arrogance (see, for example, Brewster Kneen in the Ecologist and also Greg Muttitt in the same journal). The MacMillans' aggressive management style led to a decades-long feud with the Chicago Board of Trade. It began in 1934 when the Board denied membership to Cargill. The US government overturned the Board's ruling and forced it to accept Cargill as a member. The 1936 corn crop failed and with the 1937 crop unavailable until October, the Chicago Board of Trade ordered Cargill to sell some of its corn. Cargill refused to comply. The US Commodity Exchange Authority and Chicago Board of Trade accused Cargill of trying to corner the corn market. In 1938, the Chicago Board suspended Cargill and three of its officers from the trading floor. When the Board lifted its suspension a few years later, Cargill refused to rejoin, instead trading through independent traders. During World War II, MacMillan Jr. continued to expand the company, which boomed as it stored and transported grain and built T1 tankers and Towboats ships for the United States Navy. In 1962, Cargill rejoined the Chicago Board of Trade, two years after MacMillan's death. In 1960, Erwin Kelm became the first non-family chief executive. Aiming for expansion into downstream production, he led the company into milling, starches ,and syrups. As the company grew, it developed a market intelligence network as it coordinated its commodities trading, processing, freight, shipping ,and futures businesses. In the decades before email, the company relied on its own telex-based system for internal communication. When the Soviet Union entered the grain markets in the 1970s, demand grew to unprecedented levels, and Cargill benefitted. In 1963, Cargill had already negotiated a $40 million wheat deal with the USSR, establishing a relationship that later involved a series of larger deals. When Whitney MacMillan, nephew of John Jr., took over the company from Kelm in 1976, revenue approached $30 billion. The US government put pressure on big grain exporters with allegations of manipulating the market, and Cargill was a major target, but it emerged without any major changes. In 1978 Cargill purchased the large Leslie Salt refining company in Newark, California, from Schilling. In 1979, Cargill entered the meat-processing business with the purchase of beef processor MBPXL (later Excel). The division expanded into turkey, food service and food distribution businesses and is now known as Cargill Meat Solutions. In 1986 Cargill started operations in Venezuela