We’ve elected to devote this entire issue to the controversy regarding Agropecuaria Montelibano, a Honduran grower and packer, whose cantaloupes are the subject of an “import alert” announced by the FDA.
We started our coverage of this issue with FDA Fumbles Again On Cantaloupe ‘Alert’, and it is no small matter to devote a whole issue to one subject. We realize many people do not deal in cantaloupes or that cantaloupes are only an insignificant part of one’s business.
All we can say is to repeat a story we were told the other day as we received a frantic call from an industry member caught up in this cantaloupe situation. He said, “You know, I read every edition of the Pundit, and love it, but I skimmed a lot of the spinach stuff because we don’t sell spinach. Now I’m wishing I had read every single word.”
We never get the luxury of knowing what we need to know, and we never get the chance to prepare ourselves for unanticipated events.
So the leaders of tomorrow are those who broaden themselves today, who open themselves to learning more than they think they need to know.
The one thing we are certain of is that this saga is not much about cantaloupes or salmonella; it is about business and politics and loyalty and struggle. It is about hope and perseverance. It is about strategy and about tactics. It is about that something in the human spirit Faulkner alluded to when in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, he explained his belief:
I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.
Compassion, sacrifice and endurance. You never know when these traits will come in handy. If you require information beyond what we have included here, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
