adm agriculture commodities ethanol grain biofuel illinois
related: Cargill American Farm Bureau Federation Durbin
Who They Are
Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM). One of the “Big Four” global commodity traders (alongside Cargill, Bunge, and Louis Dreyfus — the “ABCD” group), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ADM processes and trades agricultural commodities — soybeans, corn, wheat, cocoa — and is one of the world’s largest producers of ethanol, animal feed, and food ingredients. Revenue: $85 billion (2024).
ADM PAC contributes $1-2 million per cycle, with lobbying spending of $3-5 million annually. ADM’s political priorities center on the Renewable Fuel Standard (which mandates ethanol blending in gasoline), agricultural trade policy, and commodity program support. The company’s ethanol operations make it the primary corporate beneficiary of the corn ethanol mandate — a policy that diverts 40% of the US corn crop to fuel production.
What They Want
Preservation and expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (ethanol mandate), favorable agricultural trade agreements, commodity program subsidies, reduced EPA regulation of agricultural processing, favorable biofuel tax credits, and opposition to antitrust enforcement of commodity market concentration.
What They’ve Gotten
Renewable Fuel Standard: The RFS — established in 2005 and expanded in 2007 — mandates that refiners blend increasing volumes of biofuels (primarily corn ethanol) into the US gasoline supply. The mandate creates guaranteed demand for ADM’s ethanol production, effectively requiring American drivers to subsidize ADM’s corn processing operations every time they fill up their gas tanks. ADM is the primary corporate beneficiary of a policy that costs consumers an estimated $15-25 billion annually in higher fuel and food costs.
Price-Fixing Legacy: ADM was convicted of lysine and citric acid price-fixing in 1996, paying $100 million in fines — the largest criminal antitrust fine at the time. Three ADM executives were imprisoned. The scandal (documented in the film “The Informant!”) revealed the commodity industry’s structural tendency toward price manipulation — a tendency that the ABCD group’s market concentration enables.
Money
The ethanol mandate diverts 40% of the US corn crop — approximately 5 billion bushels annually — to fuel production. This diversion increases corn prices (benefiting ADM’s grain trading), creates guaranteed demand for ethanol (benefiting ADM’s processing), and raises food costs for consumers (who pay more for corn-fed meat, corn syrup, and corn-based products). ADM’s $3-5 million annual lobbying investment in preserving the ethanol mandate generates billions in guaranteed revenue. The mandate survives because Iowa — the largest corn state — holds the first presidential caucus, making ethanol opposition political suicide for presidential candidates.
Sources
- OpenSecrets: ADM organizational profile (Tier 1)
- EPA: Renewable Fuel Standard program (Tier 1)
- DOJ: ADM price-fixing prosecution (Tier 1)
- Ballotpedia: ADM (Tier 3)
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