The Agricultural Retailers Association presented its 2015 Distinguished Service Award to Billy Pirkle, who has served as chairman of ResponsibleAg, an industry initiative which kicked off last year at this time. The organization assists fertilizer facilities with federal regulatory compliance through education, training and certification.
“Agricultural retailers are already committed to stewardship and safety,” said Pirkle, who is Senior Director of Environmental, Health and Safety at Crop Production Services. “But the industry didn’t have a means to communicate that dedication to the public. ResponsibleAg helps us as an industry to quantify and share our performance.”
Pirkle is very pleased with the rapid progress made by the organization with more than 1800 facilities registered and 400 audits conducted. He says that by the end of the first quarter of 2016, more than 100 facilities will be ResponsibleAg Certified. “Many people put this together. It was not an individual effort,” Pirkle said. “I’m humbled and honored to be recognized with this award.”
The ARA Distinguished Service Award honors an individual member, selected by the ARA Executive Committee, who has gone above and beyond to support the ag retailers industry and the association. “From the moment we started working on ResponsibleAg, Billy has been dedicated to its success,” said ARA President and CEO Daren Coppock. “He has put in countless hours and resources to get it off the ground. We would not have been able to establish this initiative without his knowledge, experience and enthusiastic support.”
Chuck talked with Billy about the progress made with ResponsibleAg over the past 12 months: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ara-15-pirkle.mp3″ text=”Interview with Billy Pirkle, ResponsibleAg”]