Tag: ryan duffy

U.S. Sugar Announces Retirement of Judy Clayton Sanchez, Senior Director, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs

Posted on by U.S. Sugar

Clewiston, FL – U.S. Sugar announced that Judy Clayton Sanchez, the Company’s longtime Senior Director, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, plans to retire effective October 31, 2024.
“For more than 30 years, Judy Sanchez has done an extraordinary job in managing U.S. Sugar’s Communications efforts and has acted as corporate spokesperson with integrity and grace,” said President and CEO Kenneth W, McDuffie.   “Her talent, expertise, and experience have earned the respect of our community, the media and the entire sugar industry, from Clewiston to Washington, D.C. and beyond.”

Judy Clayton Sanchez

“As a valued member of our management team, Sanchez has been actively engaged in strategic issues involving our business, from the environment and community engagement to national farm bill and trade for more than three decades,” McDuffie said.  “Her ability to effectively communicate on a wide range of issues as well as represent our Company with dignity and respect has been greatly appreciated by the senior management team, CEO and our board of directors.”

McDuffie said Clewiston resident and current Director of Corporate Communications Ryan Duffy, who has been working alongside Sanchez for the past seven years, will assume her role and responsibilities in Corporate Communications, including taking on the role of Company spokesman.

Ryan Duffy

“Being part of the U.S. Sugar family has been an honor and a truly incredible, fun, brilliantly challenging experience,” Sanchez said.  “Having worked with Ryan Duffy for nearly a decade, I am confident that his talent, abilities and passion for our business and our community will continue to serve our Company well.”

Sanchez first joined U.S. Sugar in 1992 as part of South Bay Growers, developing and marketing its fledgling retail salad products—moving over to U.S. Sugar’s executive offices in 1994.  She was promoted to Director of Communications in 1996 and Senior Director, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in 2011.   She has been responsible for developing and overseeing the company’s corporate communications and community relations departments, including U.S. Sugar’s charitable giving programs as well as numerous community and employee-relations activities.  She holds a bachelor’s in Communications from Florida Atlantic University.

Sanchez’s career efforts were recognized as a Glades Woman of Accomplishment in 2002 and when she was inducted into the Women in Communications Hall of Fame in 2022-23.  U.S. Sugar has been fortunate that Sanchez and U.S. Sugar’s communications and public affairs team have engaged successfully over the years–communicating the science, facts and the Company’s position on issues that have been critical to the success of our Company, our industry, and our rural community.   She also played a key role in the industry’s overwhelming defeat of the “Penny-a-Pound” Constitutional Amendment and sugar tax

She was appointed in 2011 to the USDA and USTR’s Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee and continued to serve under three different administrations.  Sanchez is also a board member of the Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau and Agriculture Communicators of Florida and a trustee of the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.   Previously, she served on the Board of the Lake Okeechobee Regional Economic Alliance (LORE) and the South Florida Water Management District’s Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) and its Lake Okeechobee sub-committee.

“Our company, our industry and our community have been truly blessed to have Judy Sanchez working on our behalf.  She has been a terrific asset to our team for a long time, and we wish her well in retirement,” McDuffie said.
Sanchez and her husband Julio have two grown sons Matt (Lois) of Plantation, Florida and Nick (Karmen) of Fort Worth, Texas and three grandchildren.  She and her husband reside in Belle Glade.

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Ten Interesting Things About U.S. Sugar I Learned This Harvest Season

Posted on by Ryan Duffy
Ryan Duffy

Recently, the people of U.S. Sugar, our farmers and our 34 independent growers finished the Company’s 90th consecutive harvest. Every year I’m with the company, I am even more amazed at the new and interesting things I learn. This past year was no exception.  And I want to share my “on the job” learning experience through my time hosting tours, gathering content for our social media channels and interacting with my co-workers.

Here’s ten of the most interesting things I learned about U.S. Sugar:

  1. Our farmers are using technology similar to Uber to increase sustainability and efficiency in the sugarcane harvest. A few years ago, we began developing/implementing a technology using location-based beacon solutions to link tractors hauling wagons to cane harvesters waiting in the field. The technology has helped reduce the distance traveled and wait times, which decreases fuel use and increases overall harvest efficiency.
  1. It sometimes get extremely cold in South Florida, and that’s not a good thing for farming.  In late January, we experienced two consecutive nights of below-freezing temperatures in our farming region. The first night, it was windy enough to keep the frost/freeze from settling on much of the crop. Unfortunately, the wind died down the second night, and we experienced major negative impacts including widespread freeze-burned cane and damaged vegetables. Farms south of Lake Okeechobee generally enjoy favorable weather year-round, but the freeze this year was the worst in more than a decade.
Area Manager Rusty Hyslope surveys freeze damage to a field of green beans on the morning after one of the worst freezes in South Florida in over a decade.
  1. We hire many graduates from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia. I am an alumnus of Florida State University (Go Noles!) and I work with quite a few Gators, Hurricanes, UCF Knights and FGCU Eagles, but ABAC in Tifton, GA is one of the schools that seems to produce the most U.S. Sugar employees. Many employees in our agriculture department are from ABAC, working in everything from production supervision, and harvest technology implementation to research & development. In May, we hosted faculty from ABAC and the tour was led entirely by our ABAC graduates and current interns.
Production Supervisor Jarad Plair (ABAC alum) and Communications Director Ryan Duffy discuss U.S. Sugar’s state-of-the-art harvesting technology with ABAC faculty members during May tour.
  1. Our internal railroad system keeps 2,000 tractor-trailers off the road every day. U.S. Sugar is unique in that we transport all of our sugarcane from our fields to the mill via private railroad–nonstop during the harvest season (from October to May). One railcar can haul up to 40,000 tons of sugarcane, or the equivalent of two tractor trailers. Fewer trucks on the road means less congestion in our communities and reduced fuel consumption and less greenhouse gas emissions.
  1. U.S. Sugar grows a whole lot more than sugarcane. This past year, U.S. Sugar and our family of farmers grew more than a dozen different types of fruit and vegetables. Our company grows green beans and sweet corn in rotation with sugarcane, and our 34 independent farmers grow many other food crops such as such as citrus, kale, radishes, romaine lettuce, rice, celery and many other crops. All of this produce is packaged locally in the Glades, shipped and sold in the produce sections of grocery stores throughout the Eastern Seaboard every winter and spring. We help feed up to 180 million Americans every year!
  1. Clean water is an important part of our business. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA for short), where many of our farms are located, is the only farming area in the United States with a requirement to reduce phosphorus by 25 percent annually. Our farmers along with other growers in the EAA have shattered that target by achieving a 55 percent annual average reduction over the past 26 years. It’s a major source of pride for our farmers, who are on the front lines of Everglades restoration in our state’s efforts to send cleaner water to the River of Grass.
  1. We host thousands of people on Raisin’ Cane tours of our farms every year. One of the best ways to teach people about agriculture is to get them out on our farms and show them what we do. This past year, we had approximately 6,000 people from coastal regions and our own communities come to our farming region to learn about our sustainable agricultural practices and the food we produce. If you are interested in booking a future tour, please contact the Clewiston Chamber of Commerce.
  1. U.S. Sugar is a family, and many family members work together. At both our factory and in our fields, U.S. Sugar employs many father-son or mother-daughter combinations. It’s not uncommon to hear about employees who have worked with their parents and even grandparents as generations of families choose to work for the Company. Every year, our CEO Robert H. Buker, Jr. recognizes employees for their decades of service, including some that have worked for the company for 30, 40, and even 50 years!
  1. U.S. Sugar has many superlatives when it comes to technology. Due to the size and scale of our farming operation, U.S. Sugar is home to the world’s largest private mesh Wi-Fi network (which spans 200 square miles across our farms) and one of the largest fleets of connected John Deere tractors and harvesters anywhere. We are also one of the largest producers of data in all of American agriculture, and one of the largest users of auto steer GPS guidance on farms anywhere in the world. Precision agriculture plays an integral role in our ability to safely and reliably produce food in a sustainable way.
  1. Bagasse has many uses outside of powering U.S. Sugar’s factory. We have highlighted the sustainability of bagasse – sugarcane fiber – in powering our factory and providing surplus power for up to 25,000 homes annually, but it is increasingly used in making every day household products more affordable and environmentally friendly. Sugarcane is playing an important role in the plant-based product movement. You can now purchase everything from straws, to sandals and even LEGOs sustainably made from sugarcane-based materials.

After getting some much-needed rest this summer, our employees will be back hard at work as we begin our 91st harvest starting in October. We will be happy to share more interesting facts and information about our farming and processing operations. Make sure you’re following U.S. Sugar on Twitter, Facebook and Tik Tok.

Ryan Duffy