‘We are the flour in your bread, the wheat in your noodles, the salt on your fries. We are the corn in your tortillas, the chocolate in your dessert, the sweetener in your soft drink. We are the oil in your salad dressing and the beef, pork or chicken you eat for dinner. We are the cotton in your clothing, the backing on your carpet and the fertilizer in your field.’
Source: Cargill’s corporate brochure
Cargill Inc. is the largest food company in the world and the largest privately owned company in America. Approximately 20 people, broken down into two branches of the family, the Cargills and the MacMillans, own about 88% of the company.
It is estimated that Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis-Dreyfus (collectively known as the ABCDs), control 70-90% of the global grain market. Cargill’s annual revenue is nearly equal to that of all of the other ABCD companies combined.
The Cargill-MacMillans are the fourth richest family in America, with more billionaires than any other family on Earth. Six of the family members sit on Cargill’s Board of Directors. The others, while not necessarily engaged in the company’s day-to-day business, are still its owners and have the ultimate say over—and responsibility for—Cargill’s practices.
While they are one of the most powerful families in the world, both for their wealth and their control of global food supplies, they are highly secretive, and little is known about them. Bloomberg calls them “one of America’s richest but least known corporate dynasties.”
A former Cargill CEO said, “They want to draw the curtain down. A lot of rich people want to be on TV, want you to know who they are and that they own this and that. Not these people.”