BY THE MID-1990s, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) became one of the largest transnational corporate producers of food in the world, partly as the result of financial subsidies provided by the U.S. federal government. While ADM has been instrumental in the development of the technology of genetically modified food and crops, company executives were convicted corporate criminals.

In the early 1990s, ADM conspired with Asian companies to fix the prices of lysine (an amino acid), a feed additive used to increase the proportion of lean meat in farm animals, a high-fructose corn syrup (a sweetener in soft drinks), and citric acid (a common substance used to provide flavor in food) in order to improve profit.

In 1989, ADM built the world's largest lysine plant and hired Mark Whitacre ...