And when the threat loomed of a criminal case over Hexachlorion, an insecticide released on the market before all the tests were validated, when the board of directors showed signs of anxiety, Prior masterfully pulverized their precautionary approach: “My dear fellow board members, I often think of that magnificent poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson that ends with these words: ‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.’ So yes, in the endless struggle to feed the human race, we will leave a trail.”
