Valley Agronomics Wins North America Ambassador of Respect
October 7, 2019 
From left: Corteva’s Bill Belzer, Valley Agronomics’ Sean McCarthy, Valley Agronomics’ Dean Weldent, Valley Agronomics’ Richard Lloyd, Corteva’s Britt Beene, and Corteva’s Jenny Dowil.
For the company’s hard work in the area of environmental stewardship, Valley Agronomics of Pocatello, ID, was named the Ambassador of Respect award winner for North America for 2019 by Corteva Agriscience, which sponsors the annual Environmental Respect Awards.
“This is really a great honor,” said Richard Lloyd, General Manager, accepting the coveted trophy. “I know our people at Pocatello have worked very hard at stewardship, and it’s nice have them recognized for the effort.”
Of course, as Lloyd pointed out, dealing with environmental stewardship is kind of second nature for the Valley Agronomics Pocatello facility – especially considering the history of its physical location.
“When we were looking to build a new facility four or five years ago, Pocatello was a natural fit because all the rail lines in the area went through the town,” said Lloyd. “However, the land where we were looking to build was a former phosphate mine, so the area around that had been declared a superfund clean-up site.”
Dave Holtom, CEO of Valley Agronomics, said, “Valley Ag worked in unison with the EPA, FMC, and the PCDA (Power County Development Association) to repurpose a superfund site into a business that contributes to the community and serves our area growers as well. The whole effort from start to finish was completed in the best interest of everyone involved.”
Valley Agronomics is a leader in deploying ways to be better stewards of its environment through a more precision approach to pesticide and nutrient management or applications.
According to Sean McCarthy, Location Manager, the Pocatello Valley Agronomics outlet went out of its way to clean up the land around the facility, working with the local Fort Hill Indian Reservation in the process. “One the major concerns was nitrogen leaching into the local watershed, with the American Falls Reservoir and Portneuf River nearby,” said McCarthy. “So, we employed tools such as precision agriculture practices to make certain to address run-off concerns from the community, as well as helping our growers be better stewards of the land around their farms.”
Three other recipients were selected to receive the special honor, one from each of the three other regions of the world. The Asia-Pacific winner was Farmlands Cooperative-Darfield, New Zealand. The Europe/Middle East/Africa honoree was Kut-San Agricultural Marketing, from Turkey. Brazil-based Frisia Coopertiva Agrioindustrial was named the ambassador from Latin America.
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