Argentinian authorities say that ADM, Louis Dreyfus, Cargill and Bunge have "have descended into criminality" to avoid paying taxes on their grain exports. The companies deny the charges.
The neoliberal consensus of the last two-and-a-half decades, in which emerging economics have been encouraged to open up their agricultural markets and export raw materials while the US and EU have maintained their $250bn-a-year farming subsidies, is under powerful challenge in South America.
Leftwing governments, including Kirchner’s in Argentina, are reclaiming food sovereignty and a greater share of the profits. Part of that has involved taking on the big concentrations of corporate power that characterise many parts of the global food system – the “untouchables”, as one Argentinian official described them.