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J.R. Simplot Company Board Member De
bbie McDonald Passes Away
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On Saturday, March 12, the J.R. Simplot Company lost a beloved friend and colleague, Debbie McDonald, director and executive committee member.
Debbie, who fought cancer for more than 3 years, passed away surrounded by family and friends.
As one of J.R.'s grandchildren, she was passionate about preserving her grandfather's legacy and ensuring Company leadership always did the right thing.
Debbie was named to the Board of Directors in 2003 after spending 16 years at Simplot Food Group in various sales and marketing positions. To read Debbie's obitiuary, click here.
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Canada Approves Simplot's Innate Potato
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Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have completed their respective food and feed safety assessments of Simplot's first generation of Innate® potatoes.
Health Canada concluded that it had no objection to the sale of food derived from our Innate® potatoes.
This means Simplot's Innate® Gen. 1 potatoes can be sold in the Canadian marketplace beginning in 2016.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also approved the second generation of Innate that has increased blight resistance.
Read More
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ResponsibleAg Certifies First 5 Simplot Facilities
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Simplot Grower Solutions announces the first five facilities to be certified through ResponsibleAg for Safety organization and leadership within agricultural retail facilities.
The Hanford, Firebaugh, Five Points, Colusa and Madera, Calif. operations have been audited and certified as compliant with all federal environmental, health, safety and security rules regarding safe handling and storage of fertilizer products.
Read More
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"
Simplot’s facilities take safety and security very seriously."
Dave Dufault,
vice president, retail AgriBusiness
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Gay Simplot, a member of the Company's board of directors, waves to the crowd at the 38th annual Simplot Games.
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Tara Davis, a junior from Agoura Hills, Calif. (right) celebrates with Celeste Mucci, a junior from Australia. Davis barely edged out Mucci to win the 60-meter hurdles.
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Simplot Games Continue Legacy
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The 38th annual Simplot Games came to a close in February amidst a flurry of new records and near-record participation. More than 2,100 athletes from across the United States, Canada and Australia participated in the three-day event held at Holt Arena on the Idaho State University campus in Pocatello.
"The Games have been fantastic from day one all the way to the end," said Lisa Woodland, Simplot Games executive director. "Last year we had no meet or national records set, but this year the competition has been phenomenal and many records have been broken."
In addition to the athletes, the games attract about 15,000 spectators. The event is also a big boost to the local economy. This year it was estimated that the Games brought in about $6 million dollars to the economy.
Some of the highlights of the Games for this year included a pair of gold medals for Tara Davis, a junior from Agoura Hills, Calif. who barely edged out a win in the 60-meter hurdles from Celeste Mucci, a junior from Australia. Davis also set a meet record in the long jump with a 20' 10.75" mark. To find out more about the records broken at the Games as well as an unprecedented win by an eighth-grader click here.
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Simplot Headquarters Project Reaches Construction Milestone
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Construction of the new Simplot headquarters finished it's last concrete support in late February marking the building's "topping off."
With that milestone the project now heads into the final stretches.
Employees should start moving into the new building on Oct. 1, with all employees being in the building by mid-January 2017.
To fully experience the scope of the project please click here to watch an aerial video completed by Hoffman Construction.
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Simplot Crop Adviser Named 4R Advocate
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Joe Bridges, left, and Ric Rodriguez, right, were named 4R Advocates by The Fertilizer Institute.
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Joe Bridges, a Simplot Grower Solutions crop advisor, was recognized along with grower Ric Rodriguez as 4R Advocates by The Fertilizer Institute (TFI).
The annual recognition is only given to five growers and five crop advisors nationwide who are recognized by TFI (
The Fertilizer Institute
) for excellence in using science-based, site-specific nutrient stewardship practices as well as their ability to be good spokespersons
for these practices in their communities.
Bridges and Rodriguez are located in Powell, Wyo. where Rodriguez operates a third-generation farm consisting of 1,400 acres of sugar beets, 1,400 acres of malt barley and 200 acres of alfalfa hay.
To learn more about 4R, click here. And to watch a video about Simplot Smart Farm Tools being used on Rodriguez's farm, click here.
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Simplot Australia Ignites Entrepreneurship
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Simplot Australia recently launched Ignite, a 12 week mentoring program for start-ups to develop opportunities and business ideas for Simplot Australia.
Ignite asks start-ups and scale-ups to work independently from the Company to create viable, inventive ideas that provide solutions to five themed business issues with the intention of creating new revenue streams for Simplot Australia. To read a story about Ignite, click here.
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Participants in Simplot Australia's Ignite program pitch an innovative business idea to representatives of Simplot Australia.
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Simplot Partners with AirBus to Deliver Cutting-Edge Satellite Imagery to Customers
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Satellite imagery allows experts from Simplot Growers Solution to work with growers to better pinpoint issues that might be of concern and to help develop a precision agriculture plan to improve yields and crop health. To find out more about this important technology and to watch a video on how it is used,
Click here.
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Airbus Defense and Space and the J.R. Simplot Company signed a multi-year agreement that will enable Simplot to have access to very high resolution satellite imagery from Pléiades (50cm) over locations in the United States as well as Mexico for precision agriculture.
This data will be processed near real-time in the cloud, and used to automatically generate reports that will be delivered directly to Simplot.
This gives Simplot the capability to deliver analytical reports for growers in the agriculture industry. These reports will help growers focus on producing higher yields
Additionally, growers will be able to determine several factors for producing higher yield crops such as seed density, fertilizer rates, water ratio, pesticide use and disease control.
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Othello and Moses Lake Plants Receive Energy Star Recognition
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The Company's potato processing plants in Moses Lake and Othello, Wash. have continued to dominate the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star certification program.
Both plants were recognized with the EPA's Energy Star certification for 2015. This marked the seventh consecutive win for Othello and the fifth win for Moses Lake.
To maintain Energy Star status, plants must be verified on an annual basis and be in the top 25 percent for energy performance in similar industries nationwide. This recognition puts the two plants in the top quartile of potato processing plants in the United States for energy efficiency.
The Othello plant has completed a variety of projects to help with energy efficiency including a condensing economizer on the boiler stacks, compressed air system upgrade and controls, heat recovery systems in the process area, metering and monitoring for multiple service entrances as well as dedicated uses, and training and education for employees.
At Moses Lake, improvements have been made with the plant's steam system. The plant also utilizes biogas generated in waste treatment as fuel in the plant's steam boilers and is continuing to make efficiency improvements in the plant's refrigeration system.
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Moses Lake Energy Team pictured from left to right are Alex Medina, Lance Carter, Tommy Guerra, Andrew Erickson, Mike Davis and Larry Bragg.
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The Othello Energy Team pictured from left to right (front row) are Steve Hoffman, Vance Craig, Tara Swanson, Mark Knight and (second row) Mat Smith, David Harris, Dennis Sarles, David Hines, Michael Smead and (back row) Lucas Nugent.
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We recently shared photos on Facebook about the "E" Flag awarded to the J.R. Simplot Company for exemplary war time production. The photo below shows C
ol. Paul Logan addressing the crowd at the presentation ceremonies in 1944.
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The J.R. Simplot Company has been on Facebook since April 20, 2011.
As we near our fifth anniversary, we hope everyone has had the chance to check out our page.
We try to share news and events from Simplot as well as other organizations we follow.
We share other news and information that is important to our Company and our industry.
We also highlight fun facts and flashbacks to our Company's history. We hope you can join us on Facebook!
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Spring 2016 Simplot Company Transitions
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Click Here to View In Memoriam and Simplot Retirees
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The J.R. Simplot News Update is published quarterly by Simplot Company Communications. If you have any questions or story ideas, please contact Ken Dey, Simplot Communications Manager, at (208) 780-7318 or
ken.dey@simplot.com
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