GOOD EMPLOYER | FOOD SAFETY | ANIMAL WELFARE | ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) Policy

Murphy-Brown will employ the principles of safety, environmental stewardship and resource conservation in order to produce food products for our customers in an efficient and sustainable manner. Murphy-Brown’s practices and procedures are designed to promote the health, safety and well-being of employees, neighbors and the environment.

Murphy-Brown, LLC Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) Policy Commits To:

• Complying with relevant laws, regulations and policies set forth by Murphy-Brown, LLC and other requirements to which the organization subscribes, as a condition of each employee’s employment
• Continually improving safety performance and environmental stewardship through the periodic review of goals and procedures as well as by internal and external assessments
• Preventing pollution and employee injuries by operating facilities in an environmentally responsible, sustainable and safe manner

Murphy-Brown, LLC communicates this policy to its employees and makes it available to the public upon request.

Partnership with Groups

At Murphy-Brown, we’re committed to environmental stewardship. By partnering with environmental experts we are able to solve environmental challenges, improve our operations and make a positive impact.

In 2003 we teamed up with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to assist with their Cooperative Upland-habitat Restoration and Enhancement (CURE) program.

Through the CURE program, we have established field borders on over 40,000 acres of our North Carolina property where naturally occurring vegetation is allowed to grow. These buffers provide much needed habitat for rabbits and quail, as well as other birds of high conservation concern. The field borders protect waterways by slowing or preventing runoff and herbicide drift, absorbing nutrients and keeping agricultural equipment further away from the water.

To show that water quality and habitat for small game and other species is improved through the use of these borders, we’ve opened up our Ammon Complex as a showcase and training area for employees and other agricultural producers and agencies.

While it is too early in the program to determine trends, we do know that:

• Winter songbird densities show 41 birds/ha in crop fields converted to native grasses versus three birds/ha in regular crop fields in 2007.
• Spring songbirds that use grass and shrub habitats are recorded at a much higher rate than in nearby Bird Breeding Survey (BBS) routes.
• Summer quail routes and fall covey counts show a stable quail population, which we hope to see increase as CURE habitat management practices have time to take effect.

Funding for the Ammon CURE Project is provided by an Environmental Enhancement Grant from the North Carolina Department of Justice with assistance from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Murphy-Brown.

Environmental Stewardship

All of us at Murphy-Brown are committed to reducing our impact on the land, water and air resources we use. Our concentration on environmental stewardship doesn’t stop with complying with state and federal environmental regulations.

We have gone above and beyond regulatory compliance through our voluntary implementation of a comprehensive Environmental Management System (EMS) throughout the company. Our EMS is an effective management tool that ensures an organized approach to identifying and successfully managing those parts of our operations that could impact the environment.

In 2001 Murphy-Brown became the first livestock operation in the world to receive the prestigious ISO 14001 certification of our EMS. ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized set of environmental standards developed by the International Organization for Standards, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The certification process is conducted by an accredited third-party auditor to verify that all of the elements of the ISO 14001 Standard are being met. In essence a “seal of approval” from the international community, this distinction shows that we are living up to our environmental goals on our Murphy-Brown operations.

In addition to achieving ISO 14001 certification, we have implemented other environmental initiatives to preserve our natural resources. Murphy-Brown farms host several ongoing programs designed to protect wildlife habitats, wetlands and other ecologically sensitive areas on our farms.

One of the most aggressive ways we are promoting environmental stewardship is through our Integrated Land Management Plan (ILMP). Since 2001, this plan has helped us enhance water quality, promote soil conservation, prevent soil erosion and improve wildlife habitats on and around our operations.

Integrated Land Management Program (ILMP)

Our integrated land management plan (ILMP) outlines a comprehensive approach to aggressive environmental stewardship. By formalizing best management practices (BMPs) that we have used for years and incorporating new BMPs for our farms, our ILMP sets a high standard for environmental protection across our operations.

The key to the ILMP is that it allows us to reach our goal of protecting rivers, waterways and wildlife habitats running through the areas in which we operate. This, in turn, ensures that future generations can enjoy the same natural beauty and plentiful fish, waterfowl, song birds, small mammals, longleaf pine, bald cypress and bottomland hardwood trees that we enjoy today.

Our ILMP expands the scope of environmental stewardship to include practices for upland woods, wetlands, buffer areas and other unique natural areas around our farms. Many of the practices in the ILMP have been common practice on Murphy-Brown farms, such as maintaining vegetated buffers around each farm. Now that we have formalized these practices, along with newly-developed ones, our ILMP ensures that we will be doing all we can for the environment for years to come.