Deere Employees Increase Volunteer Hours by more than 50 percent

Jan 27, 2017

In 2016, Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) employees increased by more than 50 percent the number of volunteer hours they recorded in service to community organizations worldwide, totaling nearly 158,000 hours in the year compared to approximately 104,500 in 2015.

During the year, Deere launched its "Serving Our Communities" initiative in which employees at Deere units around the world organized volunteer projects to benefit their local cities and towns. This initiative alone accounted for more than 17,000 volunteer hours.

"Serving our Communities" involved 5,300 employees at 40 Deere locations. Projects included packaging meals and collecting cans of food for local foodbanks, planting gardens at local schools, packing backpacks with school supplies for at-risk children, and helping farmers in developing countries be more productive. Employees at other locations built houses through Habitat for Humanity, renovated schools, and picked up litter along a beach.

Deere's citizenship efforts include a robust global volunteer program that includes salary and wage employees as well as grants from the John Deere Foundation and corporate contributions made mostly in communities where John Deere has company facilities.

"Our employees take an active role in helping develop the communities where they live and work," said Sam Allen, chairman and chief executive officer. "Through these volunteer efforts and our philanthropic contributions, we can positively impact the living standards of people across the globe."

In total, Deere and its Foundation provided grants and contributions totaling more than $31 million in fiscal year 2016, said Mara Sovey Downing, director, global brand management and corporate citizenship, and president of the John Deere Foundation.

Downing said the company's citizenship activities helped improve the lives of more than 18 million people across the globe. Overall, Deere's citizenship efforts focus on three important areas - long-term solutions for world hunger, education, and community development. Deere remains committed to investing annually in civic initiatives and has established a goal to reach one million volunteer hours recorded annually by employees.

In 2016, John Deere was named as one of America's Top 100 Corporate Citizens by Forbes magazine and the nonprofit organization Just Capital.

Source : John Deere

Video: How farmers are protecting the soil and our food security | DW Documentary

For a long time, soil was all but ignored. But for years, the valuable humus layer has been thinning. Farmers in Brandenburg are clearly feeling the effects of this on their sandy fields. Many are now taking steps to prepare their farms for the future.

Years of drought, record rainfall and failed harvests: we are becoming increasingly aware of how sensitively our environment reacts to extreme weather conditions. Farmers' livelihoods are at stake. So is the ability of consumers to afford food.

For a few years now, agriculture that focuses solely on maximum yields has been regarded with increasing skepticism. It is becoming more and more clear just how dependent we are on healthy soils.

Brandenburg is the federal state with the worst soil quality in Germany. The already thin, fertile humus layer has been shrinking for decades. Researchers and farmers who are keen to experiment are combating these developments and looking for solutions. Priority is being given to building up the humus layer, which consists of microorganisms and fungi, as well as springtails, small worms and centipedes.

For Lena and Philipp Adler, two young vegetable farmers, the tiny soil creatures are invaluable helpers. On their three-hectare organic farm, they rely on simple, mechanical weed control, fallow areas where the soil can recover, and diversity. Conventional farmer Mark Dümichen also does everything he can to protect soil life on his land. For years, he has not tilled the soil after the harvest and sows directly into the field. His yields have stabilized since he began to work this way.

Isabella Krause from Regionalwert AG Berlin-Brandenburg is convinced after the experiences of the last hot summers that new crops will thrive on Brandenburg's fields in the long term. She has founded a network of farmers who are promoting the cultivation of chickpeas with support from the scientific community.