The situation is now so dire that we are seeing lawsuits organised by the lawyers who successfully sued tobacco companies. The legal principle, that a manufacturer has a duty to warn consumers of the dangers of their product, has been established. Where will it end and to what extent will government intervene to control this run-away industry?
One of the largest beneficiaries of US government subsidies is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a leading processor of animal products and supplier of ingredients to the fast-food industry. In a secretly recorded conversation the president of the company commented, at a price-fixing meeting with Japanese executives: "Our competitors are our friends, our customers are our enemies". The vice-chairman of ADM was sent to prison in 1999 for price-fixing on lysine (a chicken feed additive made from subsidised corn). This was after they had been fined heavily for fixing prices on corn syrup, an essential sweetener in the US. It is, of course, subsidised, as is the corn from which it is made.
