Since multinational grain companies operate so as to maximize profits, they cannot be relied on to initiate economic changes that would reform the world' s food-distribution system. Although it is true that the actions of multinational companies sometimes do result in such economic change, this result is incidental, arising not from the desire for reform but from the desire to maximize profits. The maximization of profits normally depends on a stable economic environment, one that discourages change. The main point of the argument is that ['multinational grain companies operate so as to maximize profits', "multinational grain companies cannot be relied on to initiate reform of the world's food-distribution system", 'the maximization of profits depends on a stable economic environment', 'when economic change accompanies business activity, that change is initiated by concern for the profit motive']