THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Archer-Daniels-Midland, which styles itself Supermarket to the World, is a gigantic processor of farm commodities. Right now, it finds itself in the middle of a gigantic price-fixing scandal.
Three years ago, Mark Whitacre - president of ADM's BioProducts Division - apparently became convinced his employer was engaging in illegal practices. He did what you're supposed to do. He blew the whistle.
The FBI asked Whitacre to carry a briefcase equipped with a microphone, and he eventually taped meetings in far-flung locales from Tokyo to Los Angeles involving ADM executives and those of competing companies.
A grand jury investigating antitrust violations has now subpoenaed documents from ADM, Cargill, A.E. Staley and CPC International, companies that control much of America's agribusiness. The law will wend its slow course, and perhaps we will eventually learn whether or how the $11 billion behemoth and its competitors colluded to keep the price of ingredients needed for products we all buy - from soft drinks to baked goods to medicines - artificially sweetened.
The business of America may be business, but free enterprise isn't supposed to work this way. Price fixing short circuits the supply-and-demand pressures that are supposed to set prices. It enriches the conspirators and gouges the customers. Adam Smith, the high priest of market economics, wouldn't like it.
Meanwhile, Decatur, Ill. - ADM's home turf - doesn't like Mark Whitacre. It's a company town where the motto appears to be ``ADM: right or Wrong.'' The Wall Street Journal quotes the town's Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Randy DeJaynes, as saying the community feels ``violated. It's as though I became a good friend of your family, came over to your house all the time, then started rifling through the drawers. It's not an intruder though. It's someone who's trusted. . . .'' Other members of the church council call Whitacre a spy and denounce the FBI as underhanded.
With all due respect, it sounds as if Pastor DeJaynes and his colleagues need an ethical tuneup. Would they criticize the FBI for trying to gather information about organized crime? Well, the actions alleged in this case are an organized crime. As for Whitacre, he discovered a possible violation of the law and reported it to the authorities who asked his help in investigating. Should he have refused? His behavior wasn't underhanded; it was good citizenship.
It may have come naturally to Whitacre. The 38-year-old biochemist is a university trustee and a generous donor to charities who has adopted troubled youths. He sounds like a real Boy Scout. That once was shorthand for a man of integrity. It's become code for a goody-goody too effete to play hardball with the big boys. But that only means the country has lost its moral compass. It demonstrates how casually we now treat corruption, as if it's the norm.
Whitacre doesn't deserve to be shunned as a spy and traitor, especially by church leaders who should know better. He deserves to be praised for doing the right thing. It must have taken considerable courage.
It would be nice to believe that if ADM is found guilty, it will be punished and learn its lesson and Whitacre will be honored for his strength of character. It is another warning sign of the times that it's hard to imagine that happening. More likely, Whitacre has damaged his career and ADM will receive a slap on the wrist. But that doesn't make it right or Whitacre wrong. He made the responsible choice. by CNB