Cargill’s corporate growth in times of crises: how agro-commodity traders are increasing profits in the midst of volatility

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• 作者：Tania Salerno
• 关键词：Speculation ; Food crisis ; Financialization ; Global food system ; Cargill
• 刊名：Agriculture and Human Values
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：34
• 期：1
• 页码：211-222
• 全文大小：435KB
• 刊物主题：Ethics; Agricultural Economics; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; History, general; Evolutionary Biology;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-8366
• 卷排序：34

文摘

This paper proposes two interrelated arguments: first, it is argued that agro-commodity traders are uniquely placed at the crossroads of agricultural trade to benefit from agricultural commodity speculation; and second, that the networks constituting their operations are central to their hedging activities. The case of Cargill—the largest privately owned company in the United States and one of the largest agricultural traders in the world—is used to support this argument by unpacking its operations, structure, and hedging strategies. In order to connect the operations of Cargill to its speculating strategies, this paper first traces how agriculture and finance have become increasingly intertwined leading to heightened agricultural commodity speculation. Second, Cargill will be positioned within this process by analyzing how it has financialized its own strategies and its Corporate Platform. Third, Black River Asset Management, Cargill’s private equity arm, will be analyzed to show how it uses the information moving through Cargill’s Platform to engage in hedging and/or speculation.