Time to Forgive and “Forget”

Despite our massive mental capacity for complex information storage and processing, we humans are trusting, “forgetful” creatures. I’m not talking about the location of the car keys or that missing button we just saw the other day, but “forgetful” in our willingness to continually renew our trust in fellow travelers on this planet and the institutions that support our economic, social and other endeavors.

For some, the instantaneous response to watching a plane crash on television is a flashing fear of flying. But after one or two such situations transpire, and some statistical data enters into the picture noting the relative safety of flying, we get over it, and continue to board planes, taking advantage of their amazing technological ability to speedily transport us hither and yon. After a while, we just mentally note that “planes crash sometimes,” and accept it as a byproduct of existence.

Perhaps it’s the seemingly endless parade of food-safety scares that has people all a-twitter with overactive paranoia these days, but I’m a bit baffled at the ongoing negative perception of peanut butter—even anything peanut for some reason—in the wake of this latest Salmonella scare. And this flashing fear of peanut products is coursing through the industry and back to the farmers we depend on for our sustenance, and vice versa.

As noted in a story I ran across yesterday, peanut product sales are, as you might guess, way down, and now innocent peanut farmers are standing dumbfounded, without contracts, at the cusp of an uncertain season.

Apparent negligence by one peanut processor is no reason to turn your back on one of America’s great ingredient pools. Just like planes aren't going to suddenly start, en masse, dropping from the sky, placing culpability on an entire industry for the mistakes of one processor is simple-minded, knee-jerk, reactionary behavior.

It’s time to step back on the plane. Millions of children are waiting for their undeniably wholesome peanut butter sandwiches. Let’s get those farmers—and shellers and ingredient brokers and, yes, processors, all those folks in the food chain—back to work.