Archer Daniels Midland
OVERALL |
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Owned |
USA |
Rating |
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Agribusiness
Turns crops such as corn, oilseeds, wheat and cocoa into food ingredients, animal feeds, and agriculturally derived fuels and chemicals.
Archer Daniels Midland Company | USA | website |
Company Assessment
PRAISE | CRITICISM | INFORMATION | ||
Archer Daniels Midland Company | ||||
In 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change risk. Responding companies are scored across four key areas: disclosure; awareness; management; and leadership. This company received a CDP Climate Change Score of B.
Source: CDP (2020)
In 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts towards removing commodity-driven deforestation and forest degradation from its direct operations and supply chains. Responding companies are scored across four key areas: disclosure; awareness; management; and leadership. This company received a CDP Forests Score of B.
Source: CDP (2020)
In 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts to manage and govern freshwater resources. Responding companies are scored on six key metrics: transparency; governance & strategy; measuring & monitoring; risk assessment; targets & goals; and value chain engagement. This company received a CDP Water Security Score of B-.
Source: CDP (2020)
This company received an S&P Global ESG Score of 68/100 in the Food Products category of the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an annual evaluation of companies' sustainability practices (last updated 7 Feb 2021). The rankings are based on an analysis of corporate economic, environmental and social performance, assessing issues such as corporate governance, risk management, environmental reporting, climate strategy, human rights and labour practices.
Source: S&P Global (2021) |
The 2019 Corporate Human Rights Benchmark assessed 200 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world from the Agricultural Products, Apparel, Extractives and ICT Manufacturing sectors on 100 human rights indicators. This company's score was in the 20-30 band range. The overall average score was a disappointing 24%.
Source: CHRB (2019)
In 2020/21 KnowTheChain benchmarked over 180 large global companies in the ICT, Food & Beverage, and Apparel & Footwear sectors on their efforts to address forced labour and human trafficking in their supply chains. This company received a score of 21/100.
Source: KnowTheChain (2021)
In 2019 the median pay for a worker at this company was US$63,981. The CEO was paid 285 times this amount. Exorbitant CEO pay is a major contributor to rising inequality. CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are increasing productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more). In contrast, the CEO-to-typical-worker compensation ratio was 20-to-1 in 1965 and 58-to-1 in 1989.
Source: AFL-CIO (2020) |
ADM's major forays into new markets, including cocoa and palm oil, are raising concerns. They center on the impacts of the global food conglomerate's supply chain, and on charges of complicity in forced child labor and massive deforestation. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: CorpWatch (2010)
This agribusiness giant buys palm oil sourced from pristine forests which are clear-cut and burned to accommodate the expansion of palm oil plantations, contributing heavily to global climate change, species extinction, and the displacement of Indigenous and local communities. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: RAN (2008)
Anti-Slavery International is calling on cocoa traders Cargill, ADM and Barry Callebaut to increase their efforts to end child slavery in the industry, particularly in the Ivory Coast. These big multinational commodity trading companies buy cocoa sourced from Ivorian cocoa farms where children in slavery are frequently found, and export it to the global brands which make and sell chocolate worldwide. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: Anti-Slavery International (2010)
As You Sow's 2020 report, 'The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs', reveals the 100 most overpaid CEOs from USA's 500 largest public companies (as determined by the S&P 500 list). This company's CEO, Juan Luciano came in at number 36 on the list, having been paid US$19,637,534 in 2019. According to the report, "Most CEOs have come to be grossly overpaid, and that overpayment is harmful to the companies, the shareholders, the customers, the other employees, the economy, and society as a whole."
Source: As You Sow (2020)
This company has sustainability claims on its website in the areas of responsible sourcing, compliance and ethics, innovating sustainable materials and progress tracking.
Source: company website (2020)
This company is a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, the main food industry initiative supporting the development of sustainable agriculture worldwide. Created by Nestle, Unilever and Danone in 2002, the SAI Platform is a non-profit organization to facilitate sharing, at precompetitive level, of knowledge and initiatives to support the development and implementation of sustainable agriculture practices involving the different stakeholders of the food chain.
Source: SAI Platform (2019)
This company is a member of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), a not-for-profit, membership organisation that leads work with buyers and suppliers to deliver improvements in responsible and ethical business practices in global supply chains. Tens of thousands of companies use Sedex to manage their performance around labour rights, health & safety, the environment and business ethics.
Source: Sedex (2018)
The Forest 500 identifies, ranks, and tracks the governments, companies and financial institutions worldwide that together could virtually eradicate tropical deforestation. Rankings are based on their public policies and commitments and potential impacts on tropical forests in the context of forest risk commodities (palm oil, soy, beef, leather, timber and paper). This company received a score of 50%.
Source: Forest 500 (2020)
California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: Modern Slavery Registry (2017)
OpenSecrets.org tracks the influence of money on U.S. politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives. Follow link to see this company's record of political donations, lobbying, outside spending and more.
Source: Open Secrets (2014)
JUST Capital polls Americans every year to identify the issues that matter most in defining just business behaviour. For their 2021 rankings the public identified 19 issues, which are organised under the headings Workers, Communities, Customers, Shareholders and Environment. JUST Capital then define metrics that map to those issues and track and analyse the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies. This analysis powers their rankings, in which this company ranked 334th of 928 companies, and 16th of 35 Food, Beverage & Tobacco companies.
Source: JUST Capital (2020)
This company received a score of 54.9/100 in the Newsweek Green Ranking 2017, which ranks the world's largest publicly traded companies on eight indicators covering energy, greenhouse gases, water, waste, fines and penalties, linking executive pay to sustainability targets, board-level committee oversight of environmental issues and third-party audits. Ranking methodology by Corporate Knights and HIP Investor.
Source: Newsweek (2017) |
Company Details
Type | Public company |
Revenue | 64.3 billion USD (2018) |
Employees | 32,300 (2016) |
Subsidiaries | Wilmar International Ltd (20% owned) ![]() Agribusiness, especially palm oil World's #1 palm oil trader. World's #1 palm biodiesel manufacturer. Asia's largest agri-business group. One of the largest plantation companies in Indonesia/Malaysia. Run by Khoon Hong Kuok. Supplies palm oil to multinational companies such as Unilever, Nestle and Cargill. Bought CSR's sugar and renewable energy business in 2010, and Goodman Fielder in 2015. - Goodman Fielder Ltd ![]() Food and beverage company Founded in Tamworth NSW in 1909. Goodman Fielder was Australasia's largest listed food manufacturing company, however the company was delisted from the ASX in 2015 when it was acquired for $1.3 billion by the world's largest palm oil trading company, Wilmar International, and Hong Kong investment company First Facific. They manufacture their products in almost 60 plants across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia. Wilmar became full owners in 2019. - Wilmar Sugar Australia Ltd ![]() Sugar Australia's #1 sugar processor and refiner (#8 globally). Owns and operates eight sugar mills in Queensland, processing more than half of Australia's raw sugar. Australia's largest producer of sugar-based ethanol and renewable energy from biomass. Sold by CSR to Wilmar in July 2010. Previously known as Sucrogen. ADM Australia Pty Ltd ![]() Food and feed ingredients Food and feed ingredients made from corn, soy, wheat and cocoa. |
Contact Details
Address | Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
Website | www.adm.com |
Products / Brands
Goodman Fielder
Atlantic Bakery Bread
Buttercup Bread Cornwells Vinegar Cornwells Pickles, Chutney & Relish Country Life Bread Country Split Bread Crisco Cooking Oil Defiance Flour & Bread Mix Defiance Pudding & Custard Donna Hay Cake Mix ETA Cooking Oil ETA Salad Dressing/Mayonnaise ETA Tomato/BBQ Sauce ETA Butter & Margarine Flinders Bread Frymasta Butter & Margarine Gold'nCanola Cooking Oil Gold'nCanola Butter & Margarine Helgas Bread Helgas Flat Bread Holbrooks Pickles, Chutney & Relish Kream Flour & Bread Mix La Famiglia Bread Lawson's Bread Logicol Butter & Margarine Meadow Lea Butter & Margarine |
Mighty Soft Bread
Molenberg Bread Nature's Fresh Bread Olive Grove ![]() Olive Grove Butter & Margarine One Night in Mexico Mexican Pampas Frozen Desserts/Fruit Pampas Frozen Pastry Paul Newman's Own Pasta Sauce Paul Newman's Own Salad Dressing/Mayonnaise Pavlova Magic Cake Mix Pavlova Magic Pudding & Custard Praise Salad Dressing/Mayonnaise Sunicrust Bread Supafry Butter & Margarine Taylors Bread Vogel's Bread White Wings ![]() White Wings Pudding & Custard White Wings Cake Mix White Wings Gravy Wonder White Bread Wonder Wholemeal Bread Wonder Wraps Flat Bread |