The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (Alliance) and Perdue Farms (Perdue) celebrated the 54th Earth Day and their strong partnership by planting more than 300 trees on a family poultry farm in Quarryville, PA.
This partnership, announced in October 2023 with funding from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), has already made substantial strides to positively impact the environment on farms in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, meeting with over a dozen farms that are now moving forward with enhancements to increase sustainability on-farm.
The partnership has big plans for additional on-the-ground projects throughout the rest of 2024 that will help reduce energy costs, minimize disease risk, increase carbon sequestration, and boost local air and water quality. This includes providing technical and financial support to install six manure storage sheds and/or compost barns and seven tree planting installations within pastures and around poultry barns, planting 1,800+ trees on farms in the region this spring, and leveraging various state and federal cost-share programs to accelerate conservation practice implementation and effectively stretch the grant dollars further.
Drew Getty, vice president of environmental sustainability at Perdue Farms said:
“Earth Day is a reminder of our obligation to future generations to protect and preserve our communities, like the beautiful Chesapeake Bay watershed. To go beyond good stewardship and make a big impact, it takes all of us working together."
"That’s why this partnership is so mission critical. Collectively, we can make sustainable practices more accessible and approachable to anyone who works with Perdue Farms, which ultimately advances the work to protect our natural resources.”
Since 2017, the Alliance has worked alongside agricultural supply chain corporations, like Perdue Farms, and their farm providers to accelerate conservation efforts throughout supply chains in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This approach allows farms to increase long-term sustainability while elevating environmental standards throughout the agricultural industry.
“The Alliance is excited to partner with Perdue. Their commitment to helping farmers reach conservation standards that go above state regulations is exciting,” said Brittany Smith, agriculture project manager at the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
“Through this collaboration and Perdue’s investment in conservation, the team can build capacity for technical support and offer financial assistance for Perdue’s independent-contract growers, often with no out-of-pocket costs to the farmers. Perdue’s leadership and commitment to sustainability elevates environmental standards throughout the agricultural industry.”