Caring for our Environment
At Seaboard Foods, we are committed to going beyond simply minimizing any negative impact to the land, water and air around our operations, to instead actively looking for ways to positively impact our environment. We hold sacred our responsibility to nurture and care for the environment for the benefit of our pigs, our employees, our business and the communities in which we operate.
Sustainable Resource Management
Our operations require the use of natural resources, including soil, water and crops, and they also create waste and other byproducts. Our people are always searching for ways to ensure we use resources responsibly and in a renewable way. We are also committed to conserving natural resources where possible.
Natural Resource Management
Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Energy Creation
Seaboard Energy repurposes animal fat from Seaboard Foods to produce biodiesel in its plant in Guymon, Okla. It produces biodiesel primarily from vegetable oil in its plant in St. Joseph, Mo. It produces renewable diesel from both animal fat and vegetable oil in its plant in Hugoton, Kans. The company currently owns and operates three renewable fuel plants with a combined annual production capacity of 160 million gallons.
Natural Fertilizer
Lagoons are one of our manure management strategies. We follow local and state environmental laws to maintain levels of our lagoons and apply the effluent to neighboring crop fields. Our manure provides essential crop nutrients often found only in specialty commercial fertilizers.
Recycling
We conserve water use by recycling it from our lagoons to flush our manure pits under the barns at our farms. The continuum of water management conserves freshwater resources while keeping the manure pits maintained.
Composting
Our operations compost materials to use as soil amendments for farmers in the community.
Natural Resource Conservation
Energy Conservation
Seaboard Energy produces Compressed Natural Gas to operate the fleets supporting Seaboard Foods' operations.
Soil Conservation
We partner with local farmers to provide a balance of natural fertilizer and organic matter the farmers need for their fields. Our conservation practices help them maintain soil health and support the long-term viability of their farming operations.
Water Conservation
Along with water recycling in our manure management practices, our proactive approach to water conservation includes weekly farm monitoring of water use. We assess the condition and the style of drinking systems to minimize waste in animal consumption.
Air Quality Conservation
Our team members monitor the ventilation systems in our farms for air quality. They check the humidity levels in the farms, fan speed and temperatures to ensure all animals are healthy and comfortable and the environment is safe for employees.
Land Stewardship
Our environmental programs govern how we purchase land and how we build and operate our farms and plants. We design our environmental policies to ensure our operations meet or exceed all applicable environmental requirements.
Employee Training
Since the connected system is much more than raising pigs, we train employees who work in our farms, our maintenance teams and the land and nutrient resources department about our commitment to the environment. Employees are trained on our high standards of environmental sustainability and water and waste management.
Whole Farm Environmental Audits
We evaluate our performance at every stage of the connected system. We perform extensive audits on our farms to maintain our feed and water lines, the quality and consistency of manure applications and much more.
Farm Mapping
We use internal resources and external data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the United States Geological Survey to understand where environmental threats may exist in neighboring fields. We also identify where power lines and wells are so we can safely apply effluent to fields.
Land Stewardship
Waste management is an important component of our environmental stewardship efforts, and we are always working to reduce or repurpose our waste.
Animal Waste
Along with recycling waste as a natural fertilizer, we are continuously improving our practices and investigating new technologies to better capture nutrient resources and recycle them for neighboring farmers.
Biohazard Waste
We follow local and state regulations to safely dispose waste. We use multiple systems to handle and process biological waste in a safe and efficient manner.
