[5][6] He grew up mostly in Iowa (with siblings Albert, Lenore, Glen, Osborne and Lowell) and worked at his father farm and later the family's feed and grain business.
When Cargill bought the Cedar Rapids facility in 1945, Andreas joined the commodity firm, eventually becoming a vice president.
Over the following years Andreas gradually increased his holding and his influence in the company, eventually becoming chief executive officer of ADM in 1971.
[3] Andreas remained CEO until 1997, the year that Archer Daniels pleaded guilty to price-fixing and paid $100 million in fines.
[11] On March 26, 1965, president Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Andreas to The General Advisory Committee on Foreign Assistance Programs.
In 1997 Andreas donated $2.2 million to the Miami Homeless Assistance Center, saying "The one thing that is more gratifying than successfully making money is giving it away to a wonderful cause.
"[2] Andreas was one of several signatories to a May 20, 2004, open letter exhorting President George W. Bush to lift travel and humanitarian aid restrictions on Cuba.
Andreas was one of the most prominent political campaign donors in the United States,[7] having contributed millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates alike.
[20] Other recipients of Andreas's "tithing" — as he puts it — have included George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, and Jack Kemp.
[citation needed] According to Mother Jones magazine: During the 1992 election, Andreas gave more than $1.4 million in soft money and $345,000 to individual candidates, using multiple donors in his company and family members (including wife Inez) to circumvent contribution limits.