Archer, a grain processor based in Decatur, Ill., said its stake was an investment, not a takeover move.

Over the past decade, a coalition of farm-state legislators, grain processors and trade groups has successfully fought to keep in place a generous, highly controversial ethanol tax credit.

In 1945, he sold Honeymead to Cargill Inc., the Minneapolis-based grain processor, and soon became an executive in its oil-seed division.

Archer Daniels, based in Decatur, Ill., and Cargill, based in Minneapolis, are huge grain processors.

Based in Decatur, Ill., Archer is a giant grain processor run by Dwayne O. Andreas, the most influential figure in American agribusiness.

Either deal would have tied together a major seed and chemical producer with a huge grain processor.

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a grain processor.

So what started as protests from a tiny group of activists has become a trend that is forcing farmers and grain processors to segregate non-modified from modified grains.

Profits are plunging at grain processors like Cargill and Archer-Daniels-Midland, which recently shut down some of its ethanol production.

Archer-Daniels, the nation's largest grain processor, is incorporated in Delaware.