Page 45 - Innovation Delaware 2018

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operations at its processing facility in Harbeson and plans to move its headquarters to Millsboro.
In 2017, Wisconsin-based Proximity Malt opened a Delaware plant in Laurel, bringing to the First State its cutting-edge approach to shortening industry supply chains. The company relies on Delaware’s farmers to supply it with ingredients such as barley, which Proximity then passes on in malted form to the state’s burgeoning craft-brewing industry.
Meanwhile, Merck Animal Health in Millsboro keeps its 300 employees — including microbiologists, biologists, animal scientists, chemists, engineers and mechanics — busy around the clock, producing vaccines and other pharmaceutical products for the husbandry industry. And the Produce Marketing Association, with its 55 employees in Newark, supports its members’ innovative use of robotics and other technologies to address industry problems such as labor shortages and food safety issues. ID
Perdue
Perdue Farms, Perdue Foods and Perdue Agribusiness have more than 6,000 employees in Delaware, according to recent numbers from the company. Perdue also works with more than 500 poultry farmers and over 400 grain farmers here. The nearly 100-year-old firm estimates its annual economic impact in the state at just over $1 billion.
Its harvest plant in Milford is the largest USDA- certified organic chicken plant in the country,
and the company recently spent $15 million there to, among other things, convert the operation to controlled atmosphere stunning. This method essentially uses gas to put the animals to sleep before slaughter and is considered more humane than other methods. Perdue also recently invested in automation at its Georgetown harvest plant, and the company’s nutrient recycling plant in Seaford celebrated its first full year of production.
Such details may pale in comparison, in the
long run, to Perdue’s leadership in the antibiotic- free movement. The company eliminated all use
of animal-only antibiotics in late 2016. That came two years after Perdue Farms became the first major poultry company to stop routinely giving its chickens antibiotics that are also used in human medicine. Perdue’s overall husbandry program is based on the Five Freedoms, a globally recognized standard for welfare, and includes significant efforts to encourage natural behavior, reduce stress and avoid suffering.
“It was a learning process that started in 2002,” says ANDREA STAUB, Perdue’s senior vice president, corporate communications. “It wasn’t about not using antibiotics, but about learning how to raise chickens so that we don’t need antibiotics.” ID
STILL GOING STRONG
INNOVATION DELAWARE 43
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