Sanderson Farms was recently honored with the Mississippi Association of Conservation District’s 2016 Friend of Conservation Award. The award was presented at the association’s annual meeting held in Jackson, Mississippi. Each year, the association recognizes an individual, business, organization or agency for their outstanding contributions to the conservation of our nation’s natural resources.

The Laurel and Jones County Soil and Water Conservation District nominated Sanderson Farms for the award due to the company’s support of their district conservation program. Each year, Sanderson Farms contributes to Jones County’s Progressive Agriculture Safety Day, which provides education, training and resources to make farm and ranch life safer and healthier for children and their communities. The two-day safety program is organized for fifth grade students in Jones County in an effort to reduce farm-related incidents by increasing student’s awareness of potential dangers associated with vehicles, tractors, chemicals, electricity and many other potential dangers around the farm.

“I would like to express my appreciation to Sanderson Farms on behalf of the Soil and Water Conservation District of Jones County for their help in providing many successful safety field day programs,” said Debra McGee, Soil and Water Conservation District Coordinator. “Because of your continued support, many students have benefited over the past 11 years from agriculture-related safety training.”

“Serving others is an integral part of our responsibility both as an employer and a corporate citizen,” said Joe F. Sanderson, Jr., Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Sanderson Farms. “As a company, we encourage community engagement amongst our employees.”

As an established leader in our industry, Sanderson Farms is committed to managing our operations efficiently while protecting our vital resources and minimizing our impact on the environment around us. In this regard, Sanderson Farms has led by example, and takes seriously our commitment to do the right thing by being responsible and protecting the environment and each other.

“When Sanderson Farms enters a community, we strive to make the community better in many ways including providing jobs, raising the tax basis and preserving natural resources,” said Pic Billingsley, Director of Development and Engineering for Sanderson Farms. “Our primary goal is to leave the environment in the areas in which we operate better than we found them. By growing responsibly, we can ensure that we are good neighbors, responsible community partners and reliable stewards of the environment around us.”

Sanderson Farms works hard to minimize our energy and water usage, reduce waste, reuse material where we can and do our part as a leader in our industry. As a company, we are proud of the work we have done to become more energy efficient and improve our water conservation while continuing to search for new ways to minimize our future consumption.

“It was an honor to receive this conservation award on behalf of Sanderson Farms,” said Stephanie Shoemaker, Manager of Environmental Services for Sanderson Farms, who accepted the award on behalf of the company. “At Sanderson Farms, we strive to be respected in the communities in which we live and the industries of which we are a part. This recognition for conservation in our local community is a testament to the company’s effort to make our communities a better place to work and live.”