Check out these historical photos of ADM's past in Decatur
Formed in 1902, agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland plays a key role in feeding the world, as well as shaping the Decatur community. Take a walk through the history of ADM in the news.
Tom Dahman
1989: Tom Dahman of Lincoln sits atop his trailer to get a view of the line at ADM.
Robert Coan
1984: Firefighters and ADM workers (right) ease a basked containing Robert Coan down a ladder against the ‘head house’ of an ADM storage silo on Friday, June 8, 1984. Plant manager Coan of Decatur and Ray Mudd of Oakley were investigating a smoke odor when an explosion occurred in a dust collector. Robert Coan died July 12 of his injuries.
Ray Mudd
1984: Emergency personnel help Ray Mudd down a stairway at the ADM plant following an explosion. Mudd, 34, of rural Oakley, was one of two workers injured.
Grain dust
1977: Decatur Fire Department personnel work at the scene of a grain dust explosion at ADM.
Explosion
1977: On the morning of Aug. 30, 1977, ADM employees were crowded into a cinder block building at ADM’s north plant when it exploded. The fire and explosion resulted in injuries to six men, including Steve Huffman, then 20 years old.
Explosion - another look
1977: Another look at the concrete building that collapsed at ADM’s north plant during an explosion in 1977.
Frank Copenhaver
1939: Before the oil is taken out of soybeans at the A-D-M- plant they are rolled and flaked. Here is Frank Copenhaver at a rolling machine.
Extracting Unit
1968: The “world’s largest” soybean extracting unity was put into operation Sept. 1, 1968 by Archer Daniels Midland Co. The huge new facility at the Decatur west plant is still incomplete, but the finishing touches are being applied. This gleaming new extractor can process up to 80,000 bushels of soybeans per day. Lowell W. Andreas, ADM president in 1968, said the target date for completion of company expansion in Decatur is “never.”
Lewis Jones
1939: Lewis Jones operates a machine which sews up bags that have been filled with soybean meal by the “sacker” in the background. At the sacking machine is Harry Vest.
Parker Post
1939: Parker Post, left, and Donald Thompson, A-D-M employees, fasten down the “cap” of a railroad tank car that has just been filled with soybean oil.
Unloading
This previously unpublished photo shows an ADM plant worker hauling bags of soybeans.
Soybeans
1939: This previously unpublished photo shows ADM workers unloading bags of soybeans.
Soviet Favorite
1991: Stacy Need, market communications manager, hoists a box of ADM's veggie burger mix. ADM sells about 5,000 veggie burgers daily to customers of a Moscow restaurant, and is giving the Soviet McDonald's a run for its money.
Talking Shop
1989: Herb Childress of Ashmore, Chuck Winnett of Charleston and Floyd Hupp of Westfield do some chatting.
Taste Test
1990: From left, 'veggie burger' plant manager Gary Bingham and ADM official Ron Ferrari display a vat of the mix to Romanian officials.
Researchers
1982: Researchers at ADM use an extruder to make texture vegetable protein from soy flour.
Plenty of variety
1990: Joan Godbey, manager of executive and research kitchens for ADM, displays the forms soy protein burger takes.
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
1940: Ten truckloads of wildflowers are being planted along the spillway from the Archer Daniels Midland Co. soybean plant, through Faries Park to Lake Decatur. The planting is being done by Decatur Park District workers to beautify the stream that carries water from the soybean mill to the lake. The spillway was constructed by the Park District last fall, and has a series of waterfalls making in one of the showplaces of the country. Bluebells, hepatica, violets, May apples, wild sweet william and several varieties of ferns are being planted. (H&R file photo)
ADM clarifier
1977: The clarifier, the third step in the treatment process, will remove sludge from waste generated by the Archer Daniels Midland Co. complex. (H&R file photo)
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
1978: Archer Daniels Midland Co. hosted 31 visitors from the Republic of China. These Chinese officials sampled soybean based products during their visit. (H&R file photo)
Outstanding Young Farmers
1984: Bob Ryan of Archer Daniels Midland Co. explains lettuce production in a hydroponics greenhouse to group of National Outstanding Young Farmer candidates. (H&R file photo)
Archer Daniels Midland Co. expansion
1967: As part of the Archer Daniels Midland Co. West Plant expansion, 1900 Samuels St., three 15,000-barrel tanks are being moved. The tank at left base. In order to move the tanks, a dike was built and the channel lined with 30,000 square feet of plastic. Water was then pumped into it so the tanks could be floated. At bottom right, a truck tows one of the 50-ton oil tanks down the canal. When the expansion was announced, it was to double the facilities. (H&R file photo)
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
1942: Cars are parked outside of Archer Daniels Midland Co.
DECATUR — Strong execution and robust global demand led Archer Daniels Midland Co. to second-quarter earnings of $566 million, the company rep…
ADM shares have increased 35% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has fallen almost 10%. The stock has risen 53% in the last 12 months.
No one is able to say, yet, when exactly the 350-mile pipeline will be up and running or even when it will be built.
The global food processing giant plans to rename the facility "ADM Specialty Manufacturing" as it will be the site of a microbiology lab and a probiotics lab.
Around 100 volunteers from ADM gathered to pick up trash and debris on North 22nd Street from Locust to Pershing on Friday, the first of what Beautify Decatur Coalition co-chair Jill Davis said will be many more 22nd Street initiatives to come.
College students studying to be high school ag teachers visited ADM on Tuesday to hear about the company from its employees.
Millions of tons of liquefied CO2 now stored beneath the Central Illinois prairie
The joint ventures would support more than 125 jobs in the Decatur region, the companies said.
The new agreement passed the same night ADM announced a partnership with a South Korean firm to locate two new ventures in Decatur that will create 125 jobs.
ADM is expanding its research efforts with its new ADM Science and Technology Center at the University of Illinois Research Park.
Archer Daniels Midland Co. officials say Decatur continues to be a a big part of the company's success story that began 120 years ago.
A proposed carbon pipeline could carry CO2 from Iowa to Decatur, which official say is fertile ground for the process of carbon sequestration.
On Tuesday the French biotechnology company Innovafeed broke ground on its flagship U.S. plant in Decatur, which will soon be home to the company's insect breeding and processing.
Union says it's holding out for a fair wage deal.
ADM will hold a job fair at Workforce Investment Solutions for displace Akorn employees on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
After a month on the picket line, Teamsters Local 916 on Friday ratified a contract, ending a strike against Archer Daniels Midland Co.
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. is donating a total of $700,000 to 27 Decatur-area schools and nonprofit organizations.
ADM, both the city's largest employer and emitter of fossil fuels, will soon be able to pump liquified carbon dioxide into "pore space" more than a mile underneath city-owned land.
Decatur Fire crews responded to a fire at the Archer Daniels Midland West Plant Thursday evening.
This year's crop of nearly 180 interns come from Canada and all over the United States, and will work in Decatur and 39 other locations.
The commission issued the order authorizing the supplemental appropriation on Thursday, just under two weeks after the Illinois Department of Transportation accepted a $68.9 million bid for project construction.
Decatur firefighters remain on the scene following a fire Monday at the Archer Daniels Midland Co. plant in Decatur.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
Company under pressure with accounting probes but says problems its identified don't affect results.
ADM's former chief financial officer, who was placed on leave earlier this year amid an accounting investigation, has agreed to resign effective Sept. 30.
DECATUR – Dwayne Orville Andreas, an agribusiness giant who brought the world to Central Illinois, died Wednesday. He was 98.