisco Bay Wetlands
In 2008, an issue has arisen concerning proposed filling of a large marsh and wetland along San Francisco Bay, which had been used by Cargill in its salt operations (Cargill Salt, the former Leslie Salt Company, purchased by Cargill in 1978). It has been reported that Cargill Inc. is planning to build a massive development on more than of Bayfront salt ponds in Redwood City. Groups opposing the proposed development are planning action against Cargill on developing on the site. They assert that the wetland should be aggregated into a national wildlife refuge, and not filled.
Controversy around Santarém port and Amazon deforestation
In 2003, Cargill completed a port for processing soya in Santarém in the Amazon region of Brazil. The port dramatically increased soya production in the area due to the proximity of easy transport and processing facilities. Although Cargill complied with state legislation, they failed to comply with a federal law requiring an Environmental Impact Statement. In late 2003 Greenpeace launched a campaign claiming the new port sped up deforestation of local rain forest as farmers have cleared land to make way for crops.
In February 2006, the federal courts in Brazil gave Cargill six months to complete an environmental assessment (EA), different from an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This ruling came as part of a broader popular backlash against the port; while it was initially supported by locals who hoped for jobs, opinion has turned against it as the jobs have not appeared. In July 2006, federal prosecutor Felicia Pontes Jr. suggested they were close to shutting down the port.
Cargill responded to criticisms of the port by focusing on the need for economic development for the local province, one of the poorest in Brazil. They claimed that "extreme measures" such as closing the port are not necessary because "Soy occupies less than 0.6 percent of the land in the Amazon biome today." They also pointed to their partnership with The Nature Conservancy to encourage farmers around Santarém to comply with Brazilian law that requires 80% of forest to be left intact in forest areas.
In April 2006, Greenpeace released another report criticising Cargill's for its alleged role in deforestation of the Amazon. The report traced animal feed made from Amazonian soya to European food retailers who bought chicken and other meat raised on the feed. Greenpeace took its campaign to these major food retailers and quickly won agreement from McDonalds along with UK-retailers Asda, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer to stop buying meat raised on Amazonian soya. These retailers in turn put pressure on Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, André Maggi Group and Dreyfus to prove their soya was not grown on recently deforested land in the Amazon.
In July 2006, the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis reported that Cargill had joined other soy businesses in Brazil in enacting a two-year moratorium on the purchase of soybeans from newly deforested land .
See also
External links
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