Tanimura & Antle Honors Steve Bassi with Inaugural Demeter Award
SALINAS, CA - Warm words of praise were shared last week as Tanimura & Antle honored its Chief Ag Officer Steve Bassi with the inaugural Demeter Award for Agricultural Excellence and Leadership. In a ceremony on Friday, December 8th, CEO Rick Antle and the Tanimura & Antle team were in tow to commend Bassi on his commitment to the well-being of the company and its employees, growers, customers and vendors, as well as his unfaltering loyalty, dedication, and mentorship for the betterment of all.
“It is truly a great honor,” said Bassi upon receiving the first-ever award. “I am extremely proud of the Company, Accomplishments, Team, Grower, and Farmland Base that has been built over the years. I now know what my true purpose is: To provide continuing leadership and pass along all the philosophy, advise, guidance, lessons, and mentoring that I was fortunate enough to receive from yourself (Rick Antle), Bob (Antle) and George (Tanimura), as well as the Tanimura Brothers.”
Employed by Tanimura & Antle for the past 31 years, according to a press release, Steve has played multiple roles within the company, and has become the go-to guy for what is happening on the farm.
As Antle explained, “Our award winner is best described as having ‘The Mind of a Scientist and the Soul of a Farmer.’”
The Demeter Award for Agricultural Excellence and Leadership is meant to be “celebratory, everlasting, and self-renewing,” Antle shared during his speech, and was introduced in tandem with launching the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) earlier this year, and the celebration of its 35th anniversary this past November.
The statue itself is quite lovely to behold. As Antle put it so elegantly, the bronze statute depicts Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture, “with her arms outstretched to the heavens, symbolizing the circular shape of the world; the continuous cycle of the seasons and the shape of a plow. A closer view of the statute shows a plow tilling uncultivated earth and as the soil passes along its blade it changes from barren soil to that with roots and then plants and finally fruit, the life of a plant.”
Congrats are in order for the inaugural Demeter Award winner. Here’s to Steve Bassi and all his accomplishments!
