The fertilizer business used to be a gentlemen's sport, with its own set of Queensberry rules. Competition was vigorous, but there was also a level of mutual respect. The industry's culture was best reflected by the smooth polished style of the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia where the industry used to assemble to overflow capacity every May for an annual conference.
Your word was your bond. You worked hard, and played hard. You wanted to "win" but certainly not at all costs. You looked after your friends. Everyone knew that what went around came around.
Now with consolidation, we are an industry more and more focusing it seems on short term gain at the expense of longer term visions such as "Nourish, Replenish, Grow."
There was a time in our industry when attack ads like the ones that Agrium ran against CF's management and board this week were inconceivable. Possibly because then our values were Main Street... not Wall Street.
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