The U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs(US-RSPE)has elected Lankford Ruffin, director of environmental affairs and sustainability at Butterball,to chair of the board of directors for 2021. Ruffin replaces Leigh Ann Johnston, director of sustainability at Tyson Foods,who will now rotate to immediate past chair. Ernie Meier, director of quality for McDonald’s,was named chair elect and will rotate into the chair role for 2022.
“I would like to thank the entire membership of the US-RSPE for all their efforts in 2020 and look forward to working with new and existing members in 2021. It is inspiring to have the participation of a diverse membership committed to a sustainable U.S. poultry and egg value chain,”said Ruffin.
US-RSPE members voted to add two new members to the board of directors for a three-year term. Greg Herbruck, president of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch,was elected to the US-RSPE board of directors as a growe rrepresentative,and Ross Hamilton, vice president of government affairs and technology at Darling Ingredients,was elected as an allied industry representative.
US-RSPE members re-elected three members of the board to serve another term.Thethree members are Jack Scott, vice president of sustainability at Nestle Purina Petcare; Jessica Langley, director of sustainability at Pilgrim’s; and Tim Hardman, director of beef at World Wildlife Fund.
he US-RSPE board of directors will continue their oversight of the US-RSPE Sustainability Framework as it begins the pilot phase in early 2021with the intention of completing a final draft by the end of 2021. The US-RSPE Sustainability Framework committee, a multi-stakeholder group of sustainability experts from US-RSPE member organizations, has spent 2020 developing draft indicators and metrics for sustainability throughout the entire poultry and egg value chain that will now be piloted. US-RSPE will be announcing a public comment period on the draft framework after the pilot is completed and members have had an opportunity to comment on revisions.
Formore information about the US-RSPE,contact Ryan Bennett at rbennett@poultryegg.org
