Perishable Thoughts — May The Best Candidate Win
“Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Speech before […]
Scholarships Available To Industry Through Tip Murphy Legacy Fund
As we prepared to head off to PMA, we published a piece entitled a Tribute to Tip Murphy, which mentioned that the PMA Foundation for Industry Talent was to be the home of a new Tip Murphy Legacy Fund, initially funded with grants from Castellini, Chiquita, Naturipe Farms, Paramount Citrus and Ready Pac. The purpose […]
Advice For Wal-Mart As It Asks Chinese
Suppliers To Be More Socially Responsible
Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, flew to China and the company issued an announcement: WAL-MART ANNOUNCES GLOBAL RESPONSIBLE SOURCING INITIATIVE AT CHINA SUMMIT Company sets new goals and greater expectations for environmental and social compliance, transparency and accountability. Beijing, China — Oct. 22, 2008 — Today, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) took the next step […]
Questions About ‘Brain Food’
Auction Offer For PMA’s FIT
Our piece, Perishable Thoughts — Building The Future Of Our Industry, dealt with the importance of youth to our industry and the many efforts the newly named PMA Foundation for Industry Talent is conducting to help the industry attract new recruits. As part of its fundraising efforts, we mentioned that the Foundation was holding a […]
Perishable Thoughts —
The Supremacy Of Character
We’ve run several pieces lately that focus on character. In this piece, we included a famous exchange that JP Morgan had when testifying before a Senate committee: Untermeyer: Is not commercial credit based primarily upon money or property?Morgan: No, sir, the first thing is character.Untermeyer: Before money or property?Morgan: Before money or anything else. Money […]
As Aldi Opens In Orlando, The Age Of
Deep Discounters Is Upon Us
During our recent to trip to London to speak at the annual Citi Retail Conference, we toured numerous UK retailers, including an Iceland store and Aldi store — both so-called “hard discounters.” We found the whole retail scene in the UK to be presenting as if the Depression is upon us. Tesco, which we have […]
Bailout Analysis Ahead Of The Times
As we get ready to leave for PMA’s Fresh Summit convention, thought we would give a two-minute shout out to point out some of the really incredible value we’ve been delivering on the Pundit. Perhaps, for example, you got to read Alternative Energy Suddenly Faces Headwinds or 3 Oil-Rich Countries Face a Reckoning, both which […]
Tribute To Tip Murphy
A critique that is often attributed to Oscar Wilde is that “The problem with socialism is that it takes too many evenings.” Well a comparable problem with food safety crises is they take up too many articles. In the midst of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, a friend of ours in the industry died. We didn’t […]
Public Health Or Power To Destroy?
We ran a piece, Perishable Thoughts — Produce Industry On Trial, that portrayed the Kafkaesque nature of the dilemma the produce industry finds itself in when a food safety issue arises. An authority appears and declares the industry or a company guilty and is not obligated to produce ANY EVIDENCE at all to support these […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Sustainability
In Bad Economic Times
I want to respond to your October 17 piece, Oil Price Decline Dampens Alternative-Energy Fervor, and, specifically, your comments on the recent decline in the price of oil and its potential impact on sustainability initiatives. You stated: “…that great sucking sound you hear is sustainability going out the window. As the economy got softer, retailers […]
