ABSTRACT
In 1968, PVO began to sow the seeds of its own demise in the safflower business. In 1968, Agricom International was formed by former PVO employees, and PVO soon engaged in a bitter proxy battle that put the company into the hands of a dissident group of East Coast shareholders allied with Rocca Jr. and his side of the family (see Chapter 13). Over the course of the next 12 years, PVO was controlled by Frederick Cartwright, the leader of the dissident group; it went through six presidents in rapid order and finally was purchased by the Kay Corporation, ostensibly to be built up into a new trading empire but actually to be quickly sold off in pieces for twice what was paid for it.
