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The Giving Program
We want to hear your thoughts on how to help the world thrive
How the Giving Program Works
Your Ideas
Tell us how Wilbur-Ellis can continue growing, innovating, giving and evolving
Support
For each response, Wilbur-Ellis will make a donation to the Red Cross
Giving More
Help grow our contribution by answering new questions every month
August's Question
Wilbur-Ellis customers grow food and produce hundreds of food and personal care products. With COVID-19, trends seem to be changing. One big change is that many of us are cooking at home more than ever. We’d love to know what food and / or consumer product changes you’re seeing at your house or in the marketplace. With this in mind:
In response to the pandemic, have your food habits or consumer product buying habits changed – OR are you seeing changes in what the food / consumer products industries are producing for people, pets or livestock?
Submission Deadline: August 31, 2020
Submit your response
Tip for answering
There are lots of ways to answer this question.
We’d love to hear about your “go-to” foods – the most popular food items on your menu these days. Tell us if you see food or consumer product buying habits changing (buying more non-perishable items, planting gardens, coming up with new ways to prepare or store food, stocking up on home essentials, etc.).
Tell us if you see changes in what or how much the food and consumer product industries are producing in response to changing demands for people, pet or livestock products. Welcome your thoughts!
Send us a video or photo
Remember to send us a photo or video to accompany your submission.
Instruction video
Visit the Giving Program Overview page to watch a video that walks you through the submission process.
July Submission Highlights
Executive Leadership Team members respond to July question
Here are some responses from Executive Leadership Team members to the July question for the 100th Anniversary Giving Program. We’ll have more ELT responses in future months. The July question was:
“For Wilbur-Ellis, where do you see the greatest opportunity for growth in the coming years and why?”
Mike McDonald, United States
To recruit, educate and support a new generation of producers who focus on systems and principles of agricultural productivity while protecting natural resources for the future growth of our nation and the overall world.
Fion Yu, China
Our high-quality people and positive company culture with IDEAS core values are always the greatest opportunity as well as the most stable foundation for company growth anytime and anywhere.
Carrie Williams, United States
I view diversity and inclusion as one of the greatest opportunities for growth in the coming years. As we become more diverse and inclusive, we grow our ability to leverage Wilbur-Ellis’ full potential. Diversity and inclusion help to engage and motivate our workforce. These are key drivers of innovation and business success, and they enable Wilbur-Ellis to attract the best talent.
Gina Colfer, United States
I believe the biggest opportunity in the coming years for our company is in the sector of soil health and farming with the Whole Systems Approach in mind. We must, as a company, be aware of preserving the topsoil of our farmlands by making it more fertile and profitable for our growers by offering inputs that build soil fertility by increasing organic matter content and biodiversity within the farm. There are many ways to achieve these goals and with us being an input company, we have those tools to offer our growers.
Jennifer Day, United States
I think our biggest opportunity for growth in the coming years is in the Aquaculture field as well as the Pet Food Industry.
Kathryn Nix, United States
I believe that sustainable and environmentally friendly practices are going to be more important than ever to focus on in order to promote growth within the company. Reducing food waste for our customers, using less inputs to produce more, creating healthier foods in more of our markets. I think getting our foot in the door with vertical farming and indoor and hydroponic farming will create a new market for us. Trying to support this new type of farming will allow us into “concrete farming” which in our changing climate is something that we will be relying on more and more in the future. There are so many environmentally friendly outcomes of this type of farming and if we can supply these growers with different nutrients/technology we could help create a more food secure world.
Poornima Parameswaran, United States
The greatest opportunity that I see for Wilbur-Ellis is in embracing a data- and science-driven decision-making framework out in the field. This includes investing in, and commercializing technologies that allow for broad adoption of data and science for enabling sales and advice at the farmgate.
It is also a particularly opportune time for Wilbur-Ellis to be a driver of change in the industry by shining light on data & science below-ground as well as above-ground. Soil is the last biological frontier that remains untapped in agriculture, and soil is the #1 asset for a farmer. When the entire industry is still thinking about how to interpret soil, Wilbur-Ellis has a real opportunity to be a first mover in delivering data & science enabled solutions for soil management to their customers at the farmgate.
Jonathon Pokomaki, New Zealand
In the coming years I see our nutrition division as having the greatest opportunity growth within the Wilbur-Ellis company, I am from New Zealand have only just joined the Wilbur-Ellis Nutrition Team out here in Bluff, Southland.
As a Plant Supervisor and being reasonably new to the industry I see great potential within our Division and look forward to putting some ideas into action, and I love that the Wilbur-Ellis Brand is something to be proud of and the amazing work we do globally.
Blake Weatherald, Canada
I see the greatest opportunities for growth in the Ag sector being improvements in the overall customer experience. Striving to be the leader in this area I feel is important and will lead to overall growth. Doing things that competitors are not willing to do and creating loyal customers that don’t buy based on price, but instead buy based on the experience they have had dealing with Wilbur-Ellis or a division of Wilbur-Ellis.
Scott Womack, United States
In the coming years I see great growth for the company in the precision agriculture sector of the business. As the company heads into the next 100 years I foresee great growth and opportunity in being knowledgeable and forward thinking in precision agriculture. Being able to provide the experience and expertise required to implement technology in agriculture with our customers in mind is not something to take lightly. With this I think we can point the company into a future that needs high tech equipment to feed an ever expanding population with our customers at heart.
Gavin Giere, United States
In my opinion, I see our greatest opportunity for growth in the coming years is by becoming an industry leader in environmental compliance. Here’s why… As the world continues to face calamities from several fronts (some immediately felt; while others take years or more), environmental stewardship is and will continue to become more important. This importance will not only be for business purposes; i.e., vendors, customers, suppliers; but also, for sustainability of resources for our most precious resources; i.e., family, animals, and life.
Although a substantial up-front cost, the benefits and long-term advantages well outweigh the effort necessary to become the industry leader we already are in so many fronts.
Helping the Red Cross in the U.S., Canada and Globally
United States: Through our 100th Anniversary Giving Program, Wilbur-Ellis is supporting the American Red Cross in the United States.
Globally: To assist those in Asia-Pacific, Giving Program donations will benefit the International Services division of the American Red Cross, which helps victims of countless crises around the world through immediate and long-term support, including supplies, technical assistance and other assistance.
Canada: Our Giving Program also will assist the Canadian Red Cross with the work they do throughout that country.