Trading Up

Trading Up: How Cargill, the World's Largest Grain Company, Is Changing Canadian Agriculture

Trading Up makes intelligible the complex world of the grain trading system on which Canada's wheat economy depends. It unmasks one of the most secretive of the world's private companies, exposing the way in which a major transnational corporation is effectively transforming Canadian agricultural policy. Trading Up illuminates the struggle in Canadian agriculture: social control and the principle of equity vs. corporate control and the principle of profit.

 Some review comments: 

"This book is an excellent example of the fine tradition of muck-raking, a style which has made a serious contribution to analysis, consciousness and social change uniquely in North America. But implicit in the manuscript is a more profound message, i.e. that though David may kill the Goliath Cargill, still all will not be well since there is a deeper social structure (which Cargill exemplifies) that needs changing." (Robert Stirling, Dept. of Sociology, University of Regina)

"Brewster Kneen has finally done it. He has pulled together a comprehensive analysis of the international grain cartel's leading member, Cargill Inc., in one place. Although Cargill normally shrouds its activities in secrecy, Kneen has exposed them to the light of day. What can be seen is very, very disturbing. As one farmer put it recently, 'Companies like Cargill could give capitalism a bad name'."   (Mark Ritchie, Policy Advisor, Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture)

Published by NC Press Ltd., Toronto, 1990 ISBN

Trading Up is out of print, but available in many libraries. It may also be available at Abebooks.com.