Merchants of Grain: The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Center of the World's Food Supply [Paperback]

Dan Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2000

The first and only book to describe the seven secretive families and five far-flung companies that control the world's food supplies. Little has changed their central role since Morgan's best-selling book first appeared in 1979.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dan Morgan has been a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post for more than 30 years. In addition to Merchants of Grain, he has written Rising in the West, the story of an "Okie" family and the making of the modern Sun Belt.

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (October 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595142109
• ISBN-13: 978-0595142101
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Exports & Imports

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Know for Everybody, April 6, 2000

By 

Chris Berg (Starkweather, North Dakota USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merchants of Grain (Paperback)

An excellent work detailing how only a handful of families have controlled the worlds grain trade for centuries. A great piece for families that till the soil, but one that is even more important to the people who live in the city; and have no idea of the power and control that these families wield. Reading this book will show you how these families control the cheap food policies as well as the commodities markets and other products world wide.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grain Industry has it's own OPEC, January 11, 2000

By 

Captain John R. Sutton (New Orleans, Louisiana , USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merchants of Grain (Paperback)

I am a captain on Mississippi River towboats. I have pushed millions of tons of grain down the Mississippi River for years. But I never really understood the gobal impact of the world's grain company's until I read this book.

Now I understand the real power behind families such as Cargil and ADM's Andreas.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eating is a fundamental reality to citizens and politicians, December 23, 2002

By 

Eugene A Jewett "Eugene A Jewett" (Alexandria, Va. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merchants of Grain: The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Center of the World's Food Supply (Paperback)

I first read this book 20 years ago and was awed by the importance of the distribution of grain to the world, and particularly to one-party dictators. Anyone who understands political power knows that a small number of soldiers can control a much larger populace of people i.e. the German SS figured one storm trooper for roughly every 1000 plus people. However, when those people are all hungry at the same time it becomes another matter entirely, as in more difficult.

This book shows how a few big companies control the distribution of grain throughout the world. In so doing they are not prone to accept "aging receivables" from dictators, tin-pot or otherwise. Every political leader must understand the importance of grain or face a coup. Of course, one can find those who have lasted longer than others, but only at the cost of so weakening their state that it ultimately crumbles from internal implosion.

Read this book to understand history and more importantly the origen of our food supply and how it reaches our table.