Protecting pollinators is part of the GROWMARK sustainability initiative called ENDURE.

“Sustainability is a very hot topic in the world today,” said GROWMARK Director of Strategic Agronomy Marketing Lance Ruppert. “As a company we’re trying to look at our internal actions to be sustainable as a system and get that message out.”

Because pollinator health is so critical, Ruppert says GROWMARK started a pollinator program as part of ENDURE. “We have access through our seed division of pollinator mixes of flowers people can grow to promote bee health,” said Ruppert. “So all of our members across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ontario are participating in the program to plant pollinator gardens to promote bee health.”

Ruppert says all members are given enough seeds to plant up to ten acres of pollinator friendly flowers. “So our members are going to divide that up in 2-5 locations…so you could potentially see 100-125 pollinator gardens from our members,” he said.

Learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/growmark-2-18-16-ruppert.mp3″ text=”Interview with Lance Ruppert, GROWMARK Agronomy”]