A Governor Who Means Business (and more)

September 14th, 2017

 

In his seminal essay, Civil Disobedience, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau stated, “That government is best which governs least.” Written 168 years ago—after spending two years, two months and two days at Walden Pond—Thoreau was expressing the belief that governments are typically more harmful than helpful, and that people are at their best when they are self-reliant and independent.

Thoreau’s words were echoed generations later as Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981. In his first inaugural address, facing a country beset by sustained inflation and high unemployment, Reagan channeled his inner Thoreau with the oft-quoted phrase, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Despite the warnings of a philosopher and a highly-successful president, at every level of government, private companies and individuals continue to suffer unrelenting bureaucratic encroachment into every nook and cranny of our lives. To quote another Reagan gem, I think we all can agree that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

Every once in a while, however, someone does show up from the government who really is here to help. Enter Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. In 2014, he won election on a pledge to, “Make Arizona the best state in the country to live, work, do business and get an education.”

Several short years later, Governor Ducey is delivering on his promises. On day one, he inherited a $1 billion budget deficit. Today, Arizona boasts a balanced budget (thanks, in part, to a state employee hiring freeze). And this fiscal feat has not been achieved on the backs of Arizona’s people or businesses.

In fact, quite the opposite is true. After he boldly announced to the Washington Post in March that his goal is to get the state’s income tax “as close to zero as possible,” he followed through by signing a bill that increases the personal income tax exemption, allowing individuals to keep more of what they earn. Ducey has also managed to reduce corporate taxes, making the tax rate for Arizona businesses the fourth lowest in the nation.

The result? Arizonans are reinvesting their income in the economy and its businesses are thriving. Go figure.

Governor Ducey also placed a moratorium on new administrative rules and initiated an internal review of existing ones. All with the goal of promoting job creation and customer service-oriented state agencies. As he told the National Review last year: “My aim is not to pass laws, it’s to repeal them.”

What a novel concept.

Where does this type of rational governance and emphasis on limited government come from? For Ducey, and many other successful public administrators, I believe it comes from firm roots in business and the pursuit of entrepreneurial endeavors.

After graduating from Arizona State University with a degree in finance, Ducey first worked for Proctor & Gamble before starting a little business called Cold Stone Creamery. Along with his partner, Ducey grew this company from a local ice cream shop to more than 1,400 locations in every state plus 10 foreign countries.

His experiences in growing a small enterprise into an international franchise have undoubtedly shaped his approach as governor. He understands the role of businesses in creating jobs and driving the economy. He understands the stifling effects burdensome regulations and bureaucratic red tape can have on economic growth. And he understands the imperative for government to be accountable to its constituents and prudent stewards of taxpayer resources.

Ducey’s belief in pulling back the reins on government was perhaps best illustrated in his State of the State speech earlier this year: “Here in Arizona, we’ve demonstrated: Government can work when it respects its limited role, and listens to the people.”

During his nearly three years in office, Ducey has exhibited his capacity to do just that, to listen. Especially to Western Growers members and our friends in the broader business community. But Ducey doesn’t just listen. He presses on his administration to support our industry where needed, and to get out of the way when necessary.

For example, the governor has supported several pieces of legislation critical to Arizona agriculture, including a bill directing several state agencies to research and identify areas of the state where new water storage can be developed to ensure that farmers have access to a reliable supply of water in the face of future urban growth. Ducey also signed a bill expanding funding for the Arizona Department of Agriculture’s Plant Services Division’s export certification program, making up for the loss of federal money.

Additionally, the governor has overhauled several state programs to reduce unnecessary licensing requirements, which resulted in the elimination of a costly and irrelevant agricultural harvesting license.

As I survey the gubernatorial landscape across this country, Governor Ducey stands out for his effective leadership and adherence to the philosophy of limited government, which has demonstrated its merits time and time again in American history. Thoreau and Reagan would be proud.

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Western Growers’ 92nd Annual Meeting: Satirist P.J. O’Rourke to Opine on Politics

September 14th, 2017

P.J. O’Rourke, who is known for his razor-sharp insights on national and world affairs, is considered one of America’s premier satirists on the conservative end of the political spectrum. His comments on the inner workings of Washington bureaucracy and the shifting political and economic landscape have been known to leave readers and audiences, alike, in tears from laughter.

The journalism veteran has authored 17 books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette and economics, and touts more citations in The Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations than any other living writer. When Western Growers (WG) recently caught up with him to get a sneak peek of what he would be discussing at the PAC Luncheon during the WG 92nd Annual Meeting in Las Vegas on October 31, he nearly knocked us over with his wit.

 

WG: Can you give us a preview about what you’ll be speaking about during the annual meeting?

O’ROURKE: I will be discussing the interface between business and government. Now, keep in mind that this will not be a partisan message. I have no partisan axe to grind, but am a firm believer that we have to be very careful when we try to ask government to solve our problems.

The government runs like a post office. They can read the label but still don’t necessarily know where things go. Take for example, the 2018 Farm Bill. Government is sticking its nose into agriculture and making the Farm Bill more and more ominous.

 

WG: We heard that when you attended John Hopkins University you were a “left-leaning hippie.” And now you are a Libertarian. What happened? What spurred the change?

O’ROURKE: I got a job. [laughter ensues]

I landed a job in New York, and when I received my first paycheck, I was netting about 55 percent of my gross pay! There were deductions for federal, state and city income tax, Social Security, union dues, pension fund contribution, you name it.

Here I was thinking I was a communist; then I get a job with a big capitalist corporation and come to find out that we’ve already got communism! And they just took half my paycheck.

 

WG: Trump is a little over 200 days in office. How do you feel about the progress of the current administration?

O’ROURKE: I’m upset by the disorder. Look, I’m not a big Trump hater. I understand that people—especially in agriculture—were tired of the intrusion that rules and regulations caused and wanted a change. I live in rural New Hampshire and have a tree farm. Granted, my crop only comes in every 30 years or so, but I have seen a glimmer of ag’s regulatory issues.

I think that people wanted to shake certain things up, and Trump isn’t shaking up the things they wanted him to. He is shaking up everything.

 

WG: In general, what do you think about the state of politics today?

O’ROURKE: I’ve been covering politics since 1972. Though people feel like it’s in a dismal state right now, what we are living through today is not as bad as Watergate or the Clinton impeachment.

I feel as if America is like a ship with a lot of holes. Whether we are leaning toward the left or are leaning more toward the right, we always come upright without taking in too much water.

 

WG: Anecdotally, it seems like the public is interested in politics more than ever—especially millennials and the younger generation who are among the hardest audiences to reach in regard to politics. Do you feel that this spurt in interest is a good thing for society?

O’ROURKE: Yes. We all benefit from a small efficient government and it’s good that more people are recognizing things our government does. However, if people start to get too involved, they will start to expect for government to solve their problems. For example, students or recent graduates can’t say “make my school debt vanish” and expect that it will happen.

 

WG: You’ve written for countless outlets—Rolling Stone, National Lampoon, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic Monthly and even Playboy. Are you willing to share with me which publication has been your favorite?

O’ROURKE: There’s not just one. I spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and loved traveling around the world. I still do. Visiting spots much worse than where you live really gives perspective on America. You cover one story in Somalia and then you come back here to the States and you just say to yourself “What was I b*tching about?!”

It got to a point though, after the Iraq War, where I was too old to keep being scared stiff and too stiff to keep sleeping on the ground. When I first started, the biggest danger we were in was getting our ear talked off by people who wanted to share their story. But when they started chopping off the heads of journalists, it was just too many bad manners for me.

 

WG: We know you have three children. Do you have hopes and dreams that they’ll follow in your footsteps as a journalist and political satirist?

O’ROURKE: No, no, no, no, no. I want them to go into investment banking. [laughter ensues]

I was lucky to work in the golden days of magazine where profits were a lot higher. Journalism hasn’t always paid a ton, but I always had access to a translator and a driver who would look out after me when I was on assignment. Now, the budget for all that stuff is gone.

Everything is moving much faster now and content is free. There are messages going out into the internet that are unfiltered. Things pop into people’s mind at 2 a.m. and they immediately put it out there for everyone to see, but it all comes back to an old rule: no one is so good of a writer that they don’t need an editor.

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TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS: Service Centers Offer Flexibility for CHR Customers

September 14th, 2017

With a network of service centers across the country, C.H. Robinson is offering its customers a plethora of opportunities to efficiently manage the fresh produce supply chain.

Craig Mack, director of service centers, for the firm, recently told Western Grower & Shipper that the organization now has nine service centers across the country operated by Robinson Fresh. In addition to affiliations with a number of other commercial facilities, CHR customers using these facilities have the ability to reach virtually any location in the continental United States within a day. He noted that the Northwest is the only area without a dedicated Robinson Fresh facility, but its alliances in that area can provide the same coverage.

“From these service centers, we can offer a full array of services along the supply chain while at the same time maintaining the cold chain and operating under the best food safety conditions,” Mack said.

During the conversation he listed many different services that are available at these supply centers such as just-in-time store deliveries, repacking and reworking merchandise, receiving and dispatching imports, packing bulk merchandise into retail-ready containers, consolidating merchandise and providing forward-distribution from a point closer to destination.

These are only a handful of the opportunities as CHR is actually striving to serve its customers as much as a collaborator as anything else. “We think of ourselves as consultants,” he said, noting that the company has tremendous expertise throughout the supply chain to help customers solve their individual challenges.

The firm’s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, service center tends to operate as many might envision a forward distribution center would. Mack said there is a huge population within 500 miles of the center and a countless number of potential receiving docks. That center is often used to aggregate loads, provide western shippers with an East Coast storage facility, offer cross-docking services, and, of course, deliver less-than-full loads (LTL) to an array of customers. The facility is also used by ongoing customers to send product on a regular interval that is then broken down and delivered to individual stores or wholesalers.

The Robinson Fresh facility in South Texas tends to specialize in a different area of produce industry logistics. Mack said the McAllen, Texas, facility is often treated as a forward distribution hub. Because of its close proximity to a major crossing point for produce grown in Mexico, many shippers send bulk supplies—such as limes and other tropical fruit—to the center. With electronic sorting and packing equipment, this service center can operate somewhat as a packing house, getting the product ready for shipment and then sending it on its way.

One of Robinson Fresh’s newest facilities is in the Los Angeles area, with cross docking, product consolidation, handling of organic product in a certified facility, sorting/repacking, forward distribution, direct store delivery and import/export preparation listed as its main services. However, in listing this litany of capabilities, Mack again emphasized that it is not a list of limitations but of possibilities.

The nine locations are Los Angeles, California; Nogales Arizona; McAllen, Texas; Cobden and Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Miramar and Miami, Florida.

Essentially, Mack paints these facilities as way stations on the way to the final destination. They are locations where a shipment of produce can stop along the way and avail itself of a plethora of services in an effort to assure that the best possible product ends up at the distribution center and ultimately on the consumer’s plate.

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Labor Issues: Top Ag Legal Challenges

September 14th, 2017

Decades ago, the advent of labor challenges caused production agriculture to “lawyer up.” Today, the issues are different, but labor, more often than not, is the reason growers and shippers need legal representation.

Years ago, it was union elections in which legal labor experts were needed. Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel at Western Growers, said now lack of labor and issues surrounding wage and hour laws are the main drivers of the need for legal representation involving the workforce. “We are seeing a lot of challenges regarding wage and hour violations, such as meal and rest period claims.”

He added that claims for failure to properly pay overtime is also often the cause of litigation. In each of these cases, plaintiff attorneys are bringing civil actions and employers are often being hit with significant financial settlements.

Mike Saqui of The Saqui Law Group, Roseville, California, said wage and hour violations are still prevalent and a huge boon for what he called “carpetbagger” attorneys who swoop in and can get a quick pay day. The class action suits can pick apart wage and hour regulations, find a discrepancy and result in a substantial award, of which the attorney gets his negotiated cut.

Saqui warned employers to be vigilant in their adherence to the letter of the law. He said a spate of lawsuits caused most employers to make sure their wage and hour compensation was in sync with regulations. “Then we saw meal breaks come to the forefront and now worker transportation lawsuits are popping up.”

Saqui said the bottom line is that employers must be diligent and make sure they are following every aspect of labor laws, not just those that appear to be the favorite of plaintiff lawyers. He said eventually all aspects of a company’s pay policies will be challenged if they are not in compliance.

Resnick said another area of labor garnering a great deal of interest is securing foreign workers under the Department of Labor’s H-2A program. “Our H-2A work has more than doubled over the last couple of years and it continues to keep us very busy.”

Western Growers Legal Services LLC. helps growers navigate the H-2A application process. Saqui said securing temporary foreign workers is basically a necessity in these times of labor shortage. The shortage situation has been exacerbated by fears created by the current administration’s emphasis on undocumented immigrants.

Jeanne Malitz of Malitzlaw Inc., San Diego, California, said that so far, working through the H-2A application process under the Trump Administration has been fairly similar to what occurred under the Obama Administration. She noted that while the appointed leaders of DOL have changed, those working the applications themselves are the same people and are basically faced with the same rules and regulations. She did note that executive orders have been signed that create more barriers to both documented and undocumented entry into the United States, but, as of yet, they haven’t had much impact. “Right now, applications are going through and taking about the same time that they did before, but the legal community is concerned.”

The civil servant career employees, she said, must follow the direction given by the appointed leaders. There is concern that long term there will be a shift in focus toward enforcement and away from granting H-2A applications. “We are just starting to see some emphasis on beefing up I-9 enforcement. Last week we had our first I-9 audit in agriculture in Southern California in a very long time.”

The I-9 form is the documentation that each employer must collect from employees showing that they have the legal right to work in the United States.

Resnick said the toughest issue surrounding H-2A applications continues to be the housing component. Employers must house these temporary foreign workers at no charge in units that meet all the regulations. That’s a difficult hurdle to jump and requires lots of effort and legal work.

Saqui said another interesting issue surrounding labor that cropped up this summer was rolling strikes in the Salinas Valley. He said that because of labor shortages, field workers, for the first time that he can recall, were making more per hour than workers in vegetable processing plants. He said the labor actions resulted in increased wages for many of the workers.

Jeffrey Gilles of L + G, LLP, Salinas, California, said his firm has been deeply involved in the nitrate issue in the Salinas Valley. The firm is working with other stakeholders to stay litigation with regard to the nitrate issues as they work to pass SB 623, the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. “It is an interesting approach,” he said. We are working collaboratively with the State Water Control Board to work out a solution to this problem. It has taken a good deal of our time over the past 18 months.”

Gilles’ law firm has also been one of the leading ag law firms to deep dive into cannabis law. “We have been working on it for the past five years,” he said. “We have three attorneys working full time on cannabis.”

He explained that the firm’s involvement is similar to efforts it made in the past to represent organic growers. “Our clients are involved so we are involved.”

He said the legal issues are similar to its other ag legal work and cover areas such as permits, transactional work, investment and R&D (research and development) contracts. Five years ago when the firm first got involved in cannabis issues, Gilles said he did hear from some in the legal community—mostly judges and colleagues—questioning why his firm was operating in the cannabis arena. “But I didn’t get much push back from clients,” he said. “Ag clients are typically good business people. They just look at it as a business.”

While he expects the cannabis industry to have an impact in Salinas, he said it is not actually fighting for ground or a competing in the sense that other crops are. The crop is being grown under glass and the total acres expected to be devoted to cultivation are relatively small.

Another attorney, Mike Saqui, said he has fielded legal questions and done a little bit of HR (human resource) work for some labor contractor clients involved in the cannabis industry. “My clients decide what crops they are involved with and I’ll be involved with anything they are involved in.”

Saqui believes cannabis will eventually be like any other commodity and treated as such by the ag community.

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Big Data for the Healthcare Win

September 14th, 2017

By Jason Verhoef

It’s no secret that healthcare costs are rising at a rapid pace. How do we help reduce costs? We should be turning to innovative and technological solutions.

Both consumers and employers are continually paying more for healthcare. According to the Milliman Medical Index, the cost for healthcare for a typical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) plan soared from $22,030 in 2013 to $26,944 in 2017. Of the $26,944 spent by the family, $11,685 is paid by the employee through a combination of payroll deductions for premiums and out-of-pocket costs incurred at the time of care. That equates to employees now paying for 43 percent of expenses and employers paying for the other 57 percent.

With the year-over-year increase in healthcare costs, a solution to bring down costs needs to be implemented sooner rather than later. Some have held out hope that federal healthcare reform efforts would help control healthcare costs growth, but we can no longer wait. Technology can be the answer to providing healthcare more effectively and efficiently, which ultimately drives down costs.

 

Using Big Data to Catch Illnesses Early

Big Data, the process of collecting and analyzing large amounts of data to reveal patterns and trends, has gained momentum in the last decade and can be the key to moving healthcare forward. For example, there are a variety of wearable technologies—like Fitbit— and workout apps available for download on your smartphone that can track not only how much, but also how often and how intensely you move. They provide detailed readings of your time, distance, elevation, heart rate and calories burned so you can determine where your strengths and weaknesses lie. These workout apps and new technologies have revolutionized workouts and have the potential to change the future of healthcare.

Imagine if this data can be shared with you doctor. This new form of patient monitoring can significantly benefit both individual patients, as well as society as a whole. Individually, this data can be used to create a healthcare package tailored for a specific patient. It can also be used to detect warning signs of serious illness at an early enough stage that treatment would be simpler and less expensive than it would have been if it was spotted later.

Collectively, the data collected from an individual can be compiled alongside everyone else’s to provide valuable information into general trends in public health. Currently, the medical industry collects huge amounts of data from their patients, but the information is controlled by different doctors, hospitals and clinics. There’s no uniformity; there’s no sharing of information. A Big Data solution could open the door to collecting large amounts of patient data gathered during diagnosis or treatment and make it available to researchers and clinicians to further their study and potentially find cures to life-threatening diseases such as cancer.

One startup is already trying to move the ball forward. Flatiron Health, a healthcare start-up company based in New York, has developed software that aggregates data collected from cancer clinical trials—which is usually trapped in electronic medical records systems and doctors’ notes—organizes it and makes it usable by physicians, patients and any other interested stakeholders. The company hopes that the collection and analysis of all the data will improve cancer care and treatment.

 

Telemedicine as a Delivery Vehicle

In addition to utilizing big data to make healthcare more effective, telemedicine can be a vehicle to make the industry more efficient. Telemedicine, where patients receive medical diagnosis and treatment remotely by using a computer or phone, is cheaper for the provider, insurance company, employer and subscriber.

Telemedicine is a “win-win” because it makes life easier for both the patient and provider. For instance, Western Growers Assurance Trust offers a “Doctor on Demand” telemedicine benefit where users can easily download an app, create an account and instantly be put in touch with a live doctor. With the click of a button (or app!), you answer a handful of questions about your current medical situation, are then entered into a doctor queue and after a couple minutes are speaking to a doctor face to face using a computer or your smart phone.

One user shared their experience with us:

“After a short wait, I was greeted by a pleasant doctor who, after a six-minute discussion, diagnosed my situation and sent a prescription to the pharmacy I elected during the initial registration process. The time from me opening the app to receiving my prescription was ten minutes…and I didn’t have to sit in traffic or pay a copay!”

In addition to being more efficient and cost effective, telemedicine interactions also leave a data trail which can be compiled by a Big Data solution. By improving the way we capture data, we will have more data, more analytics and ultimately better delivery of healthcare.

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Resolving Small Wage Claims: The Benjamin Solution

September 14th, 2017

By Terry O’Connor

It is the rare employer who has not had a terminated employee claim untimely payment of a last check, or failure to pay expenses. In response, most employers will insist that the employee got all of their pay and vow to fight the claim as legal extortion. However, when dealing with the California Labor Commissioner, the law and the enforcement personnel usually guarantee a bad result.

There is an alternative way of getting rid of such claims. A couple of cases demonstrate that a reliance on the fairness of our wage and hour laws, and confidence in the value of one’s own good faith, do not count for much when dealing with the Labor Commissioner’s office.

A true employer nightmare occurred in the case of Beck v. Stratton (2017). When an employee quit, the employer directed his payroll service to pay him the hours claimed, but the service underpaid the employee around $300. The employee filed a Labor Commissioner claim for $303.55 in unpaid wages.

Unable to resolve the claim at the conference, the matter went to trial before a hearing officer who awarded the employee $303.55 plus an additional $5,757.46 in liquidated damages, interest and statutory penalties for a total over $6,000.00! It gets worse.

Astounded, Employer Beck appealed the award to the Superior Court.

A Labor Commissioner attorney represented the employee before the court and promptly made additional claims for $61,000 for faulty pay stubs. (Under a 2007 Supreme Court case, an employee can raise new wage-related claims at the de novo trial in addition to his original claims.)

Beck had no better luck before the court which awarded the employee the same $6,000.00 plus $750 for the pay stubs and an additional $31,365 in attorney fees. (Representing himself, Beck did not have to pay his own attorney fees.)

A few years ago, an agricultural employee claimed she was owed $43.50 for a day’s work on October 18. The employer’s pay records and the cashed payroll check showed she had been paid $43.50 in that pay period. Despite the records, the company did not prevail at the Labor Commissioner hearing and decided to appeal to superior court. With the aid of counsel and review of all the crew time sheets, the employer learned just prior to the second trial that, due to a clerical error, the plaintiff had actually been underpaid $43.50 in a September pay period, not the day that the employee had claimed.

Despite the good faith mistake, the court awarded the employee her wages, over $2,000 in waiting time penalties and another $4,500 in attorney fees. In this case, the employer also had to pay its own attorney fees.

While the size of the award relative to the size of the original claim is uncommon, the results for employers in disputed Labor Commissioner claims are all too common: the employer loses and pays far more than the actual wages due.

 

The Benjamin Solution

In many cases, the best way to cheaply and expeditiously resolve these claims is to settle with the employee before the Labor Commissioner Conference. When a complaint for unpaid wages is filed, the Labor Commissioner holds a “settlement conference” before a hearing is set. “Settlement” is in quotes because the conference almost never results in a settlement for a number of reasons.

First of all, the deputy labor commissioners are not expected to pressure employees to drop even obviously meritless claims. Labor Commissioner Julie Su has ordered all claims to be set for hearing where the employee refuses to withdraw even in the face of overwhelming evidence that no wages are owed.

Secondly, many deputy labor commissioners will use the settlement conference to point out additional penalties or wage claims the employee can add to their complaint. Rarely are claimants persuaded to accept a settlement at these conferences; usually they walk out dreaming of an even bigger payout.

The solution in many cases is to try to settle with the employee individually before the settlement conference. That’s when “Benjamin” as in Benjamin Franklin comes in. Set up a meeting with the employee and try to settle. Bring cash in an amount that is appropriate for the claim, preferably in $100 denominations and a simple release of the wage claim covering all wages, interest, and penalties. Unless the employee is bent on revenge, the sight of some “Benjamins” and a quick payday will help you avoid a hearing, a potentially much greater award, and possible attorney fees.

This approach works well with production employees, clerical staff, and others on the lower end of the pay scale. It is well suited to technical wage claims, late final checks, unpaid expenses, and claims for meal and period penalties where there is little evidence to support such claims.

There are circumstances where the “Benjamin Solution” is not likely to work, including highly compensated staff, terminated employees seeking revenge, and employees who have or are likely to file discrimination claims. Such claims could be settled with a more sophisticated approach by a management official who commands the respect and trust of the disgruntled employee.

The most important part for employers of any resolution is the Release of Claims. Employers should resist the temptation to use a multiple page, over-broad release full of legalese. Such forms may dissuade the employee, lead to a claim that he or she did not “understand” the release or induce the employee to seek legal help.

I prefer a simple release of “all wages, penalties, and interest” in plain English and translated into plain Spanish as necessary. It should include known and unknown wage claims using the specific language of Civil Code Section 1542. The release should cite any labor commissioner claim number, but extend to “all wage claims.” Finally the release should be no longer than a single page.

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BUSINESS ACUMEN: Accounting Firm Immerses Itself in the Ag Industry

September 14th, 2017

When the accounting firm K·Coe Isom takes on a new client it begins with a meeting designed to delve deep into the company’s operations and culture.

“We approach our clients and the industry a bit differently,” said Laura Sands, a principal in the firm who spearheads the company’s food and agricultural initiatives. “We take a full immersion approach.”

She said to help a firm make the best business decisions, K·Coe believes it needs to know the ins and outs of both the firm and the industry in which it operates. As such, Sands said K·Coe Isom serves more agricultural clients than any other firm, with offices coast to coast. Besides providing all the CPA, financial and tax issue work that one can imagine, the company also lobbies on behalf of the ag industry as it tries to represent the industry’s point of view with regard to the business regulatory environment.

Sands added that the company has expertise in virtually every area of ag business, claiming the firm’s “talent and depth of experience” is second to none. In a nutshell, she said the company’s goal “is to help its customers make better business decisions.” Those can be decisions on estate planning, acquisitions and mergers, investments in infrastructure and even which crops to grow. “We consider ourselves a trusted advisor.”

She said the expertise runs up and down the ag space covering everything from specialty crops to program crops as well as livestock and dairy farming. “We like to say that K·Coe is involved with one out of every four beef cows in the country.”

But Sands said the firm also has great expertise in row crops and permanent crops in all of the major fresh produce production areas in the United States. That knowledge includes expertise in international trade as well as foreign business arrangements. She noted that with a new administration leading the United States, international trade is top of mind and noted that “the jury is still out” as to how this administration will impact trade, especially agricultural trade. “The U.S. ag industry has been one of the big winners in foreign trade,” she added.

One of K·Coe’s principals that even drills deeper into the needs of western agriculture is Tommy Irvine, who is stationed in Chico, California, in an office with more than 65 associates. He said all of the regular accounting services are utilized by ag customers, but they also have special needs unique to the environment in which they farm. For example, he said estate planning makes up a sizable portion of their business simply because property values are so much greater in California than in many other ag communities. “If you farm at all on your own land, chances are the value of your property will put you over the estate tax exclusion level.”

With a handful of offices in California—mostly in the Central Valley—Irvine said permanent fruit and tree fruit crops make up the majority of the firm’s California specialty crop business. “However, we are making more inroads in the Salinas Valley and in row crops.”

He said there are several accounting strategies surrounding foreign sales that a company can utilize to limit its tax exposure. In recent years, those strategies have been used by nut growers extensively.

In analyzing the size firm that can benefit most readily from K·Coe’s help, Irvine says they tend to be mid-sized firms. He noted that smaller operations typically do not have as many complicated issues and the benefit doesn’t always justify the cost to the client. On the other end of the spectrum, large grower-shippers often have in-house experts to handle their needs in this arena. “Our sweet spot is mid-sized firms.”

Using acreage as a barometer, he said those firms typically farm from 1,000 to 10,000 acres. Using money as the measuring gauge, he said a firm should have revenues upwards of about $3 million annually to fully take advantage of K·Coe’s services.

“There are typically lots of issues we can help with for a company of that size,” he said. Often he is called when a firm is at a crossroad. They are trying to expand or are winding down as the principal wants to retire.

Irvine confirmed that the best place to start is with an in-person meeting where K·Coe can learn about the operation and get a sense of where the firm wants to go. “We try to figure out their pain points,” he said.

Sands had a bit broader definition of the firm’s preferred clients. “Our sweet spot is commercial ag businesses…from small growers to large growers.” K·Coe Isom, she said, caters to companies who want to expand and operate optimally, and are looking for new business strategies or to create more opportunity for their ag business.

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LEGISLATOR PROFILE Arizona Representative DAVID COOK representing House District 8 covering Pinal and Gila Counties

September 14th, 2017

You were born and raised in Oklahoma, but you have lived in Arizona most of your life. Tell us a little bit about how you ended up in Arizona and what it means to be an Arizonan.

I am a Vietnam-era baby and like many other marriages that had a husband who served in the military during that conflict, my parents’ marriage did not last. Following the divorce, I moved with my dad to Arizona where he worked as a purchasing agent at one of the copper mines. Arizona is a lot like Oklahoma, it’s just a little farther west, so the transition was not difficult.

I have always been from the area I now serve. I graduated from Miami High School in 1986 and have lived in Coolidge and Casa Grande in Pinal County and in Globe in Gila County. So the district I represent includes the only two counties that I ever lived in during my entire adult life.

I am proud to be a representative in Arizona because it is a conservative state that has wholesome family values and that’s something I always stand up for. If you are for traditional, family, western values, then I’m your guy.

 

You have worked in farming and ranching all of your life, married to your wife Diana since 2000, and have two children. Do you anticipate that your children will go into farming and ranching one day? What can we do to encourage children to get involved in agriculture so that they might choose to go into it as a profession?

I’ve got a 50-50 chance that one of my kids will end up in agriculture despite having our ranch here and still running a small family ranch in Oklahoma that my son helps with. To get kids involved, we have to support those early programs like 4-H and FFA—programs I was in—that ingrain the farming tradition, lifestyle and culture in our children and grooms them to enter into agriculture as adults, so we can survive as an industry and feed the nation and the world.

 

According to the latest information available from the U.S. Census, the number of farmers (particularly those that are female) and farms in the U.S. is declining. What do you attribute the decline to? Why aren’t more people interested in working in an industry that produces food for the rest of us?

What contributes to the decline today is that it’s costly and time consuming to be in this business. Equipment, like tractors, and the implements you need to farm are very expensive and you have to farm such large acreages just to meet the profit margin. That makes it hard on the small farmer or rancher. It’s very difficult to sustain a family by working on or owning a farm, especially a small one. Most people need to have a full-time job and farm on the side or have both parents working to survive on a farm. My family was blessed. My wife got to stay home and I had a job so she could raise our kids. And not to get political, but at the time my wife and I decided I should run for office, our health insurance premiums skyrocketed. So to help pay the premiums, the first thing she had to do was go to town and get a job so we could meet our financial obligations. The bottom line is it’s not an easy living, but it is rewarding.

 

You have worked in farming and ranching all of your life, going back to your youth where you were active in 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA). Tell us what it means to have someone who is familiar with agriculture as a legislator in Arizona?

Agriculture representation in the legislature is a tradition in Arizona. It’s important to have people in place who understand and defend the needs of the industry. When I was being recruited to run for an open seat for the state legislature in my district, I was presented with an eye-opening fact. I was told, “If you don’t run and win this seat, it will be the first time in Arizona’s history we will not have a real rancher in the state legislature.” My wife and I looked at each other and we decided right there that I would run. And it was good that I did because today I am not just the only rancher in the Arizona legislature today, I am the only agriculture producer, period. I’ve got big shoulders and I can do the work, but we’ve been riding someone else’s coattails too long. We can’t rely on other people to do the work for agriculture. That’s why I am involved in recruiting good candidates to run for office, especially in rural areas, so we can have the representation we need.

 

Earlier this year, you were the prime sponsor of a bill (HB 2253) that topped Western Growers’ list of legislative priorities in Arizona. HB 2253 provided additional general fund money to the Arizona Department of Agriculture. Tell us about the bill and how you came to agree to sponsor it.

HB 2253 was the first bill I ever introduced. Being a cattleman and ag guy I just thought it was appropriate that I introduced this legislation and saw it through. The original bill dealt with Arizona Department of Ag (ADA) funding for veterinarian positions in the cattle industry and the release of their private info to the feds without their written consent or permission. After the bill was drafted, Western Growers came to me and explained that funding for ag inspections for exports was being cut and the cuts would drastically affect growers’ abilities to ship product out of the country. So I worked with the ADA and the Senate and amended the bill to include that funding. That one bill protects the farmers and ranchers in the state of Arizona. It was satisfying to deliver for both.

 

How would you describe your political ideology?

I don’t talk about it very often. I feel people use this description for their own benefit too much, but I’m a Reagan-ite. He was the first president that really shaped my thoughts. When I was 18 and had to register for the draft and to vote, I asked myself the question, “What am I?” And the answer was a Republican. So I registered that way and I’ve been that way all my life.

In particular, I fight against government over-regulation. I often pose to government agencies the question, “What are you doing today to ensure the success of agriculture?” Farmers and ranchers face an enormous amount of bureaucracy and red tape. Sometimes it seems the government does its best to regulate us out of business. Regulations should be put in place to make sure those business succeed and flourish, not to make it harder.

 

Where do you see your political future headed? What are your future ambitions?

I am going to run for re-election for the state house because there is a lot of work that still needs to be finished that we have started for the ag industry in Arizona. I want to serve the rural people of my state, at whatever capacity they feel I should. But whatever we do, I want to make sure we are putting in the most solid foundation to make sure that every ag business in the state—no matter if they are growing pecans, grapes or are raising cattle—has a pathway for success.

 

Water supply issues are always a top concern among farmers and ranchers in the West. How does the water situation look like in Arizona?

One thing I ran on was water issues. We are not going to let anyone take our water and we are not going to give up any of the water we use for agriculture. I don’t mind sharing water with other stakeholders, but there is a cost to ceding some of those rights. There is a tangible value to that water for agriculture operations and to give it away or have someone just take it from you with no compensation is just wrong.

For years, water working groups created by the legislature have been working to solve some of the state’s water problems, including extinguishment credits for water rights. But nothing was being accomplished. Just recently, I brought them all together and told them to come up with a solution or I would introduce legislation to fix it. So the working group came up with a proposal and the governor’s task force is reviewing it right now. I think it’ll be approved and it will work out well for farmers.

 

Our Arizona members grow some of the most delicious fresh produce and tree nuts in the world. Do you have any favorites?

I love pistachios. And you can’t beat a cold salad with Ranch dressing. Salads are great because they can have a little bit of everything in them.

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Mutual Funds vs. Exchange Traded Funds?

September 14th, 2017

With more than 10,000 publicly-traded mutual funds and more than 6,000 exchange traded index funds (ETFs), our choices as investors have never been greater. From traditional benchmark index funds like the S&P 500 to sector-specific funds that track individual industries like solar and infrastructure, the abundance of options can make the process of investing feel a bit overwhelming.

What are mutual funds and ETFs, and what mix of investments is right for you?

Actively-managed mutual funds have been around since the 1920s. They were designed to give investors a diversified approach to owning a collection of stocks—with the overall objective of outperforming a specified benchmark. Historically, however, only a small percentage of mutual funds actually outperform the established benchmark. Additionally, the expenses related to owning mutual funds, such as trading costs and sales charges, are relatively high, which can hinder the overall performance of mutual funds.

Like mutual funds, ETFs allow investors to own a basket of securities. They first appeared in the 1990s as a competitive alternative to mutual funds, with the added benefit of intra-day pricing, just like stocks. Mutual funds are only priced once a day after the market has closed. With ETFs, investors can now get quotes during normal market hours, allowing them to buy and sell throughout the day, providing greater flexibility on market entry and exit. ETFs also offer daily disclosure of portfolio holdings, while mutual funds generally release fund holdings to shareholders on a monthly or quarterly basis. And this is all done at a fraction of the cost of a mutual fund, as the expenses on even the largest ETFs can be as low as a few basis points (not including commission charges).

Additionally, ETFs may offer tax advantages for investors with non-qualified accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s.

While ETFs have become a formidable competitor for investment dollars, the mutual fund industry has made significant changes to their business model in an effort to retain investor confidence and assets. Most notably has been the dramatic cut in the fee structure of mutual funds. Mutual fund companies have not only done away with expensive sales loads (called the public offering price), many have also dramatically cut their expense ratios over the past five years.

Mutual funds may also be a better option for investors who do not wish to be actively engaged in the market and would prefer instead to make periodic contributions to a fund company. Furthermore, many market professionals believe mutual funds offer a safer alternative to ETFs, as periodic investing and dollar-cost averaging can insulate investors from poor psychological trading decisions that are often made based on the whims of the market.

So, which investment option is right for you? The good news is that investors now have access to a wide variety of low-cost and easy-to-access mutual and exchange traded funds. In fact, some employers are now giving participants in tax-deferred accounts like 401(k)s access to both mutual funds and ETFs, allowing their employees to take advantage of both passive and active management strategies.

Western Growers Financial Services can help you build an investment strategy that matches your risk tolerance and retirement goals. For more information on mutual funds and ETFs, or to explore the services offered by Western Growers Financial Services, contact Matt Lewis at [email protected] or (949) 885-2379.

 

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Common Sense—Out the Window!

September 14th, 2017

Over the years, the Western Growers Science and Technology department has served as the tip of the spear in advancing common sense and practicality on big issues impacting the industry.

In our last 10 years, we have served Western Growers members by advancing programs such as the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreements, which set the standard for and changed the food safety landscape of the entire fresh produce industry. We have shaped policy at the national level on potential contaminants that are naturally occurring such as perchlorate and heavy metals. We have, when it served our members’ interests, even owned and registered key pesticides because manufacturers did not want to take the risk of marketing a product on the smaller acreages inherent in produce crops (compared to field crops). In recent times, because we recognize it is vital to the future viability and success of the broader industry, we invested heavily in accelerating the availability of key ag technologies that will help us produce more food with fewer inputs and a smaller footprint on the planet. All of these are issues that seem widely known and are often talked about.

What is not so widely known is how we engage on a daily basis with members facing the numerous ridiculous problems that seem to crop up and confront them. I write this Science and Tech column to assure our members that we are an advocate in your corner on all things. While we may not have all the answers at our fingertips, we are poised to find the answers and you have no greater impassioned colleagues in your corner. Let’s look back at a recent week in August just to give you an idea of the issues that our members are dealing with…and how common sense has fled the scene.

 

How many hearts in a bag? Consumers need data to make informed purchasing decisions—no one argues that point. But we can and should argue what is sufficient data. Numerous firms pack commodities in bags based on count—this is a long established industry convention. A classic example is a sleeve of three romaine hearts in a single bag. Front and center of the bag typically says “3” count, although it is a clear plastic sleeve (the epitome of consumer transparency) and one could readily count the hearts if the declaration were not there. One state, New Jersey, has decided that this information is insufficient for a consumer to make a value judgement and has stopped sale and cited shippers for not including the net weight on the bag. This is nonsense!

Labeling and packaging uniformity in the United States is guided by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) which has a mission to facilitate uniformity of labeling and packaging. What causes a single regulatory entity to interpret things differently than every other state and to fly in the face of national guidance on the issue? National guidance from NIST states “When a packaged consumer commodity is properly measured in terms of count only, or in terms of count and some other appropriate unit, and the individual units are fully visible to the purchaser, such packages shall be labeled in full accord with this Regulation….” And yet a single jurisdiction in the United States has deemed this “insufficient.”

Science and Tech is currently working with other members of the WG team (legal and trade practices) and impacted parties (members who have been cited and had product held) to try to help support the longstanding industry convention, which is based on common sense. No telling today whether or how this gets resolved (may take a legal battle) but currently we are working to drive home with those who will listen the ludicrous nature of this requirement and the potential broader impact on an industry that packs more than romaine hearts by count.

Labeled or generic products? In another label-related issue—Science and Tech has recently been asked by a member to help sort out the requirements associated with the use of hydrogen peroxide to help maintain drip lines and equipment. The question here: “Is a grower required to use a labeled product or can they use a generic product.” Labels are required (typically by USEPA) when a manufacturer is making some sort of claim—such as claiming a product controls insects, bacteria or weeds. In the case of hydrogen peroxide, there are suppliers who are making claims and others who are not. Because the registration process is expensive (a lot of studies and data are necessary to register a product with USEPA), the cost to purchase a labeled product can be multiples of what it might cost to purchase a non-labeled version. The confounding factor is each product may be exactly the same (active ingredient, concentration, inerts etc.) so why require a grower to pay the higher cost for the exact same product?

Another example of an issue where common sense seems to be missing involves pesticide residues and radishes. WG recently received a call from a member company because the state regulatory agency with oversight on pesticide residues is regulating the tops of radishes differently from the radish itself. The state considers radish tops to be edible and so has established residue standards for the tops that conflict with those for the root (radish). This has implications for other commodities (such as beets) where both tops and roots may be consumed. It seems that state has not worked with the industry to understand typical Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs established for radishes and so members are boxed into exceeding residue standards on either tops or roots when employing typical pest treatment programs or failing to control the key pests.

None of these issues are resolved at the point of this writing, but I relay this information to point out that these issues seem to defy common sense. They are examples of the overreach or at least failure to think things through on the part of various regulatory bodies that need to be reconciled with the practicalities of the grower’s struggle to produce a safe and wholesome crop without falling into some bizarre regulatory jeopardy that defies logic. Science and Tech is active in working with both the member and the agency in question to try to bridge these gaps of understanding, and bring some semblance of clarity forward for all parties.

 

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Tax Reform Is About to Get Serious

September 14th, 2017

Washington is abuzz with the prospect of passing comprehensive tax reform legislation later this year. The last time Congress passed a major overhaul of the tax code was in 1986, and while the political climate in D.C. will make enacting tax reform a difficult task, Republican leaders in the House and Senate, along with President Trump and his administration are committed to making this their top priority the remainder of 2017.

Just about five years ago, Western Growers created a member working group to examine the key tax issues facing the produce sector and to develop priority areas for engagement. Any attempts to cut corporate and individual tax rates in a meaningful way will also come with the loss of certain deductions, and one of the key messages we have delivered to policy makers is that if enough deductions are changed or removed, lowering the marginal rates will not necessarily lower the effective rates farmers pay.

Western Growers has engaged on a handful of key priorities including: the importance of cash accounting, maintaining the ability to utilize like-kind (1031) exchanges, the importance of interest deductibility against operating revenue, maintaining stepped-up basis and eliminating the estate tax, and expanding the ability to accelerate depreciation of new capital purchases. Of course, lowering individual, pass through entity, and corporate rates is also a priority, but must be weighed in context of other tax planning tools that may be lost.

As the tax reform debate has unfolded over the past few years, some of these Western Growers priorities have been targeted. One of the more significant concerns in recent tax proposals was the possibility that interest deductibility would be eliminated.

In addition to the priorities Western Growers has worked to develop, we are also an active participant in the agriculture tax reform coalition. We have worked together on letters that highlight tax reform priorities facing agriculture, we have met with key leaders in the House and Senate, and in July, I, along with a handful of other agriculture tax experts, had the opportunity to sit down with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to explain the unique nature of farming and how tax reform efforts need to recognize this. Market cycles, weather events, capital intensity, and a host of other factors make farming different than other businesses of similar scope and revenue.

We expect that when Congress returns in September, it will have to focus on addressing several must-past items such as raising the debt ceiling and funding the government past the end of the fiscal year on September 30. We expect tax reform efforts to ensue in the fall as well, with committee action starting with Ways and Means in the House in October and possible floor action sometime in November. The Senate Finance Committee could also start its work around the same time, or wait until a product is moving in the House.

With recent statements from key leaders, we do not expect the House Republican blueprint and its border adjustability tax, full and immediate expensing of new equipment purchases, or elimination of interest deductibility to be the starting point for action. Much attention was given earlier this year to the possible impact of a border adjustment tax, including work by Western Growers to understand the impact it might have on our members. Such a change would have been a significant shift in our taxation system, shifting to a more consumption-oriented tax, where products would be taxed where they are consumed, not where they are produced. It was uncertain how such a plan would have played out in the real world with the possible strengthening of the dollar offsetting some export gains, the uncertainty of World Trade Organization compliance and possible trade retaliation. Over the summer, leaders in the Congress and the Trump Administration indicated that border adjustment tax would no longer be under consideration as a component of tax reform.

Instead, it is likely that we will see something more in line with efforts that were launched about three years ago by the House Ways and Means Committee. While border adjustment is off the table, most other deductions—like deductions for state and local taxes—will be up for debate, and we will need to continue making the case for the importance of certain provisions for agriculture.

Whatever the proposals look like as the tax reform debate heats up in Congress, Western Growers will continue to be on the front lines, helping shape the policy in a way that our farmers have the tools to continue being the most productive in the world. If you have any questions or issues that you think we should be aware of, please do not hesitate to reach out.

 

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PowerGrow Turning Fallowed Land into Financial Success

September 14th, 2017

Not many companies—let alone a startup!—can tout that they have the ability to help farmers grow eight to 12 times more produce per acre, while using 95 percent less water. PowerGrow, one of 45 start-up companies housed in the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, builds patented, renewable energy-powered, high-tech glass commercial greenhouses that give growers the opportunity to maximize yield, conserve capital, preserve natural resources, solve labor problems and earn greater profits.

PowerGrow is a one-stop-shop. The startup designs, finances, builds, owns and operates greenhouses that allow farming operations to deliver locally-grown, fresh produce 365 days a year, regardless of weather.

“We provide all the capital for the facilities, eliminating capital investment and debt for the grower and enabling them to generate three to four times greater profit per pound of produce,” said Sean Lyle, CEO and president of PowerGrow. “On a 15-acre high-tech glass greenhouse, we reduce the capital contributions from the grower by approximately $25 million.”

The company dramatically reduces the capital cost to build the greenhouse through its solar greenhouse patent that was approved this past November. The solar patent allows PowerGrow to apply the Federal Investment Tax Credit for solar to the construction costs of their greenhouses and the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System bonus depreciation on the assets.

 

Eliminating Risks, Increasing Profits

The company’s goal is to enable farmers to produce indoor crops—such as peppers, cucumbers, loose leaf greens, tomatoes and strawberries—anytime, anywhere and under any weather condition. A completely controlled growing environment eliminates all weather jeopardy, reduces the water required for optimal plant growth, lessens disease risk and removes the need for pesticides.

This presents a tremendous opportunity to change where and how produce is grown and delivered around the world. “We can take fallowed or underutilized land that may be in a region with a short growing season, poor soil quality or limited water availability and turn it into optimal farmland,” said Lyle.

PowerGrow ensures 24/7 power capabilities with on-site solar tracking systems and gas co-generation for combined heat and power. Each site has an anaerobic digester to monetize the organic waste and turn it into biogas for the co-generation system.

“By not connecting to the electrical grid, we dramatically reduce development costs and timelines. Our goal is to deliver a zero-waste, carbon-neutral facility for every grower,” said Lyle.

These next-generation greenhouses also give farmers the flexibility to grow crops in close proximity to their customers (i.e., Whole Foods, Kroger, Costco), minimizing the shipping and transportation costs and earning greater profits with locally-grown produce. This can result in a significant increase in profit margin, as well as a nearly 100 percent decrease in their carbon footprint. The company can help reduce produce waste by more than 50 percent, from farm to table.

“We partner with growers to identify the most ideal locations within 50 miles of major population markets and adjacent to retail produce distribution centers, which enables the small and regional grower to be more competitive in the market,” said Lyle.

Additionally, the company is partnering with Feeding America, a non-profit that delivers food to more than 300 food banks across the country. Any produce grown in the facility that is not fit for sale to market goes into a different bin and picked up by Feeding America. This offers a significant tax deduction for the grower and provides fresh, healthy produce for the Feeding America food banks.

 

Ensuring Financial Security

When a potential client is ready to evaluate indoor growing models, the PowerGrow team makes it a priority to meet the unique needs of each specific grower. PowerGrow prepares a comparison model of indoor versus outdoor growing and financial projections, per crop type. The model provides multiple growing scenarios and identifies the most profitable option for each grower.

“We simplify the decision-making process for growers by showing them detailed cost, revenue and profit projections for growing specific crops indoors and outdoors for any region in the country,” said Lyle. Using tomatoes as an example, Lyle described how 15 acres of high-tech glass greenhouses can produce equivalent yield of 150-250 acres outdoors, while saving over 95 million gallons of water every year and delivering three to four times greater earnings indoors.

Additionally, the company keeps their costs affordable so farms of all sizes can benefit from the company’s innovative solutions. PowerGrow’s Greenhouse as a Service™ is delivered through a Greenhouse Lease and a Power Purchase Agreement. Growers only pay for 1) the cost per square foot of the space they are leasing; and 2) the power they consume, as there are no demand or capacity charges since they are not tied to the grid.

 

Creating a Supreme Growing Environment

With their solar greenhouse patent already approved, PowerGrow is working on three additional solutions in order to optimize greenhouse performance, plant yield and grower profits. These solutions include a Phase Change Material to minimize thermal energy exchange, a glass nano-coating to control light wave lengths for optimal plant growth and an Internet-of-Things Machine Learning Software Platform to give growers visibility from seed to store. The startup also has a new Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) application that provides solar electricity and thermal energy generation that almost perfectly maps to the electricity and thermal load of the greenhouse. This CSP solution dramatically reduces the thermal demand and energy costs.

Because energy and labor costs make up more than half of the operating expenses of a high-tech glass greenhouse operation, PowerGrow hopes that their involvement and participation in the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology will foster future collaborations with others associated with the incubator.

“We’ve been in the Center since January and have already benefitted tremendously,” said Lyle. “We look forward to working more closely with the Center’s sponsors, as well as other Western Growers’ members, to learn more about their businesses and better understand how we can help ensure their long-term success. Together with the Center, we want to continue to drive agtech innovation and enable growers to rapidly adapt to ever-changing agriculture markets.”

PowerGrow plans to break ground on its first two sites by December and be fully operational in the first half of 2018. They are currently developing projects in California, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

“Our true value is in risk mitigation,” said Lyle. “We eliminate a growers’ greatest risk, the weather, by migrating them indoors into a completely controlled growing environment. We then take on all the asset performance and debt-service risk of the facility. We focus on what we do best, which is building and operating renewable-powered, energy- and water-efficient facilities, and we enable growers to focus on what they do best, which is grow healthy, locally-grown produce for America.”

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Telemedicine Gives Agricultural Workers Easier Access to HealthCare

September 14th, 2017

While telemedicine technologies have been around for decades (NASA started delivering health care remotely to astronauts in the early 1960s), the use of telemedicine or “telehealth” as a health care delivery option has hit the mainstream only in the past few years.

Telemedicine gives employees a more convenient way to connect with a doctor to treat common health conditions using their smart phones, tablets and computers. If you don’t currently offer a telemedicine program, you may want to consider this “new” form of health care delivery for your workers.

 

Telemedicine for Agricultural Workers

More than half of the U.S. agricultural workers interviewed in a national survey conducted by the California Institute for Rural Studies said accessing medical care can be a challenge. As with all industries, when a worker gets a common health condition like the flu or pink eye for example, it is often inconvenient to take time off to get treatment. Even when a low-cost health clinic is available, an agricultural worker can find it difficult to get to a clinic in time.

Telemedicine is uniquely positioned to meet the challenges facing farmworkers today—whether full time or seasonal—by providing a convenient, cost-effective way to access care. But would workers be open to receiving care over the phone or through their home computer if they have been hesitant to take time off to make a regular office visit?

 

Insight from a 2013 Journal of Medical Internet Study

Research helps to answer that question. The study asked a group of U.S. farmworkers of all ages about their willingness to use mobile technology to manage chronic health conditions like type 2 diabetes or hypertension. The questionnaire revealed that 81 percent of participants believed mobile technology would be helpful in enhancing their adherence to medications and result in quicker, more responsive interactions with their doctors.

These results are promising. They indicate that telemedicine may be a good health care delivery option because it provides a method for timely communication between providers and patients when care is needed. While this study specifically looked at farmworkers using text communications with their doctor to manage chronic conditions, it provides a glimpse into the potential willingness of workers to use telemedicine for other common health conditions such as cold and flu, bacterial infections like strep throat, allergies and minor injuries. While these conditions could also be treated at a nearby clinic, an office visit requires time away from work or can be difficult because of scheduling challenges or language barriers.

Telemedicine can benefit agricultural workers by:

•   Providing access to care if a worker or covered family member lives remotely and is not near an urgent care facility or a health clinic. A patient can typically engage with a doctor remotely within two minutes.

•   Offering the option to talk to a provider in their primary language. Most telemedicine vendors offer health services in multiple languages.

•   Giving workers who travel access to care wherever, whenever. Accessing a board-certified doctor is only a phone call away and available night and day. Telemedicine doctors can also prescribe medications from a nearby pharmacy.

 

Making the Case for Telemedicine with Your Workers

While the benefits are clear, employers of all sizes that offer this service are only seeing on average a 2 to 3 percent utilization rate. When asked what prevents employees from using a telemedicine program, employers cited a lack of understanding or awareness about the technology, confidentiality concerns, worries about malfunctioning equipment, and skepticism about the quality of doctors who disperse medicine remotely. Building employee confidence in a telemedicine program may mean taking a few extra steps to encourage and demonstrate its use.

Employers that offer a telemedicine program and are looking to boost participation have a few options. For one, a welcome packet that addresses quality and confidentiality, and provides instructions can help alleviate initial concerns when a program like this is introduced. It can also be helpful to highlight the types of conditions best treated by telemedicine so workers understand its limitations. Tutorials or webinars on using the program will encourage employees to try the technology and familiarize them with the process. Promoting the availability of your telemedicine program through employee newsletters, breakroom posters, health fairs and open enrollment events can serve to remind them of the service year round.

Consider the many benefits to offering a telemedicine program to your employees. WGAT offers a Doctor on Demand telemedicine program to every participant and their covered dependents on the WGAT health plan. The WGAT telemedicine program features a low co-pay and access to a doctor within three minutes via a smart phone, tablet or computer. Doctor on Demand offers both medical and mental health care services. If you are interested in purchasing a WGAT health plan, contact Western Growers Insurance Services at (800) 333-4WGA.

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WGCIT SPONSOR: Prophet Designed for Produce Accounting

September 14th, 2017

After cornering the produce accounting market in Great Britain and then South Africa, Prophet turned its attention to the United States and believes it is now poised to do the same here.

Mick Heatherington, vice president of sales for Prophet North America, recently told Western Grower & Shipper that the company’s latest enterprise-ready, supply chain-focused, accounting software is gaining inroads in the United States and should make tremendous sales gains in the next year. He noted that a very large project at Sunkist is currently being installed, while a 150-user system at 4Earth Farms recently went live. He also mentioned that Alpine Farms in Florida and Index Fresh are adding Prophet’s PR3 system. “We have surpassed our targets (over the past five year) and in the next five years we expect significant growth,” he said. “We’ve had a great reception from the industry for our software technology.”

Based on past performance, Heatherington said the success has not been a surprise. He explained that Prophet started its life in 1989 with a goal of creating and installing an accounting software package for the wholesale produce industry in the United Kingdom. At the time, the Prophet executive said about 70 percent of the produce sold in Great Britain passed through the hands of wholesale produce houses.

The Prophet staff thoroughly analyzed that business and created a software package that accomplished exactly what the larger wholesalers wanted to do. Heatherington said the package did an excellent job of very accurately keeping track of the cost of sales as product came from the grower community, passed through the hands of the wholesalers and was distributed to retailers. He said the clever package wasn’t based on accounting ledgers but was able to deep dive into actual costs to give that wholesaler a clearer financial picture of his operation.

Prophet became very popular and had users throughout the U.K. As the industry switched from a middle-man dominated buying culture to direct sales, Prophet adjusted its software package and continued to grow its market share.

“We adopted a unique way of marketing the software,” Hetherington said.

The firm created a licensing agreement, similar to a subscription, which would give each user the benefit of upgrades as they were developed. While there was some customization for the product, in essence every customer ran the same software, which allowed for economies of scale and constant improvement. Sales spread throughout Europe and then the firm expanded into South Africa, which is one of the major produce suppliers for Europe. “Today a vast percentage of South African exports are exported on our platform,” Heatherington said.

Five years ago, the founders began investigating the U.S. market. “We started by buying a small business in Bakersfield, and we have expanded since then.”

Following the business model that was successful in Europe and South Africa, Prophet analyzed the U.S. produce industry for a couple of years before developing the U.S.-specific software package. It has developed a software system that takes into account the peculiarities of the U.S. produce industry. As such, he said many areas have been taken into account such as the food safety arena and the changing produce environment which has seen tremendous growth in the value-added category.

As such it is poised for huge growth in the next few years. “We have targeted certain business. We like to choose our customers. We look for those firms who embrace technology and are progressive businesses.”

He added that the perfect Prophet customer is a firm that is fast-moving, expanding its product line and looking internationally. He said that is where the company has lots of experience and can partner well with U.S. produce firms.

As part of the company’s research into the U.S. market, Prophet became involved with Western Growers and its Center for Innovation & Technology. Hetherington said Western Growers’ effort to promote technology and move the industry forward mirrors Prophet’s view. “We became sponsors of the Center because it is a great way to give back.”

Prophet is headquartered in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles and is currently pitching what Heatherington calls its “advanced software package” to a myriad of produce industry suppliers.

 

 

 

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, September / October 2017 Issue | No Comments »

Using Social Media to Predict and Influence Behavior

September 15th, 2017

The number of people using social media around the world officially passed the three billion mark just last month. With one million new social media users every day, it makes good business sense to leverage platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to gain insight into your target market, as well as influence public opinion.

Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican strategist and researcher, does just that. Soltis Anderson earned the name “leading millennial pollster” for her ability to understand that as technology moves forward, so must the way people gather information about public opinion. When she first started in the polling industry, voting behaviors were captured via landlines and paper surveys—a process that was incredibly tedious and time consuming. Now, she is able to capture massive amounts of information and analyze data with the snap of her fingers.

During President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2015, Soltis Anderson and her team closely monitored Twitter and discovered that whenever he mentioned anything about trade, people in the West became incredibly excited. Soltis Anderson refers to this discovery as a “canary in a coal mine.” Learning that trade was a topic that ignited interest in Western states, those who wanted to influence public opinion in the West would know what topic to start with. Similarly, those who wanted to sway legislators on trade issues would know who to turn to first.

Understanding how someone feels about certain topics goes beyond what they write and post on social media. It can be learned through a simple click. Did you know that you can look at someone’s “likes” or “favorites” and learn everything from their political affiliation to their ethnicity and sexual orientation? Take Facebook for example. If you click “like” your friend’s post that links to a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the severe ag labor shortage and the need for immigration reform, Facebook will take that data and start putting more stories and ads about similar topics in front of you. Based on how often you engage with those posts, it will be easy to determine your beliefs.

Big data—the analysis of large sets of data to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions—does not just apply to social media; it applies to all aspects of the internet. Have you ever answered a set of questions before you were granted access to read an article online? That information is being captured and political pollsters such as Soltis Anderson and advertisers can utilize that information to better understand (and shape) your behavior.

While having the data to predict behaviors is beneficial, organizations need to take it a step further and effectively use smart campaigns to influence the biggest player in the game: millennials. Millennials have become the largest generation in the U.S. workforce and are also the fastest-growing generation of customers in the marketplace. They will have the biggest impact on your business, and Soltis Anderson stresses that if you are to thrive, you need to start communicating to her generation in their language.

During the upcoming WG Annual Meeting, Soltis Anderson plans to speak about the millennial generation and the secret behind getting them to buy into certain beliefs in both the political and corporate world.

She will expand upon her key recommendations on how politicos and corporations can build support among a new generation:

1.  Be on social media platforms: You need to get your message on a place where millennial eyes can consume it.

2.  Revise your old message to fit the new medium: You can be on new mediums, but if you have a message that only resonates with Baby Boomers or Generation X, it is not going to be effective.

3.  Be trendy: One of the biggest trends is the rise of mobile video and visual story apps such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Companies have to learn how to adapt to trends quickly and be storytellers via social media.

Want to learn more about big data, social media and reaching millennials? Join Soltis Anderson at the Western Growers 92nd Annual Meeting in Las Vegas October 29 – November 1 as she shares what she has learned about understanding millennials as it relates to politics, business, academics and this rapidly changing world.

 

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, September / October 2017 Issue | No Comments »

Western Growers Member Directory of Attorneys and Law Firms

September 14th, 2017

In the 1970s, Western Growers had about a dozen attorneys on staff mostly handling labor law.  Today, agricultural lawyers have gone well beyond labor law and specialize in a wide variety of business decisions from wage & hour concerns to water law and even to issues surrounding cannabis production. Currently there are dozens of law firms that are members of Western Growers, more than half of which participate in the Western Growers Ag Legal Network (WGALN). Participants in this referral service agree to give Western Growers members at least 15 percent discount off their normal legal services rates.

The WG-member law firms are as diverse as the legal community, representing multi-national firms as well as solo practioners. Below is a roster of WG legal members. Members of the WGALN have that designation highlighted in bold typeface and their practice areas are noted. WG legal members who advertise in this issue also earned a descriptive phrase further explaining their scope of practice as well as a bold faced listing. Please support these firms when looking for legal help.

Some restrictions may apply. Please inquire with the participating firm to determine amount of discount and eligibility. Request for discount must be made before representation is undertaken and noted in fee agreement.

 

Afsar Law Group

Amir Afsar

78-000 Fred Waring Drive, Suite 203

Palm Desert, CA  92211

Phone: 760-345-3110

Email: [email protected]

Website: afsarlaw.com

Litigation, Professional Negligence, Commercial Real Estate, General Practice, Corporate Finance/M&A, Business Entity Formation, Mediation and Arbitration

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

AlvaradoSmith APC

Craig Hardwick

1 MacArthur Place, Suite 200

Santa Ana, CA  92707

Phone: 714-852-6800

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.alvaradosmith.com

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Barsamian & Moody

Ronald H Barsamian

1141 West Shaw Avenue, Suite 104

Fresno, CA  93711-3713

Phone: 559-248-2360

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.theemployerslawfirm.com

Specialties: Employment & Labor, Litigation

Barsamian & Moody is The Employers Lawfirmsm, a firm wholly dedicated to providing high quality, cost effective representation for employers in all aspects of labor and employment law.

Member of Ag Legal Network

Please See Ad on Page 18

 

Best Best & Krieger LLP

William J Thomas

500 Capitol Mall, Suite 1700

Sacramento, CA  95814

Phone: 916-325-4000

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.bbklaw.com

Specialties: Litigation, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment, PACA Trust, Water, Pesticides, CDFA Market Enforcement

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP

Kenneth L Khachigian

300 South El Camino Real #203

San Clemente, CA  92672

Phone: 949-498-3879

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.bhfs.com

Specialties: Employment & Labor, Energy, Ag Business Law, Water

With 11 offices across the U.S., Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is where business, law and politics converge. Our 250 lawyers and policy professionals provide multidisciplinary legal counsel that drives results.

Member of Ag Legal Network

Please See Ad on Page 13

 

Law Offices of Shawn Caine, APC

Shawn Caine

1221 Camino Del Mar

Del Mar, CA  92014

Phone: 858-350-1660

Email: [email protected]

Specialty: Litigation, Environment, Water, General Ag Business Law

Thoughtfully and aggressively representing farmers in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys for nearly 30 years. With our vast experience in business and litigation, we are honored to represent WGA Members.

Member of Ag Legal Network

Please See Ad on page 16

 

CJ Lake, LLC

Lynn Jacquez

525 Ninth Street, NW, Suite 800

Washington, DC  20004

Phone: 202-609-8501

Email: [email protected]

Specialties: Employment & Labor, Litigation, Corporate Immigration

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Aaron Colby

865 S Figueroa St, Suite 2400

Los Angeles, CA  90017

Phone: 213-633-6882

[email protected]

Website: www.dwt.com

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Deason Law Group, P.C.

Dax Deason

3579 4th Avenue

San Diego, CA  92103

Phone: 713-975-7301

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.deasonlawgroup.com

Specialties: Employment & Labor, Corporate Immigration

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty

Greg Walsh

1455 First Street, Suite 301

Napa, CA  94559

Phone: 707-252-7122

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.dpf.law.com

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Downey Brand LLP

Dale Stern

621 Capitol Mall, 18th Floor

Sacramento, CA  95814

Phone: 916-444-1000

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.downeybrand.com

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Employer’s Legal Advisor, Inc.

Jeanne Flaherty

587 N Ventu Park Rd., # E-128

Newbury Park, CA  91320-2723

Phone: 805-499-2918

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.eladvisor.com

Specialties: Employment Law; Workers’ Compensation Defense

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Faegre Baker Daniels LLP

Sarah Brew

2200 Wells Fargo Center

90 South 7th Street

Minneapolis, MN  55402-3901

Phone: 612-766-7000

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.FaegreBD.com

Specialties: Food Safety, Litigation, General Practice

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Fisher & Phillips LLP

John E. Lattin, IV

2050 Main Street, Suite 1000

Irvine, CA  92614

Phone: 949-798-2156

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.laborlawyers.com

Specialties: Litigation, Employment & Labor

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Law Offices of Geoffrey F Gega

Geoffrey F. Gega

1851 East First Street, Suite 900

Santa Ana, CA  92705

Phone: 714-542-1883

Email: [email protected]

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Higgins Harris Sherman and Rohr

John Higgins

45-445 Portola Avenue, Suite 1

Palm Desert, CA  92260-4844

Phone: 760-568-3009

Email: [email protected]

 

Jackson Lewis LLP

Jonathan A. Siegel

Attorney at Law

Jackson Lewis P.C.

200 Spectrum Center Dr., Suite 500

Irvine, CA  92618

Phone: 949-885-1360

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.jacksonlewis.com

Specialties: Litigation, Employment & Labor

 

Member of Ag Legal Network

JRG Attorneys At Law

318 Cayuga Street

Salinas, CA  93901

Phone: (831) 754-2444

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.jrgattorneys.com/

Specialties: Employment & Labor, Food Borne Illnesses, PACA, General Ag Business Law

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Moncrief + Hart PC

Paul W. Moncrief

16 W. Gabilan Street

Salinas, CA  93901

Phone: 831-759-0900

Specialties: Food Borne Illness, PACA, General Ag Business Law

 

LaRiviere, Grubman P.C.

F. David LaRiviere

19 Upper Ragsdale Drive #200

Monterey, CA  93942

Phone: 831-649-8800

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.lgpatlaw.com

Specialties: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Trade & Customs

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Littler Mendelson, PC

J. Mark Ogden

2425 E. Camelback Road, Suite 900

Phoenix, AZ  85016

Phone: 602-474-3600

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.littler.com

Specialties: Litigation, Employment & Labor

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Malitzlaw, Inc.

Jeanne Malitz

600 W Broadway, 4th Floor

San Diego, CA  92101

Phone: 619-515-9726

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.malitzlaw.com

Specialties: Employment & Labor law; Immigration

 

Medina McKelvey LLP

Brandon McKelvey – Partner

Alexander Medina – Partner

983 Reserve Drive

Roseville, CA  95678

Phone: 916-960-2211

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Specialties: Litigation, Employment & Labor, General Practice, Information Technology, Intellectual Property, White Collar Crime

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Meuers Law Firm PL

Lawrence H Meuers

5395 Park Central Court

Naples, FL  34109

Phone: 239-513-9191

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.meuerslawfirm.com

 

Noland Hamerly Etienne & Hoss

Terry O’Connor

P.O. Box 2510

Salinas, CA  93902-2510

Phone: 831-424-1414

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.lettucelaw.com

Our labor and employment attorneys have over fifty years of combined expertise in all aspects of labor and employment law and the best track record on the Central Coast.

Member of Ag Legal Network

Please see Ad on Page 14

 

Payne & Fears

Paul Cody

100 Glendon Ave., Suite 1250

Los Angeles, CA  90024

Phone: 310-689-1769

Email: [email protected]

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Raimondo & Associates

Anthony Raimondo

7080 N. Marks Ave., Suite 117

Fresno, CA 93711

Phone: 559-432-3000

Email: [email protected]

Website: raimondoassociates.com

Specialties: Employment & Labor

 

Rynn and Janowsky, LLP

Patricia Rynn

4100 Newport Place Drive, Suite 700

Newport Beach, CA  92660-2451

Phone: 949-752-2911

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.rjlaw.com

 

Nicholas L Saakvitne, A Law Corp

Nicholas L Saakvitne

532 Colorado Avenue, Second Floor

Santa Monica, CA  90401-2408

Phone: 310-451-3225

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.erisafiduciary.com

 

The Saqui Law Group, A Division of Dowling Aaron Incorporated 

Michael C. Saqui

1410 Rocky Ridge Drive

Suite 330           

Roseville, CA  95661

Phone: 916-782-8555

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.laborcounselors.com

Specialties: Litigation, Employment & Labor

For nearly three decades, The Saqui Law Group has aggressively represented employers in Agriculture, Food Processing, Manufacturing, Trucking, and Hospitality in all areas of employment, labor-management relations and workforce strategic planning.

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Schneider & Onofry, P.C.

Chuck Onofry

833 East Plaza Circle, Suite 200

Yuma, AZ  85365

Phone: 928-257-4887

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.soarizonalaw.com

Litigation, Employment & Labor, Product Liability, Professional Negligence, Intellectual Property, Shipping & transportation

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP

Paul B. La Scala

5 Park Plaza, Suite 1600

Irvine, CA  92614

Phone: 949-475-1500

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.shb.com

Specialties: Litigation, Environment, Food-borne Illness, Product Liability, Employment and Intellectual Property

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

The Shuler Law Firm PLC

Robert L Shuler

11515 E Pine Valley Road

Scottsdale, AZ  85255

Phone: 602-509-8699

Email: [email protected]

 

Somach Simmons & Dunn

Theresa (Tess) A. Dunham

500 Capitol Mall, Suite 1000

Sacramento, CA  95814

Phone: 916-446-7979

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.somachlaw.com

Specialties: Litigation, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment, Water

Tess Dunham works with agriculture clients throughout California to keep them compliant with regulations, find solutions to water quality challenges, and help them navigate the complex environmental statutes they face.

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Charley M. Stoll, APC

Charley M. Stoll

711 East Daily Drive, Suite 115

Camarillo, CA  93010

Phone: 805-389-5296

Email: [email protected]

Specialties:  Litigation, Employment Law

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Tuttle Taylor & Heron

Julian Herron

1725 – I Street, NW  Suite 300

Washington, D.C.  20006

Phone: 202-349-3859

Email: [email protected]

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Wallace Jordan Ratliff & Brandt LLC

Stephen Leara

800 Shades Creek Parkway # 400

Birmingham, AL  35209

Phone: 205-870-0555

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.wallacejordan.com

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

Walter & Wilhelm Law Group

Riley Walter

205 E River Park Circle, Suite 410

Fresno, CA  93720

Phone: 559-435-9800

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.W2LG.com

 

Law Offices of Scott A. Wilson

Scott Wilson

711 8th Avenue, Suite C

San Diego, CA  92101

Phone: 619-234-9011

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.pepperwilson.com

Specialty: Employment & Labor

Member of Ag Legal Network

 

The Law Offices of Young Wooldridge, LLP

Michael Kaia

1800 30th Street, 4th Floor

Bakersfield, CA  93301-1919

Phone: 661-327-9661

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.youngwooldridge.com

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Posted in September / October 2017 Issue | Comments Closed

Press Release: Western Growers, S2G Ventures Partner to Launch “Live” AgTech Initiative

September 5th, 2017

AgSharks™ event to identify and advance key innovations for agriculture

IRVINE, Calif., (September 5, 2017) — Western Growers (WG) has partnered with S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth) to launch AgSharks, a new initiative to identify key innovations in the fresh produce industry. The AgSharks showcase event, sponsored by S2G will premiere at Western Growers 92nd Annual Meeting in Las Vegas on October 31, 2017. Successful entrants will compete for equity investments totaling up to $250,000 to support the development and growth of their businesses. Selected entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas to a panel of experts, including the AgSharks, who will decide on the spot whether and how much to invest. The entrepreneurs must then accept the offer, negotiate or decline.

“Western Growers has been leading the charge in accelerating the development of innovative solutions to help solve the ag industry’s most critical issues,” said Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers. “Our new partnership with S2G Ventures and the launch of AgSharks will ensure ag industry innovators are bringing solutions to our members faster.”

“Western Growers  continues to be at the forefront of finding ways for farmers to more efficiently and productively get consumers the freshest produce they demand,” said Sanjeev Krishnan, managing director of S2G Ventures. “WG is uniquely positioned to build trust and scale solutions that benefit farmers and consumers. AgSharks builds on their leadership position within the produce sector and we are excited to partner with them in finding the next great set of entrepreneurs delivering innovative solutions to the farm.”

AgSharks is the latest WG effort to support AgTech startups in accelerating introduction of unique products and services to market. In December 2015, WG opened an AgTech incubator—the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology—in Salinas, California to provide startups with the resources and mentoring needed to get their companies and technologies up and running. The Center now houses 45 startups. Additionally, for the past two years, WG has hosted the Innovation Arena where startups compete for exclusive opportunities to connect with growers throughout California, Arizona and Colorado. AgSharks takes that concept to the next level with real-time investment opportunities and decision-making in front of a live audience.

Companies interested in participating in AgSharks at Western Growers Annual Meeting can apply here. 

About Western Growers:
Founded in 1926, Western Growers represents local and regional family farmers growing fresh produce in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Our members and their workers provide over half the nation’s fresh fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, including nearly half of America’s fresh organic produce. Some members also farm throughout the U.S. and in other countries so people have year-round access to nutritious food. For generations, we have provided variety and healthy choices to consumers. Connect with and learn more about Western Growers on our Twitter and Facebook.

About S2G Ventures:
S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture in the U.S. The fund’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture and growth stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. For more information about S2G, visit www.s2gventures.com.

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WG Urges Trump to Not Withdraw from South Korea Trade Deal

September 5th, 2017

Western Growers President & CEO Tom Nassif sent a letter to President Trump yesterday urging him not to withdraw from the U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).

“I would strongly urge you to not withdraw from KORUS or any other existing trade agreement, the disruption that such actions would cause to the fresh produce industry would be devastating as growing decisions for many crops are made years in advance, based upon established trade relationships and customer loyalty,” said Nassif in the letter. “Once altered or abrogated, these relationships cannot be repaired quickly if ever.”

Countries across Asia are among the greatest market opportunities for U.S. farmers, and the United States cannot afford government actions that would back away from existing agreements. In fact, the KORUS has resulted in positive trade for agriculture, providing a trade surplus for U.S. fresh vegetables, fruit, and tree nuts in the amount of $647 million for calendar year 2016.

If the United States does not lead the way in opening and expanding market access in this region, other countries will step in and fill the supply gap, to the detriment of U.S. farmers and the rural economies they support across America.

In the letter, Nassif agreed that there are certain aspects of KORUS and every trade relationship that can be improved and strengthened to better serve farmers across the country, whether within the text of these agreements or through other bilateral cooperation to facilitate greater exports of U.S. produce. South Korea continues to maintain tariffs, tariff rate quotas, and phytosanitary barriers against various produce commodities, and they should continue to be pressed to address these barriers to trade.

Click here to read the full letter. For questions, contact Dennis Nuxoll or Ken Barbic at (202) 296-0191. 

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Senator Feinstein Faces Undue Criticism for Urging Patience With President Trump

September 6th, 2017

Recently Senator Feinstein has come under fire for comments she made concerning the need to have “patience” with respect to President Trump. Senator Feinstein was expressing her hope, which she admitted was perhaps fleeting, that President Trump can become a better President than he has, in her opinion, shown to date. Since making those comments the Senator has come under fire by Democrat activists and even elected leaders like state Senate President pro tem Kevin De Leon. That is unfortunate.

Those attacking her today have either never learned or have forgotten history. They have no sense of the statesmanship Senator Feinstein embodies and seeks in others. Those attacking her feed the political cynicism that has paralyzed our legislative process. It is a cynicism that is symptomatic of those who scorn any attempt to forge political compromise.

I have written before of the need for a return of statesmanship in America’s politics. We need to resist the temptations of extreme rhetoric. We need to work together, Republican and Democrat, to help our country achieve greater heights, no matter who occupies the White House. Those who attack Senator Feinstein now for daring to hope for constructive change are the reason our country seems to be stuck. Fight for your ideals, fight for policies you think are right, but don’t wish paralysis on our nation.

Some on the left claim that Senator Mitch McConnell did the same thing to former President Obama, promising to obstruct every initiative of the President. But that’s not quite right. McConnell did say that his objective was to make Obama a one-term president, but in the same interview he also said that if Obama would “meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.” Later in the same interview, McConnell went further: “I don’t want [President Obama] to fail, I want him to change.”

It seems to me that this is not all that different from what Senator Feinstein is saying now. She didn’t pledge to cooperate with President Trump today, but she did express her hope that he would change, that maybe he could meet her halfway on some of the biggest issues, and from there strike compromises that produce real legislation on major issues. Not perfect legislation, but legislation that is badly needed. 

I have known and had the pleasure of working with Senator Feinstein for many years. While I have had my disagreements with her, I have also worked with her many times to do good for the people of California and the country. In every instance, doing good required us to push and prod each other, to listen to each other with sincerity, and ultimately to step beyond the comfort of our ideological comfort zones to produce compromises that can withstand the rigors of the legislative process. She embodies statesmanship. She embodies working together for the greater good. I applaud her for her hopeful comments.

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Reminder: Arizona Ag Department Providing Enhanced Export Services

September 7th, 2017

The Arizona Department of Agriculture is reminding the agriculture industry of the range of export services it provides, as well as enhancements they have made in providing these services.

Yuma County Federal and State Phytosanitary Certificate 

  • Plant Services Division inspection staff will be offering a new 6-day-a-week service Monday through Saturday beginning on September 1, 2017, and running through March 31, 2018, for international and domestic export inspection and certification needs in Yuma County. 
  • There will be no additional charge for the Saturday service; Saturday service will continue as long as there is demand. 
  • Staff will continue to offer extended hours each day to meet export demands.
  • The cost for a federal phytosanitary certificate (international shipments) is $56 ($50 plus $6 Federal administrative fee) and the cost for a state phytosanitary certificate (domestic shipments) is $50 for the first load on site at the time of inspection and $10 for each additional load on-site at the time of inspection. Please note these fees cover both the inspection of the commodity lot presented for export and the certificate.

Statewide Federal and State Phytosanitary Certificate 

  • International and domestic export inspections and certification are offered state-wide, Monday through Friday with extended hours (except in Yuma County). 
  • Both export certifications can be requested and paid for through the electronic PCIT system. If you need assistance with accessing PCIT for the first time, division staff can assist. Contact information to request service or for any questions is as follows:
    • Phoenix Operations (Maricopa, Pinal, Gila, Navajo, Apache, Yavapai, and Mohave Counties) – (602) 542-0981
    • Tucson Operations (Graham, Greenlee, Cochise, Santa Cruz and Pima Counties) – (520) 628-6314
    • Yuma Operations (Yuma and La Paz Counties) – (928) 341-1780

 For more information, contact AnnaMarie Knorr at (602) 451-0658.

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