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Jim Perdue has served as Chairman and Spokesman of Purdue Farms since 1991, guiding the company to stay true to its vision and values while building strong corporate responsibility programs.
About EarthxCEO:
Compelling stories from top business leaders across a variety of different industries. They share the belief that financial success is only one side of the equation and work to achieve a triple bottom line, People, Profit and Planet.
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EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
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Jim Perdue has served as Chairman and Spokesman of Purdue Farms since 1991, guiding the company to stay true to its vision and values while building strong corporate responsibility programs.
About EarthxCEO:
Compelling stories from top business leaders across a variety of different industries. They share the belief that financial success is only one side of the equation and work to achieve a triple bottom line, People, Profit and Planet.
EarthX
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
How to watch:
United States:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
- Plex
- Fire TV
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #Conservation #EarthX
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TVTranscript
00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to EarthX CEO, a weekly series on EarthX TV.
00:08Each week, we speak with business presidents and CEOs about their leadership on sustainability
00:14and climate change.
00:17I'm your host, Bob Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
00:22And with me today is Jim Perdue.
00:24He's chairman of Perdue Farms, and of course, many of us know him as their key spokesperson.
00:31He's been there since in that job since 1991.
00:36And during Jim's time there, the company has grown to become a international force in agriculture
00:43and an innovator in organic products, in animal care, and in worker wellness.
00:50So welcome to joining us, Jim.
00:54It's great to be here, Bob.
00:55Thanks.
00:56We're really happy to have you, and we're looking forward to this conversation.
01:02So you heard my very brief introduction.
01:06I mean, obviously, you guys are a very complex and very important force in agriculture.
01:17And you have an overarching theme that I think you've adopted called responsible
01:22food and agriculture.
01:24And those are powerful words.
01:28And I'd be interested in you just telling the audience a little bit about how you think
01:34about that kind of responsible food and agriculture, because that obviously runs beyond climate
01:41change and sustainability, but also to animal care and your workers.
01:45So a little bit from you on how you see the industry and how you see Perdue Farms in that
01:52way.
01:54Yeah, I think we're a 100-year-old company.
01:59In fact, the two gentlemen behind me here, the founder and the real person, my dad, who
02:04really built the company until we exchanged roles in 1991, as you said.
02:12But I think we have a strong culture here, and it's based on our vision to be the most
02:18trusted name in premium protein in our foods business.
02:23And the values came from the gentleman behind me, and especially integrity, which is to
02:29do the right thing for the right reason, keep our promises, stewardship, which not only
02:37is about protecting the environment, but the welfare of our associates, the welfare of
02:42our animals that are in our care, and living up to, I think, the civic responsibilities
02:50which have made us successful this far.
02:54And it's something that really drives our business.
02:56And being a fourth-generation family-owned food and agricultural company, we have a
03:05responsibility to all of our constituents, whether that's our communities where we have
03:10business, our associates, our customers, our consumers.
03:14You know, they're all constituents that we think about each and every day.
03:20And it's about leadership.
03:24My dad was a leader in establishing a brand from a commodity and then really focusing
03:30on quality.
03:32We've become a leader in no antibiotics ever.
03:34It took us 12 years to get there, but once we arrived there, the rest of the industry
03:39had to follow us.
03:40We're the largest producer of organic chicken now.
03:43In the U.S.
03:45And we really are, I think that leadership role is really important to us.
03:51And, you know, I think consumers today, you know, are very different.
03:57Millennial consumers, you know, they're skeptical of big agriculture.
04:04They're interested in transparency.
04:05They want to know, they have a ton of questions.
04:08And so, you know, we have to do our job to answer those questions and make sure they
04:13know how we take care of animals, what we're doing for the environment, you know, what
04:17we feed our animals, what's, you know, what's in the finished product, you know, as far
04:22as preservatives and that sort of thing.
04:24And so, you know, that's always been something very important to us as a company, especially
04:30my dad.
04:31My dad always taught us that if you listen to the consumer and you take care of your
04:35people and produce quality products that are relative to the consumer, they'll keep
04:39you in business.
04:40And that's something that we, you know, it's important.
04:44Each and every day, we remember that.
04:47Yeah, it's quite a history.
04:49And I don't know if anybody mentioned this to you, but I had the fortune to meet your
04:54dad.
04:56There was a time when I was the Secretary of Environment for the state of Maryland in
04:59the late 80s, just before you became the chair.
05:03And he was quite an individual.
05:07And I really enjoyed working with Purdue Farms back then.
05:11We were working on Chesapeake Bay issues, which I know are near and dear to your own
05:15heart.
05:15Maybe I'll touch on the oyster work before the interview is over.
05:19But yeah, it's everything you just said is an important aspect.
05:25And you worked for a great governor, too.
05:27Yes, I did.
05:29He was fantastic.
05:30My dad loved him because he was, you know, he was in the book In Search of Excellence
05:35as a mayor of the city of Baltimore.
05:38And, you know, Mayor Schaefer was a terrific, terrific governor.
05:44For those watching and may not know who we're talking about, Jim just mentioned it.
05:49Governor William Donald Schaefer was governor of Maryland in the late 80s and early 90s.
05:54And really a leader on the Chesapeake Bay.
05:56And Purdue was a strong supporter of the work.
05:59We were doing and the work that and the impact that agriculture has on the environment was
06:05really emerging and the new techniques and styles that could be and approaches and practices
06:11that could be used.
06:13I want to mention one thing quickly before you're too far into the environment side.
06:19And that is, you mentioned, I mentioned it at my opening and you mentioned worker well-being.
06:24And you guys just won an award for the work you've been doing and protecting the workers
06:30and taking care of that business while COVID-19 is going on, you know, from the Consumer World
06:38Magazine.
06:40That's quite an honor, I think.
06:42Yeah, you know, our goals as a company are, we call them the four P's.
06:46And they're people, products, planet and profitability.
06:50And people comes first.
06:51So we've always had a major focus, whether it's on wellness centers in all of our facilities,
06:56which is free health care.
06:57They get to see a doctor, they get paid while they're seeing the doctor.
07:01Worker safety, you know, peer review within the plants if you have a grievance.
07:07And of course, in this most recent time period with COVID-19, I mean, we're only as good as
07:13our associates, you know, and they're a terrific group.
07:17And they really went above and beyond and did everything we asked of them.
07:22And we certainly appreciated getting that award.
07:27Well, congratulations.
07:28And so going back to some of the work that you all are doing on the environment, you
07:35know, things have changed quite a bit in agriculture over the last 50 years, over the last 100
07:40years for sure.
07:41And, you know, now we have things like cover crops and soil management practices.
07:52Some of the, tell me about some of the things that you are working on with some of the farmers
07:56you work with, and as well as some of the energy issues that you may be facing, solar
08:07energy on some of the chicken houses or however you guys are working on that.
08:14Yeah, well, you know, we have a scorecard for the environmental goals that we've set.
08:23And we report every year in our corporate social responsibility report that we give
08:28to customers and anyone who wants to have it reviews that.
08:32And of course, it has a lot of areas in it, but environmental is a big, big piece of it.
08:37And before we even started that, and we have goals that started in 2017, it was a five
08:45year setting for those goals.
08:48But even before that, 10, 15 years ago, we covered, for example, Lagoon in Cromwell,
08:53Kentucky, working with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
08:57And we capture the methane and we generate electricity that we help run the operation
09:03there.
09:03We've got solar arrays at the office here and also at our Bridgeville, Delaware feed mill.
09:11And actually, when we renovated the offices here about 10 years ago, we got LEED platinum
09:19certification, which in Maryland, it was the first one on the eastern shore of Maryland,
09:23and only one of 20 in the state of Maryland.
09:27So we've been working on things for quite a while.
09:33And we also set up in our bonus system for our management of our company, we have a planet
09:43part of the bonus system.
09:45Because one thing I found is if you really believe in something, you got to put everything
09:50behind it, including the motivation to do it, even from a financial standpoint.
09:56So everybody, senior management here in the company are on that system.
10:02And that's why we built the scorecard.
10:04And when we set up the goals in 2017, we did things like a 30% reduction in greenhouse
10:10gas intensity.
10:12And we're at this point, toward that 2022 goal, we're about 5.5% toward that.
10:19And we wanted to reduce water usage.
10:21And actually, we have not been successful so far.
10:24And that part of it is because there was a food security policy that came about here
10:29a few years ago.
10:30We're looking specifically at salmonella and other foodborne pathogens.
10:34And water is one of the number one ways you prevent that.
10:39But we do, having said that, we're working, we've got three operations that have an air
10:46chilling system, which saves a lot of water.
10:48Because one of the big parts of a harvest plant is you have to get the temperature of
10:53the chicken down to the low 30s by USDA regulation.
10:57And water chilling baths are the way we've done it in the past.
11:01But they use quite a bit of water in order to do that.
11:04Air chilling, you don't use water at all to do that.
11:07So that's an example of how we're trying to save water there.
11:11And finally, a 90% waste diversion from landfill.
11:16And so we've come up from last year at 68%.
11:19We're now at 79.5%.
11:21And we actually have one, our biggest operation in the company is now 100% free of sending
11:27anything to the landfill.
11:30And one of the challenges of COVID-19, by the way, has been trying to address some of
11:35these issues requires, for example, we're looking at trying to cover another anaerobic
11:40lagoon with a covering to capture the methane.
11:43And we haven't been able to get the consultants on premise because of COVID-19.
11:48So it's slowing us down a little bit.
11:51But we still think we'll be moving toward that 2022 goal going forward.
11:59Well, those goals are commendable.
12:01And your transparency, I think, is really remarkable.
12:04And it's very helpful, as you point out.
12:07Customers really are looking for this kind of information on how the companies and the
12:12products that they deal with every day in their own personal lives or how they're making
12:19progress.
12:19And so all of that sounds very helpful and really helps drive the motivation of staff,
12:27as you put it out, as you just put it out there.
12:30You mentioned the digesters, the anaerobic digesters to create methane from the animal
12:36waste and the fact that you want to do some more.
12:39Do you see this as an area of potential for animal agriculture?
12:46I know some of the power companies in, let's say, Virginia have really started to look
12:51at what they call renewable natural gas to blend into the other natural gas.
12:58Do you have any thoughts, as you've talked to other leaders in the industry?
13:08Yeah, well, we have two of these where we've covered our anaerobic lagoons and are capturing
13:16the methane from them.
13:19Now, a lot of our harvest facilities are in cities or towns that have a wastewater system.
13:25And all we do is send that to them so we don't have our own lagoon.
13:30They actually have the lagoon.
13:32So but as the incentives improve, like I said, in Tennessee and in Kentucky, that's what
13:41drove that.
13:42And I think those are improving each year, incentives for us to do that, even putting
13:48in the solar panels.
13:49It was an incentive on credits that really helped move us in that direction.
13:57But you may be familiar that we had a facility in 2001.
14:04We built Purdue AgriRecycle, and we were doing about 150 to 200 chicken houses worth of poultry
14:14litter a year.
14:15We were recycling that.
14:17And that facility we sold to a company, and they're now going to be putting in anaerobic
14:21digesters because they're experts.
14:23You know, we decided to exit the business, but we are actually arm in arm with them because
14:28we're still supplying the organic materials to help produce these, both a composting material
14:37and the anaerobic digester, which is a different digester compared to the anaerobic lagoon
14:43we were talking about.
14:45Yeah, I think these things continue to evolve, and that sounds like a great arrangement,
14:50you know, having somebody that's, you know, on that as their main line of businesses.
14:55Obviously, this is not your main line of business, but one that you're, you know, you can support
15:02indirectly from the product, you know, the waste products and making them into something
15:07that could be used.
15:08You know, one thing my grandfather always said is stick to your knitting.
15:12And so, meaning do what you do well and don't try to do things you don't do well.
15:16So, there's people who know a lot more about that than we do.
15:19Yeah, and some of that is also reflected, I think, in probably your relationships with
15:24the feed supply chain, you know, where you have farms that are producing beans or corn
15:30and the practices that they may be using on their land to improve productivity, but also
15:38maybe sequester carbon in the soil.
15:41So, you've talked about the heritage that you have in the company from the gentleman
15:49on the wall behind you, which is a powerful legacy that many of us do know about.
15:59But the things you're doing now are things that they did similar things, but on different
16:04matters.
16:05You're now looking at the sustainability issue.
16:08You mentioned your organic brands, Simply Smart, Panorama, I'd say some of these brands
16:17down, and one of the largest organic chicken, you know, broiler providers, I think, in the
16:27country.
16:27So, how does your own personal leadership, Jim, help motivate the company on these matters?
16:38I mean, obviously, there's a lot of moving parts here.
16:42You know, how do you feel your own leadership is helping move this along?
16:48Well, you know, one person asked me one time, what's your number one job as CEO?
16:53And really, it's the keeper of the values, and the values are what drive me and what
16:58drive the company.
16:59And I want to make sure we're, you know, I always say that the example to me is, you
17:05know, if somebody has a barrel of some solvent at some operation we have, and they have to
17:12get rid of it, I want them to know that what we want them to do is go out and bring somebody
17:19in to dispose of it correctly, instead of taking it in the woods and dumping it.
17:24You know, and so the values are what that is.
17:27It's the decisions, I think, that are made every single day at every single facility
17:31we have.
17:32And I want people making those decisions, knowing what the company believes in and what
17:37the values are at the company.
17:38And, you know, I have enough of a bit of a science background to know how important,
17:44you know, these things are, you know, to the environments.
17:49And, you know, we deal with farmers every day.
17:52And farmers, you know, I think sometimes they get a bum rap, you know, I think they're
17:57very interested in the environment also.
17:59They fish, you know, they hunt in the same environments where they have operations.
18:05And so they want to do the right thing.
18:08And they just need to know what it is that they need to be moving toward, any help that
18:13we can give them or that's needed to make that happen.
18:17And, of course, as you know, in the Chesapeake Bay region, it's a very sensitive issue,
18:21very sensitive area.
18:22There are things happening in this region that you won't see anywhere else in the United
18:26States, mainly because of the, I think, the sensitivity of the Chesapeake Bay.
18:31And so, you know, what we learn here, we're expanding that to other operations where we
18:37have facilities and have operations.
18:40Yeah.
18:41I mean, North Carolina, for instance, if you have operations down there, you've got the
18:45Pamlico Sound that's had similar issues as the Chesapeake Bay.
18:49And, you know, local water supplies all over the country, no matter where you're located,
18:53can benefit from water quality improvements and how the agriculture is done on the eastern
18:57shore of Maryland.
18:58You know, one simple example of that is chicken houses here have to have a cement pad at the
19:03end of the chicken house.
19:04And that is when they catch the chickens, you know, poultry litter comes out of the
19:09house on the tracks of the tractor and that sort of thing.
19:12And having a cement pad, something as simple as a cement pad, you can collect the litter,
19:18for example.
19:18But in North Carolina, for a long time, that wasn't even required.
19:22So, but I think it was because of the sensitivity here that made that, you know, but that's
19:27an example of something we've carried to other states, you know, when we build chicken houses,
19:33for example.
19:35Yeah.
19:35One of the things you mentioned when you were talking about water and the dilemma of, you
19:41know, some of the pathogen controls and the temperature management.
19:46And so you have all these conflicting goals that you have to manage in this industry.
19:57What are some, you mentioned one, what are some of the things that are most challenging
20:01perhaps in your mind that, you know, require more innovation or more work to try to crack
20:11the nuts, so to speak?
20:13Well, you know, I mean, for example, in this region, you know, there's now a foster management
20:19tool in place, which I think is a good thing because it's based on science.
20:24And it really affects the farmers.
20:26But, you know, we're sort of hooked together, the farmers and we.
20:30We can't, we can't grow chickens.
20:32The farmers are, they do the best job growing chickens.
20:36And so we have to make sure they're successful, which is why we built that Purdue AgriRecycle
20:42in 2001 when the Water Quality Act in Maryland was enacted, if you remember at that time.
20:48And so the phosphorus management tool is an example of where the soil is measured for
20:54phosphorus.
20:55You know, for years, Bob, the nitrogen was the only nutrient that was a concern because
21:00it's soluble and it could go into the drinking water.
21:02And that was the only thing.
21:04It wasn't really until the turn of 2000 that people were concerned about phosphorus, which
21:09is not soluble.
21:11But we found out through science that it moves laterally, you know, to a ditch and then to
21:16a stream and into the Chesapeake Bay.
21:18So there was a lot more, suddenly there was a lot more interest and focus on phosphorus.
21:23And so, you know, and so the phosphorus management tool, I think, is a great example of using
21:29science to help manage something.
21:31And if a farm is too high in phosphorus in the soil, then they cannot use poultry litter
21:38on that farm because, unfortunately, with the nitrogen of the poultry litter also comes
21:43phosphorus.
21:44So they have to use just nitrogen only in those situations.
21:48But I think it's, and then what we do is move the litter from an area that is high in phosphorus,
21:54move it to an area where it's low in phosphorus, where they can use it, because it actually
21:58is a great organic material to use as a fertilizer because they're going to buy chemical fertilizer
22:05if they can't use, you know, an organic fertilizer.
22:09So, but, you know, I think these kinds of things are moving forward.
22:13You mentioned the cover crop program, which is a great program.
22:18You know, I think it's 17 million acres have been used this year, are used each year for
22:26cover crops, paid for by the flush tax here in the state of Maryland, for example, that
22:31we all pay toward.
22:32But it's a good use of the money, certainly.
22:35That and wastewater facility upgrades in municipalities, I think, is also another use
22:40of that money.
22:41So, but those are a couple of examples.
22:45Well, those are good ones.
22:47You know, the soil, the managing the nutrients in the soil is key, along with the genetics
22:52of some of the crops that are used for the supply of feed.
22:59When I actually went to an ag school, when I got my undergraduate degree at Cornell,
23:04and 80 bushels an acre was a great yield back in the late 60s.
23:11Today, 150, you know, probably higher in some places.
23:16So, higher.
23:17Yeah.
23:19178 is the national average now.
23:21There you go.
23:22There you go.
23:24I don't keep up as much as I should.
23:27But the bottom line is that the amount of nutrients per bushel has gone down.
23:34And so, that's an important thing.
23:37And you're looking at a different kind, you know, additional management.
23:40But you mentioned the flush tax.
23:44What is the flush tax for the people who may be listening here from Texas or California?
23:52Yeah, I think it was Governor Erlich, if I'm not mistaken,
23:55who enacted that.
23:58And it was part of it to help the Chesapeake Bay,
24:01mainly the wastewater, upgrading wastewater facilities in municipalities.
24:06But then also, it was used also for these cover crops.
24:10You know, cover crops are important because after a field is harvested
24:13in this time of the year right now, October, November,
24:17you know, there's nothing to uptake the nitrogen or phosphorus.
24:22And so, they used to lay barren until the spring.
24:26But by planting a cover crop, you're actually taking up whatever nutrients are left in the soil
24:33and sucking it up into the wheat or the rye or whatever the cover crop is,
24:38leave it there all winter, and then either plow it under in the spring before you
24:43plant your crops, or you harvest it like wheat.
24:46You harvest it in the spring and then plant soybeans behind it.
24:50So, it's a great program and another example of how, you know,
24:54I think the farmers did great, but I need some help.
24:57And that flush tax was the help.
24:59So, it provides a little bit of funding per acre to help offset the cost of planting the
25:05cover crops, unless they're going to try to harvest it and get paid that way.
25:11And the only requirement, interestingly and rightfully so,
25:13is they're not allowed to fertilize it.
25:15Obviously, you don't want to fertilize it if it's there to take up what excess nutrients there are.
25:20So, yeah.
25:21So, this enters the conversation that maybe we'll, as we get near the end here, is
25:30businesses and industry, particularly agricultural industry, as you've already pointed out,
25:35are great stewards of the land.
25:36I mean, they can't function unless they're doing that.
25:41But you also mentioned the interaction of some government programs that help
25:47to move things in a direction.
25:49You know, the federal government with the Conservation Reserve Program,
25:55maybe in the future, getting paid for carbon sequestration into the soils.
26:02Recognizing the sensitivity of this in the agricultural industry,
26:09what kind of government policies do you see as maybe being most
26:13beneficial to continuing to move things in a sustainable direction,
26:20and also perhaps to sequester carbon or more of the nutrients?
26:26Well, you know, one thing I mentioned was these anaerobic lagoons.
26:29What makes that work is the credits that are available through the power companies
26:37in those states.
26:39And those are very, very helpful.
26:41The flush tax we were talking about is very helpful
26:44in contributing to a healthier environment.
26:51But I think any time...
26:54Another example, truthfully, is I think it was about 12 years ago,
26:59we entered into an agreement with the EPA in Region 3, where all of our...
27:05They can't go to every farm, but we go every day.
27:08And so we worked together with Region 3, and they came down and educated our
27:14block advisors on what to do.
27:18And then we reported on each farm what we were finding.
27:22And so, you know, that was, I think, a really good program.
27:26Unfortunately, the policies changed and we had to exit that.
27:29But I'd say for about two years, it was really, really interesting.
27:33The way, you know, the government and we were working together toward the same end.
27:38And it was really good.
27:39Another great example is the Farm Bill.
27:41You know, we need the Farm Bill to be fully funded because there's some areas in there
27:46that are really critical, I think, for the, you know, for the environment.
27:51Yeah, I think the conservation programs in the Farm Bill have done amazing work all over
27:57the country, and certainly the Chesapeake Bay has benefited from it.
28:02And I appreciate...
28:03I think this idea that you just put out there, that in the past, it may have been, you know,
28:12a concern in agriculture about government regulations.
28:16But in the future, perhaps there's a path forward where there's a government agriculture
28:22partnership toward a common goal.
28:26And I liked the fact that you've pointed out a couple of examples of where that's
28:31starting to happen.
28:32You know, and the key there is trust.
28:35You know, it's...
28:36Unfortunately, sometimes, you know, one party doesn't trust the other party that they're
28:41really going to do what they say.
28:43You know, in that situation, we just had a couple of leaders that really developed a
28:48good trusting relationship.
28:49And anything can happen when you truly trust that we're going to do what we say and they're
28:54going to do what they say.
28:57I wish we could have a lot more of that, you know, today.
29:00Yeah, well, it's certainly something I'm advocating.
29:04And many of the CEOs that I've been talking to on this series really are looking forward
29:10to a way that we can make that kind of a partnership work for everyone, including the environment
29:15and the public and how difficult it'll be to deal with some of the issues related to
29:19climate change.
29:20And there's a great role for agriculture to play there.
29:23This begs the issue of the relationship between the economy and environmental practices and
29:31sustainability practices, you know, which is at a high level, Jim.
29:37You know, you got an award for worker well-being during COVID, and many businesses around the
29:45country obviously are hurting because of COVID.
29:48You mentioned a consultant.
29:49You couldn't get a consultant to come out.
29:51You couldn't get a consultant to come out and look at some of the lagoon work.
29:57But providing food is an essential business, and you guys have been able to maintain a
30:07reasonable workforce.
30:08So this relationship between the economy and doing good, I think, has a lot of potential
30:14and would love to hear your thoughts on that.
30:19Yeah, you know, I think food connects everybody, you know, and one thing I'm glad of is we're
30:27in the food business because that's something that's needed.
30:30But, you know, keeping Americans fed, keeping farmers working, and I was amazed at all the
30:38what we call frontline workers, you know, the truck drivers delivering the product,
30:43you know, to the stores, you know, our line workers, you know, coming in each and every
30:48day doing what we asked of them as far as temperature taking and social distancing and,
30:56you know, wearing their PPP, you know, or PPE, I guess it is.
31:01Yeah, I get mixed up with the government program.
31:04I think it's PPP.
31:05But, yeah, you know, I think that's, and I think just having a lot of open dialogue,
31:11you know, we have open dialogue with environmental groups, with groups that are very interested
31:18in animal welfare and how the animals are taken care of.
31:21In fact, we just had our animal care summit here last week where we review all the things
31:26we're doing about our animals.
31:27And on the call, besides customers and farmers, is about five or six animal advocacy groups,
31:36which used to be, like I said, you know, as far as trust is concerned, you know, used to be
31:42adversaries.
31:43But now they come every year and we talk about the things we're doing and they make suggestions.
31:50And so it's a really, I think, healthy dialogue.
31:54And I think you make a lot more progress in that kind of environment than you do
31:59in an adversarial environment.
32:00And we want to do the same thing with environmental groups, and we do.
32:04We have some very good relationships with a lot of environmental groups
32:08because we all have the same end goal in mind.
32:12And it's just a matter of getting there at a certain rate of speed.
32:18So I couldn't agree more.
32:23Trust is a key element and finding a way to build that and get up these partnerships going,
32:31I think, can move us more quickly than if we didn't.
32:35Let me ask you one quick final question, Jim.
32:39You mentioned you have a science background, and I happen to know and many people probably
32:44know that your college degrees are in marine biology and fisheries, a protein that swims.
32:56And you're on the board of the Oyster Recovery Project in Maryland.
33:01And while this has probably a tangential relationship, because obviously you guys
33:07are working on pollution control, but say a few words about you're trying to keep your
33:14finger in that world.
33:17I think my dad told me I was overeducated when I came back to the company.
33:21But that's because he never finished college.
33:26But I'm a huge advocate for the oyster in the Chesapeake Bay.
33:33I mean, these guys filter 50 gallons a day per oyster.
33:36And back when there were a standing crop of, you know, 4 billion oysters in the Bay,
33:41that's a lot of water that was filtered.
33:43Every three days, the entire volume of the Chesapeake Bay was filtered.
33:47But we're down to very, very few oysters compared to them because of a lot of reasons.
33:51Overfishing and diseases are the two major ones that have affected it.
33:56But the Oyster Recovery Partnership is putting about a billion oysters a year back into the
34:00Chesapeake Bay in sanctuaries where the Corps of Engineers and NOAA are directing us to do it.
34:07And we're doing river systems like Harris Creek on the eastern shore, the Monocan River.
34:13We've done the Trette Avon and others.
34:16And then we monitor the oyster recovery each year in those river systems.
34:23And we got to get the oyster back in the Bay.
34:26They're the filter that makes a difference.
34:29And it's a missing component.
34:30It's just like a car without an oil filter.
34:33It won't run.
34:33Well, the Chesapeake Bay has to have a filter because the nutrients aren't going to go away.
34:38You know, they're still there.
34:40More people want to live on the water.
34:43And so wastewater facilities are built.
34:45Well, that's still new nitrogen and phosphorus going into the Bay.
34:49So our focus is to get the oysters back in.
34:52And it's a great partnership.
34:54We, you know, we get our most 30 percent of our oyster shell,
34:57which we put the baby oysters on, come from restaurants in Maryland, Virginia, Philadelphia,
35:03Pittsburgh.
35:05And we send trucks to these oyster bars and pick up used oyster shell, bring it back, clean it.
35:12And then we use it to put baby oysters on.
35:15So it's a marvelous program.
35:17And we're making a lot of progress.
35:19And there's a lot of momentum from around the Bay to make this work.
35:24It's just one piece.
35:25But I think everybody has to do their part.
35:28Well, I wanted you to get a pitch in for some of that.
35:34And I appreciate the work that you're doing on that oyster recovery.
35:38I have in my office, which I've not been in, this is my home here.
35:43I have a 9,000 year old sort of from a sedimentary layer oyster shell in my office.
35:51So from a reef oyster construction project.
35:57Well, Jim, I want to thank you for joining us today.
36:01And I appreciate all the work you guys are doing.
36:03And for you taking the time to talk to the audience about Purdue and the commitments
36:09you guys make and your own personal leadership vision.
36:13So thank you for joining us today.
36:15Well, thank you, Bob.
36:16I appreciate it.