Drea Knufken
Cargill defines agribusiness. America’s biggest private company is owned by a family, the namesake Cargills. Founder William Wallace Cargill founded the company as a grain storage provider the end of the Civil War. Today, Cargill describes itself as “an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services.”
Translation: Cargill has its fingerprints all over your pantry and fridge. Cargill is the world’s biggest agricultural commodities trader, one of the country’s biggest corn ethanol producers, a plastics and foams producer, maker of modern health marvels like Omega-3-laden shortening and the Stevia-based Truvia natural sweetener, a harvester of salt and palm oil, a cotton and meat processor, a McDonald’s supplier of eggs, cooking oil, beef trim for patties, “salt, sauces, and risk management services…” and much, much more. Forbes estimates that each member of the secretive Cargill family is worth up to $1.8 billion.
