THE AMERICAN DREAM Latinos Flourish as California Strawberry Growers

March 4th, 2015

According to a report by the California Strawberry Commission (CSC) published last year, just about two thirds of the strawberry growers in the Golden State are of Mexican descent.

In the past generation or two, many Mexican laborers have come to the United States looking for work and eventually ended up farming the land.  In fact, while there are also a good number of second and third generation Latino growers, the CSC report estimates that 25 percent of current Latino growers started as farmworkers.

The report—“Growing the American Dream: California Strawberry Farming’s Rich History of Immigrants & Opportunity”—discusses the rich history of the California strawberry industry and how it has provided opportunity for many immigrants.  “Perhaps more than any other crop, strawberries are defined by decades of immigrants from Europe, Asia and Mexico,” states the report.

In the first half of the last century, it was immigrants from Europe and Asia who began working the land and eventually created a rich history as U.S. growers.  Japanese-Americans have played a very significant role in the development of the California strawberry industry.  The report states that the first Japanese colony in North America was founded in 1869 outside of Sacramento, and by the 1940s Japanese immigrants had settled throughout California and proved to be capable farmers.  Of course, the unfortunate decision to send many Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II created a setback for that population, but they persevered throughout the rest of the 20th century.

“For nearly a century, California strawberry farming has provided a ladder to success for Japanese-American and other Asian families.  It has allowed generations to rise up from the fields to improve their lives, assimilate into American society and assume leadership roles in business, academia and government,” said A.G. Kawamura, a strawberry grower, former California Secretary of Food and Agriculture and longtime Western Growers member and director, in the report.

Today, workers from Mexico are following that same path.  Victor Ramirez is a third-generation strawberry farmer and was the 2014 CSC chairman of the board.  In the report he said, “California strawberry farmers embody the pursuit of the American Dream by growing a crop that lends itself to achieving that goal.  Their success plays out in their ability to grow 90 percent of the nation’s strawberries, supplying the nation with one of the most nutritious fruits in the market.”

According to the report, the path to ownership for immigrants is possible because of a number of unique characteristics inherent to strawberry farming which support an environment for small farmers to operate successful businesses.  These factors include lower barriers to entry, the ability to harvest a high-yield crop nearly year round on a small amount of land and heavy consumer demand.

Another grower from Mexico, Alfredo Ramirez, explained it this way:  “If you want to work hard, grow strawberries.  This is the only thing I know how to grow.  I’ve got the American Dream and I can’t ask for anything else.”

He came to the United States at the age of 18 to join his cousin in Los Angeles.  There he found work as a carpenter and cabinetmaker before moving northward to Redding, where he worked in a nursery that specialized in strawberry plants.   He became a naturalized American citizen in 2001 and now supervises the Canyon Nursery’s Manteca operations.  During peak season, the nursery swells to 350 workers who help raise 500 million strawberry plants annually.

In 1982, Alejandro Ramirez and his brother followed their father to California and sought work in the state’s strawberry fields. Ramirez fell in love and married a woman picking strawberries in his crew. Together, they started Alejandro Ramirez Farms.  In 2003, their business was expanding and they hired their first employee. Today, Ramirez is teaching the next generation how to farm.  Alejandro Jr.’s goal is to graduate from Hartnell College and California State University Fresno, and then make a career alongside his father as an agricultural engineer.  “It is a beautiful thing working with my dad.  I get to spend time with him.  He is a great boss and father,” said Alejandro Jr. in the CSC report.  “I am proud of him.  He has been a teacher to me and I fell in love with the farm life.”

Current CSC Chairman Edgar Terry’s family were also immigrants, but from a different part of the world.  “My great-grandfather Joseph emigrated from Portugal in 1890 and settled in Ventura County where generations of Terry family farming began.  Today, strawberry farming is my family’s livelihood and we continue to grow opportunities from the roots my great-grandfather established over 120 years ago.”

The California agriculture industry is rich with successful stories of immigrants who came to this country seeking the American Dream.  Mexico is only the latest country of many to serve as the source of this deep pool of talent.

 

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Caring for Employees: A Health Plan Is Indicative of a Company’s Culture

March 4th, 2015

If it’s time for you to make changes to your current benefits plan or implement a new plan altogether, there is a lot to consider.  Provider networks, employee contributions and a prescription benefits program are just a few decisions you need to make.

These components are usually straightforward and relatively simple to compare among the health insurance carriers, but I challenge you to look beyond the numbers.  Ask yourself if the carriers you are considering truly care about you and your employees, and then do a comparison of the top contenders.

Being an affiliated part of the Western Growers family of companies, I can tell you with certainty that Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT) is an organization that cares for its members as family.  To help you with your comparison, below are suggested questions to ask yourself (or your health insurance carriers) to see how each fare in the “caring” column and how we do it at WGAT.

 

Addressing Needs of Agriculture Industry

Does the carrier understand the diverse needs of business owners in the agriculture business?  Can they offer solutions that address your unique challenges such as covering field workers, seasonal employees and those who speak only Spanish?

WGAT was launched in 1957 for the sole purpose of giving WG members an affordable option for health care benefits by offering highly customizable benefit plans to meet their diverse needs.  This includes printing all member materials in both English and Spanish and setting up field offices throughout California and Arizona to be near our members.

Just ask John D’Arrigo, president/CEO of D’Arrigo Bros of California, which is celebrating 95 years as a successful California grower-shipper.  The company is not only a long-term WGAT member since the 1970s but has been a member of WG since 1937.  John has served on the WGAT Board of Trustees since 1997, a few years after his father retired from the board.  When asked how he felt about having WGAT as his health carrier, he shared, “WGAT really listens to what the ag industry needs.  They’ve been paying attention to those needs for decades, and are in a constant state of innovation.  If a business is interested in quality health care, flexibility and tailored services specific to the ag industry, WGAT has been very accommodating in providing these options.”  He added, “I would highly recommend both WGAT and Pinnacle to employers with self-funded businesses.”

 

What about other services that specifically address the needs of your workers?

For us at WGAT, we are proud of our Mexico Panel, which provides an option for WG members with employees who travel to SoCal and Arizona or are geo-varied. This program gives participants access to high-quality care and a robust provider network across the United States and Mexico border.  Our exclusive network has licensed facilities and bilingual providers in Tijuana, Mexicali, San Luis, Los Algodones, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.

 

Customer Service

How does the carrier rank in customer service?

Because your employees will have questions and will need issues resolved, how a carrier handles its customer service is essential to how the health plan will be received by its participants.  When they call the toll-free number, will they have to go through a cumbersome process to speak to a “real person”?  Will the customer service representative be easy to understand and is he/she someone who works in their same region and not a contract worker from overseas?  Will there be bilingual representatives available?  Will the representative be committed to getting the problem resolved and know what to do if the problem needs to be escalated?  At WGAT, we have bilingual representatives on staff and our entire customer service team works from our corporate offices in California.

Moreover, our plan members know that when needed, they can contact me directly as WGAT senior vice president or anyone on my senior staff to get a big issue resolved.  Because WGAT is a not-for-profit, mutual-benefit organization, the shareholders we report to are not stockholders but our plan members.  Our staff is driven by serving each and every WGAT member to their fullest extent and they work together to provide the type of personal touch not usually seen in larger organizations.

 

What other value-added services are provided to help members with their health care and claims?

In addition to our customer service line, we offer a care management program that gives our participants access to a team of on-site nurses who work closely with them and their health care providers to help manage medical care for the best possible outcomes.  Through our HealthView online program, participants can get updates on their claims’ status, review their benefits summary or order a replacement ID card.

 

Wellness

What wellness services are included in the core health plan?

Studies show that having healthier employees is a win-win for both employers and their workforce (see graphic).  WGAT believes that if a carrier really cares about its members’ employees, some wellness services need to be included as part of the health plan.  For example, at WGAT, once an employee has set up an account in HealthView, he or she can utilize two other services within the program: Health Advisor and Health Advocate.  Health Advisor works together with WebMD to answer questions participants may have about their health and issues they are experiencing.  Health Advocate offers discounts to coaching programs to help employees with weight management, smoking cessation and other health goals.  Health Advocate also offers discounts to popular weight-loss programs and gyms in a participant’s local area including Jenny Craig, Jazzercise and local gyms (availability varies depending on work or home location).

 

Does the health plan offer disease management programs?

Also known as population health management programs, a disease management program is implemented to help employees with certain health issues to manage them so their health does not decline.  At WGAT, we have nurses trained in disease management who are available to help employees specifically in the areas of hypertension, asthma, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking cessation and weight management.  The nurses work with employees to make sure they are taking appropriate medication prescribed by their doctor, help them with changing behaviors to improve their conditions and ensure that the proper steps are taken to maintain and improve their health.

 

What communications are available to send out to employees for health education?

WGAT believes strongly in sharing relevant information to help educate employees on wellness topics.  At our organization, we have partnered with the American Cancer Society to get the word out on ways employees can minimize their risk of disease and keep cancer away.  You can check out our WGAT website for more information.

 

Providing Health Care is Important

Whether you are making a change to your health care plan or offering health benefits for the first time, making this financial commitment shows your employees and job candidates that you care about their well-being.  D’Arrigo sums it up by saying, “We are a big proponent of providing health care.  It’s a very important part of our culture.  It helps endear our employees to us and motivates them to stay.  We have employees that have stayed with us for decades, generations even—grandparents, parents and children all working for our company.  We feel that if we can afford to offer them health care, then we should provide it.”

I’d add just be sure to ask the right questions and choose a company that cares as much about your employees as you do.

 

In addition to serving as senior vice president of Western Growers Assurance Trust, David Zanze is the president of Pinnacle Claims Management, Inc.

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HR Spring Cleaning—Easy as 1, 2, 3

March 4th, 2015

With spring’s promise of renewal and rejuvenation, it’s the perfect time to embark on the annual ritual of spring cleaning.  That usually means cleaning oft-neglected items such as windows and carpets, dusting those hard-to-reach places and removing excess clutter from the home.  But for the human resources professional, spring is an ideal time to clean up legal compliance issues that may be gathering dust, and if left unattended, can cause a big mess that will be much harder and more expensive to clean up later.  Fortunately, there are some basic steps members can take now to reduce exposure to employment litigation risk.

 

1.  Review and update employee handbooks

If you don’t have an employee handbook, then the first step is to create one.  While there is no law requiring employers to provide handbooks to their employees, there are good reasons to do so. First, there are a number of policies that virtually all employers simply must have (e.g., anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, certain protected leave policies, to name a few).  The handbook is a logical, centralized place to group those and other useful, if not legally required, policies.  Handbooks and signed acknowledgments also can assist in an employer’s legal defense in the event of a lawsuit; conversely, the lack of a handbook can tank an employer’s defense.

Creating an employee handbook can seem like a daunting task, but employment and labor law attorneys—including several in the WG Ag Legal Network—can help you create one at a reasonable cost.  Believe me, that’s money well spent.  Also, the Western Growers Personnel & Procedures Manual contains great information and sample policies to help ag employers get started with creating a handbook.

Once an employer has a handbook in place, it must be reviewed periodically to ensure that all policies are current and lawful.  Best practice is to conduct a handbook review at least annually, or on an ongoing basis to monitor changes in the law or employer’s policies.  Employers should distribute or post revised handbooks, reissue acknowledgment forms and collect signed acknowledgments from all employees.

 

2.  Review Wage & Hour Compliance

Hopefully by now, all employers with piece-rate employees have either begun paying at least the base minimum wage for each hour worked (with or without an incentive compensation bonus) or have begun separately tracking and paying non-productive time, rest breaks and heat recovery periods.  (Yes, there are other compensation schemes, but I believe these are the best options.)  Even growers and shippers who do not directly hire piece-rate workers must ensure that their farm labor contractors (FLC) are complying with the new piece-rate rules or risk being held legally responsible for any unpaid wages.  Pursuant to the new AB 1897, it’s more important than ever to conduct the due diligence necessary to ensure that their FLCs are fully licensed and insured (including workers’ compensation), reputable and compliant with all employment, labor and health and safety laws.  It is also important to have well-drafted agreements with the FLC, including an indemnification provision ensuring that if the employees were not paid all wages owing due to the FLC’s compliance failure, the grower-shipper won’t be left holding the bag.  On the flipside, FLCs should consider having indemnification provisions of their own ensuring that if the client failed to pay enough to cover all hours worked (e.g., non-productive time and rest break periods), despite objections by the FLC, the client will reimburse the FLC for any underpayment and related costs.

Employers and clients of FLCs should perform periodic wage-hour audits to ensure that foremen are accurately recording all hours worked, time spent performing non-productive activities (e.g., pre-shift exercises, tailgate meetings, cleaning equipment, etc.), rest breaks and heat recovery periods.  Also, be sure to review paystubs to ensure they contain all required information, including how many hours of sick leave an employee has available pursuant to the new Paid Sick Leave law.

 

3.  Consider adopting a mandatory arbitration policy

Over the last decade, California courts had been hostile to employers requiring employees to sign class action waivers in arbitration agreements, finding such agreements to be fundamentally unfair to employees.  However a couple of recent U.S. Supreme Court and California Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that such pre-dispute waivers are not fundamentally unenforceable.  Rather they are consistent with federal policy favoring making the resolution of certain claims more efficient.

In light of these court decisions, employers should consider whether to implement mandatory arbitration procedures, jury trial waivers, class action waivers, or some combination of these.  Arbitration gives the employer and employee an alternative to protracted and costly civil litigation.  Jury trial waivers minimize the risk of runaway juries and ensure an arbitrator or a judge will issue the decision.

Class action waivers limit an employee to pursuing only his or her own claims and not claims on behalf of other employees.  Class action lawsuits are far more costly for employers to litigate and resolve than lawsuits brought by individual plaintiffs.  In light of the rash of wage and hour class action lawsuits that have been filed recently against ag employers, arbitration agreements with class action waivers make sense for most employers.  It is important to ensure such agreements are drafted or reviewed by experienced employment and labor law counsel, since drafting errors could render the agreement unenforceable.

By cleaning up some potential trouble spots now, you can minimize the employment law risk your company faces in 2015.

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USING WEATHER DATA Technology Allows for Capture and Use of Vital Info

March 4th, 2015

It is the era of “Big Data” and everyone is trying to harness available information to make better decisions in all facets of business.  Possibly nowhere does that make more sense than when dealing with the weather and agriculture.  After all, the two are interconnected and the amount of weather-related information now available has grown leaps and bounds over the past several years.

Spectrum Technologies, a leader in plant and turf measurement technology, has introduced SpecConnect, an advanced web portal cloud solution for crop environmental monitoring using wireless networks.  Alicia Gilman, a longtime executive in the agricultural irrigation space, recently joined Spectrum Technologies as its director of global marketing.  She said that, simply put, SpecConnect is a web-based software program designed to affordably monitor and capture weather, temperature, plant health and soil moisture data across various microclimates anytime—anywhere.

She added that what sets it apart from its competition is that SpecConnect can be pre-configured or customized to a user’s preference using the web portal or smartphone applications.  The program is easy to use and works with Spectrum’s WatchDog weather stations and the in-field WatchDog Retriever & Pups wireless sensor network to provide real-time information to monitor and optimize weather and temperature, plant health, and soil moisture data.  The entire network of crop sensors work together by communicating data via cellular modem or Wi-Fi, where information is then accessible on SpecConnect’s cloud-based web portal.

The intuitive software works by producing maps using rolling topography from the wireless WatchDog Retriever & Pups, which have the ability to monitor and log information on crop and soil microclimates.  Multiple sensors provide information about temperature, soil moisture for irrigation scheduling and insect and disease information.  In addition, SpecConnect makes decisions actionable for the customer at a touch of a button.  Users can remotely configure weather stations, sensors, set alerts and change logging intervals and use advanced reporting capabilities to better understand evapotranspiration, degree days and daily light integral to make more-effective decisions about things like improved yield and quality and conservation of resources.

“SpecConnect is a powerful, real-time crop, landscape, and turf-monitoring solution based on site-specific wireless sensor networks,” said Mike Thurow, president and CEO of the three-decades-old company.  “The user experience and ability to wirelessly monitor a combination of important variables like weather and soil moisture is what makes our technology solution stand out. This solution is the future of agriculture, landscape and turf.”

Gilman said the ability to customize the software makes it a viable solution for both large and small agricultural operations.  She explained that most of the similar systems now being sold in this space are user friendly and allow the customer to log on to the web portal and download proprietary reports that are prepared using the specific data provided by each user’s weather, soil and plant sensors.  While the data is specific to each client, the reports are fairly generic.  For example, there are reports that facilitate irrigation scheduling based on the information from the sensors.

However, Gilman said there are very large growers with their own IT (information technology) departments looking for something more.  “They want to take the data and create their own reports and manipulate it in their own specific ways.”

A program that allows the user to effectively control the machine from the human end is called User Interface (UI).  For most growers looking for weather data, this will suffice and SpecConnect can deliver.  The more complicated program is called Application Programming Interface (API).  Simply put, it gives the user the building blocks to create their own programs and reports.  Gilman said this option sets SpecConnect apart from its competition.

Whether a grower wants a more customized version or an off-the-shelf solution, Gilman said SpecConnect is very affordable.  She noted that a grower with 100 acres could find it very useful and economically feasible.  “We can cater to the entire spectrum of growers from big to small.”

She added that the use of this type of technology has expanded tremendously within the ag community.  “We have moved passed the ‘innovators’ and ‘techies’ and are moving through the ‘early adopters’. ”

She added that having some type of temperature and moisture sensor on farm is becoming commonplace.  The next step is to harvest all of that information that is now available and use it to help make many different agronomic decisions.  Because of its more widespread use, Spectrum Technologies is now bundling many different services in this arena to increase their affordability.  SpecConnect is being sold through dealers and others in the company’s distribution channels.

Gilman said a purchase typically requires an installation so the agricultural supply network is the best method to reach the grower and assure proper installation.

Spectrum Technologies was founded in 1987 by Thurow and is headquartered in Aurora, IL.  The company prides itself on providing advanced agriculture, landscape, and turf technologies to customers worldwide.  For more information about the firm, visit its website at www.specmeters.com.

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Is Sustainability Your Way of Life?

March 4th, 2015

Current statistics indicate that the typical American uses 160 gallons of water per day in comparison to people in other countries who have access to only two or three gallons per day.  In the United States 426,000 cell phones are retired (not all broken) every day, one million plastic cups are used in airline flights every six hours, two million plastic beverage bottles are used every five minutes and 60,000 plastic bags every five seconds.

What if the entire world consumed resources at the same rate as we do?  Some say our planet could not sustain this and provide all the resources needed to support this level of consumption.  Similarly, how can we feed two billion more people by 2050 without overwhelming the planet?  What role does sustainable agriculture play?

Let’s start with the definition of sustainability. Even now, the word “sustainability” means different things to different people.  According to the Brundtland Commission, sustainability means to meet the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.  Agriculture has changed dramatically in the last decades due to increased productivity and use of technologies that have assisted with efficiency.  For example, biotechnology has allowed the use of less environmentally harmful insecticides.

According to the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis, increased productivity and efficiency have had many positive effects and reduced many risks in farming, but some practices have also impacted topsoil depletion and groundwater contamination.  In the past two decades, questions related to the role of agricultural practices have been raised through the concept of sustainable agriculture.  This concept is evolving and interpreted by different groups in different ways, which confirms why it is important that agricultural operations are engaged in this discussion.

Sustainability has been a way of life for producers who see it as a way to prosper, grow and remain profitable while preserving resources. Sustainable agriculture is about balancing business decisions to consider environmental health, economic profitability and social responsibility.  It can also play a big role in supporting food security.  When referring to sustainable agriculture, many think of local and organic, but that is not necessarily the case.  Being a small, local organic operation does not guarantee that an operation is sustainable.  Sustainability goes beyond that.  Sustainability can be achieved regardless of the size, location and type of production method.  This was illustrated clearly during a recent webinar hosted by Western Growers’ Science & Technology Department.  This webinar provided an overview of three different sustainability efforts that involve producers of all sizes and different types of operations.

One of the efforts discussed was presented by Allison Jordan, vice president of environmental affairs for the Wine Institute and executive director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.  The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance was created in 2003 as a result of a partnership between the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.  The goal was to create a set of environmentally-sound, socially-responsible and economically-viable best practices for all aspects of a vineyard and winery operations, including surrounding habitat and ecosystems, employees and community.  As a result, the 2002 California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing was developed, a very comprehensive document that contains 138 vineyard and 103 winery practices related to sustainability.  Two updated editions were released in 2006 and 2012. Currently, there are 19,000 participating organizations representing 75 percent of the wine grape producers in California, and since 2010 about 14 percent have gone through a certification process.  This effort is by far one of the best ones in agriculture communicating how growers support sustainability.

Similarly, Joe Browde, senior associate for SureHarvest, discussed the California Almond Sustainability Program.  This program started in 2008 with five modules addressing irrigation management, nutrient management, air quality, energy efficiency and pest management.  This year, three additional modules have been added to include financial management, ecosystem management and workplace/communities.  Lessons learned from the winegrowing industry have been very valuable in moving this effort forward.  In 2014, a report about this program was released and currently there are more than 1,000 participants taking part in this Initiative.  The information gathered during the implementation of this program has been very valuable in implementing best practices and measuring sustainability performance.  This program continues to evolve and promises to promote the sustainability of the almond sector in California.

The last effort was explained by Kathleen Phillips, supply chain sustainability manager for Greener Fields Together and an advisor for PRO*ACT.  She brought to the discussion the perspective of a distributor and foodservice entity.  Currently, Pro*Act is focused on telling the story of sustainable agriculture by working with its top 30 suppliers.  To respond to market trends and demands, the firm is focused on capturing what the growers are doing and communicating each story to all their customers.  As Phillips mentioned, local distributors are a top trend and, for business purposes, Pro*Act is putting resources in that arena.  However, she acknowledged that work is needed in particular to improve food safety issues with local farms.

Pro*Act is not the only one looking to benefit from the concept of sustainability.  Others like Walmart and Costco are also advancing their own initiatives.  The bottom line is that distributors, retailers and the foodservice segment are looking for a point of differentiation to promote added value and lasting connections with customers.

Whether your company is involved in any of the sustainability efforts mentioned above or some other programs, it is clear the focus on sustainability is not going away.  Now many are expecting audits and surveys to address sustainability.  Being part of the discussion is important as the concept of sustainable agriculture is evolving and may or may not capture current realities.  Join this conversation by providing your comments and feedback on our blog: http://www.wga.com/sci-tech/agknowledge

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Selling Back for Sustainability

March 4th, 2015

Recently we had the opportunity to visit three of our school garden grant recipients and discovered they all had one thing in common: they sell the produce they grow to the community as a means of economic sustainability.

Our first stop was at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Fullerton, Calif., where we met up with Marilou Hertzberg who has big plans to expand the school-wide garden.  Rolling Hills is unique in that it has several gardens throughout the campus that are designated to specific classrooms and teachers.  However, Marilou wants to unify the school with one large garden area open to all students.

The school-wide garden currently includes a human sundial, a labyrinth and pathways.  But the plan is to add a vegetable garden, herbs to the labyrinth, a lazy river and a shaded area surrounded by fruit trees where students can do homework or read.  Rolling Hills hopes to make those plans a reality with the help of a $1,500 grant from the Western Growers Foundation and the income from their monthly fruit and garden stand.

Each month a different group of students is responsible for managing the mini farmers market on campus.  They sell fruits and vegetables grown in the gardens, in addition to those donated by parents and community members, with all of the proceeds going back into school gardens.

Another one of our grant schools, Desert Marigold School in Phoenix, is definitely intertwined with nature.  Development director Amy Bird and garden coordinator Bobi Harshfield showed us around their 11,000 square foot garden comprised of vegetable and herb beds, fruit trees and a large plot for composting.  Amy explained that all subjects are taught in the garden with each class spending at least an hour per week outdoors.  Students learn where their food comes from, in addition to business practices at their weekly farmers market.  Students gain experience dealing with customers, managing money and practicing advertising skills by selling their produce after school.  Like Rolling Hills, their profits go back into the garden fund to help buy supplies.

Last, but certainly not least, we stopped by Ingleside Middle School in Phoenix.  Ingleside’s school garden is maintained by Barbara Halden, whose green thumb has touched a number of schools in the area.  Barbara works with the help of Susan Leonard, who is a physical education teacher, to make the most of their school campus garden.  Unlike Desert Marigold’s acreage, Ingleside is limited to three planters and a small gated garden area, but the configuration is proof that size doesn’t matter.  Despite their smaller operation, their garden is flourishing with a variety of herbs, lettuce, Swiss chard, blue cabbage, snap peas and purple cauliflower.

Sergio Aguiniga, an Ingleside student, got involved in the program because his mother, Marisol Martinez, was lending a hand in the garden.  Sergio said, “I had never eaten or even knew that purple cauliflower existed before I started gardening at school.”

The discovery of new foods was something that came up a lot in our talks about Ingleside’s garden program.  Similar to the other schools, they sell the products of their garden to teachers and parents to help supplement the costs of maintenance.  Barbara will often offer recipes to help their customers make the most of their healthy purchases.

Western Growers Foundation would like to thank Rolling Hills Elementary, Desert Marigold School and Ingleside Middle School for welcoming us onto their campuses.  We wish them much success in their business ventures and hope that other schools can follow their lead and increase their sustainability through commerce.

 

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A Blast from the Past: Anything But Conventional (From July 1998)

March 4th, 2015

By A.G. Kawamura

(This column was written by Western Growers board member A.G. Kawamura for the July 1998 issue of WG&S.  This was before he was WG Chairman of the Board or the Secretary of California Department of Food and Agriculture.  Then and now, he is largely a strawberry grower in the firm his family runs, Orange County Produce.)

If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it.  Seems like good advice unless you are a farmer.  Somehow, the genetic coding of farmers makes them tinker with things against all logic and good judgment.  Never satisfied with good enough, there is forever the quest for better quality, less cost, more efficiency, safer, bigger, stronger, new and improved something…and that’s just talking about tractors.

How about tastier, bigger, prettier, earlier, higher yield, easier to grow, pick and pack.  A farmer’s work is never done.  A farmer’s work will never be done because someone has to work if we plan to eat.  Whether it is a farmer from Orange County, elsewhere in California or the United States, or some other nation, someone will have to work to get the job done.

And so now I hear there are two kinds of farmers: Conventional and Sustainable.  How nice. Two kinds of farmers to feed two kinds of people, or two kinds of farmers to feed one kind of world?  Are there two kinds of doctors—quacks and professional?  Are there two kinds of lawyers?  Don’t get me started.

I attended an Organic Growers Conference in Monterey, Calif., hoping to learn a few things about composting and pest control.  It was very informative to find so many sources for my tinkering mind.  It was also very interesting to find so many different points of view regarding everything from agriculture to Zen.

I was dismayed, however, to recognize the alarming trend to try and divide agriculture into two camps: Conventional and Sustainable.  Perhaps it is easier to get a funding grant or take some political advantage by trying to create a division between farmers who are involved in the risky business of food production.

If you are in the business of growing food and not completing some funded study or practicing a serious hobby, then I believe that you are just a farmer.  Period.

Farmers of all persuasions ask the same questions, share the same concerns, experience the same weather, fight for market access and market share, worry about liability and lawyers.  They work to feed one world.  Non-farmers would have you believe that the world is black and white.  They would rather work against agricultural unity because that’s how they earn their living.  They refuse to acknowledge the dynamic nature of agriculture, and the men and women who make it their livelihood.

Agriculture by definition is sustainable.  It is evolving daily.  When people outside of agriculture try to define and confine it, they hurt those of us on the inside who are trying our best to keep up with new advances and ideas.  The complexity of feeding this world with today’s technology is challenging enough without the political parasites who would earn their living by biting the hands that feed.  I am getting so very tired of reading article after article by well-intentioned individuals who just don’t know what they are talking about.  How different their agendas would be if they were forced to feed themselves.  How different their agendas would be if farmers would only stop working long enough to ask: Who sustains who?

We are anything but conventional!

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Public Transportation Network Companies: Are You Fully Covered?

March 1st, 2015

Recently a number of transportation companies that utilize the internet and phone apps have come into prominence.  These companies have been labeled “Transportation Network Companies.”  Perhaps the most well-known of these companies is “Uber.”  It recently had a public offering which resulted in it being valued at more than $40 billion.

Not to be outdone, a number of copy-cat companies such as Lyft, Sidecar and Wingz have formed.  All of them generate income through their smartphone-based applications that allow individuals to connect with drivers willing to provide them a ride to an agreed location in exchange for a fee.  Typically, the fee is less than a taxi or public van would cost, and provides service within a few minutes of the request from the smartphone.  This arrangement supposedly is a “win-win-win” situation.  The passenger gets a ride at a reduced rate, the driver gets income to offset car and gas costs and the app-based transportation company gets revenue.  However, there are a number of issues that have appeared with this model that may be worth considering before you decide to jump on this bandwagon.

To begin with, there are concerns about the drivers who use their personal vehicles to transport passengers for a fee.  Although Uber and the other app-based transportation companies indicate they do a thorough background check of the drivers before they are allowed into the program, there are many who believe the drivers are not checked significantly before they start working for the company.

Concerns about the drivers involve a number of issues.  First and foremost, are the drivers trained sufficiently to safely drive passengers from one location to another?  Secondly, there are questions about the vehicle that are used.  Are they in good working order, do they have all of the proper safety equipment like air bags and seat belts and is the equipment in good working condition?  Finally, what about the backgrounds of the drivers regarding their past criminal history?  Could some of the drivers potentially have convictions for assault, rape, robbery or other violent crimes?

Although the companies all indicate they conduct background checks to rule out these drivers, the background checks are not as extensive or as in-depth as the evaluation that drivers for taxi or other transportation companies conduct for their workers.  The second issue with these companies is that they are providing transportation services that compete with licensed and bonded taxi and livery service companies, that have spent years and significant sums of money to legally provide public transportation.  Allowing these app-based companies to operate without the same requirements as other transportation companies circumvents the laws and regulations that have been created to protect society and offer fair, safe competition.

The third issue involves insurance.  Most of the drivers working for the app-based transport companies use their personal vehicles to transport the passengers.  All personal lines insurance companies specifically exclude coverage in their policies for individuals who use their vehicles for transportation of persons or property for a fee.  Personal lines insurance companies consider driving others for a fee to be a commercial exposure which should be covered by a commercial automobile insurance policy.

The potential for significant liability and medical losses with a driver who is transporting passengers for a fee is not something contemplated or rated for in standard policies.  So when an Uber driver picks up a passenger, there is no coverage under a personal automobile insurance policy for any accident that the driver is involved in while transporting that passenger, for the driver, the passenger or the other driver.  Passengers may want to consider that limitation when using this type of service.

The driver should also be aware that there is no coverage for any other losses that occur while driving for a fee, such as collision losses or other physical losses to the vehicle.  Since personal automobile coverage excludes coverage for this activity, drivers will be personally responsible for any loss that may occur while driving for the service.  A severe injury or death from an accident could result in an award of thousands of dollars against them, which would not be paid by their auto insurance company.  The app-based transportation companies indicate they have secured excess insurance coverage for these situations; however the excess coverage only pays after the driver’s personal policy pays—not a real comfortable position in exchange for a few dollars of income.

App-based transportation services are increasing options in many countries across the world, but drivers and passengers need to consider all of the concerns related to this new mode of transportation before they decide to use the service.  Western Growers Insurance Services can assist members with all of their insurance needs.

If you are interested in getting more information, contact Greg Nelson, vice president of Western Growers Insurance Services.

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WG Board Convenes for Meetings with Administration Officials and Legislators

March 24th, 2015

Today in Sacramento, members of the Western Growers' Board of Directors were engaged in a series of meetings and discussions with administration officials and state legislators on key issues affecting the specialty crop industry.  Water, labor and workplace rules dominated the issues discussed.

Secretary Matthew Rodriguez of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Secretary John Laird of the California Natural Resources Agency, and Cal/EPA Undersecretary Gordon Burns kicked of the meetings.  William B. Gould, chair of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) and former head of the National Labor Relations Board, presented his take on labor issues.

Members also heard from Senate Republican Leader-elect Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), Senator Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), and State Water Resources Control Board member Dee Dee D'Adamo.  Today's meetings were followed by a reception with members of the Latino Caucus and a dinner featuring members of the new bi-partisan Central Valley Caucus.

On Monday evening, members of the Western Growers Board's Executive Committee also met privately with Governor Jerry Brown. 

All of the board's committees will convene on Wednesday, followed by WG's annual legislative reception. As always, this week's activities will wrap up with a meeting of the full board on Thursday.

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PACA Seminar and Nitrogen Webinar Set for March 31

March 26th, 2015

On March 31, Western Growers staff will present a FREE 90-minute PACA training seminar in Salinas, while on the same day, WG Science & Technology department will be hosting a webinar devoted to nitrogen and water efficiency.   

PACA Seminar

The Monterey County Ag Commissioners Conference Center is the venue for the PACA seminar with WG’s Executive Vice President Matt McInerney and Trade Practices & Commodity Services Director Tom Oliveri presenting information on a variety of topics including the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA), Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC), understanding contract terms of sale, interpreting government inspections and steps to insure payment

Seminar Details

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

11:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. (lunch served at 11:30 a.m. sharp!)

Monterey County Ag Commissioner's Conference Center
 

Nitrogen Webinar

This webinar will discuss the current tools/technologies utilized in coastal and desert areas to assist with water efficiency, as well as some of the challenges growers face in these areas.   Dr. Timothy Hartz, an extension specialist/agronomist with UC Davis, and Dr. Charles Sanchez, research scientist, Soil, Water & Environmental Science with Maricopa Agricultural Center, University of Arizona, will focus on the best management practices to handle nitrogen and how those techniques relate to water efficiency.

Webinar Details

Tuesday, March 31st

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

 

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