September/October 1995 Issue

This little piggy rigged the market?

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During his interview with reporter Dan Carney (“Dwayne’s World,” July/August), Archer Daniels Midland Chairman Dwayne Andreas jokingly asked a fellow executive, “What do they do for us in Bulgaria? Do they fix the prices? Or is there some kind of a free market?” At least we thought he was joking. As we reported, ADM is an enormous beneficiary of corporate subsidies, like the Agriculture Department’s sugar program, which pushes cola makers to use corn syrup as a sweetener by inflating sugar prices. In July, a criminal antitrust investigation fingered the agribusiness giant for allegedly price-fixing, among other things, the corn syrup used in cola.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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