悄悄主宰美国人生活的财富500强企业

ADM公司

    早在上世纪初，ADM公司创始人乔治•阿切尔与约翰•丹尼尔就开始联手做起了亚麻籽油压榨生意。从那时起，ADM公司就开始在业内崭露头角。上世纪90年代，公司因价格操纵丑闻而被媒体曝光，从此进入公众视野。2009年上映的一部电影《告密者》（The Informant）即取材于ADM公司的价格操纵丑闻。

    不过，到2009年，公司已从一定程度上挽回了些声誉——2009、2010、2011年连续三年荣膺《财富》食品行业最受赞赏公司。

    ADM公司主要因玉米加工业务而为人们所知，但它的经营范围远不止于此。例如，公司依然在从事亚麻油及其它油籽的压榨。尽管在去年，美国旱灾使农作物收成受到影响，也使公司主要运输渠道密西西比河水位下降，但ADM受到的影响有限，因为公司产品的全球需求较旺。

    ADM公司也是全球最大的磨粉企业之一，拥有每分钟加工20英亩小麦的产能。如果你偏爱甜食，ADM公司是世界上最大的可可制品生产企业之一，在可可粉市场占据大约16%的份额。如果你养猪、马、鱼或其它动物，ADM公司还生产用于喂养这些动物的玉米和大豆制品。

ADM

    Archer Daniels Midland Company has been around since the turn of the century, when George Archer and John Daniels went in together on a business based on crushing linseeds. ADM (ADM,Fortune 500) has flown under the radar aside from a press spike when it got caught up in a price-fixing scandal during the 1990s, which was featured in the 2009 movie The Informant.

    By that time, the company had somewhat righted its reputation — it was ranked the Most Admired company in the food Industry on Fortune's 2009, 2010, and 2011 lists.

    ADM is known primarily for its involvement in the corn industry, but its reach extends far beyond that. ADM still crushes linseeds and other oilseeds, for example. In fact, strong global demand for those products protected the company this past year from drought problems in the U.S. that hurt harvests and lowered levels on the Mississippi River, a major ADM shipping channel.

    ADM is also one of the largest milling companies anywhere, processing 20 acres of wheat per-minute, all over the world. If you've got a sweet tooth, ADM is one of the largest cocoa product producers and owns roughly 16% of the ground cocoa market. If you raise pig, horse, fish or any of several other animals, ADM cranks out the corn and soy-based products to feed them.