Western Growers & Industry Allies to USTR: We Need China Tariff Relief

November 26th, 2019

On Thursday, November 21, Western Growers and nearly 15 of its specialty crop allies sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, urging Ambassador Robert Lighthizer to secure the elimination of China’s retaliatory tariffs on fresh fruit, vegetables, and tree nuts. The letter was also sent to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) trade officials, as well as the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House Committees on Agriculture and Ways & Means.

Since last year, the United States and China have been entangled in a protracted trade war, with both sides levying tariffs against each other’s exports. For specialty crops, virtually every type of product has been hit by China with a tariff increase of 30-50%. For commodities like tree nuts and certain fresh fruits, the tariffs have been especially damaging to the industry, with exports dropping off and foreign competitors moving into the market space. Overall, U.S. agricultural exports to China have significantly declined, topping out at $9 billion in 2018 – a drastic drop from the industry’s peak at $24 billion in 2014.

Negotiations between the United States and China to end the trade conflict have been ongoing since late last year, oscillating between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’. Per the most recent public statements, both parties have being working towards a ‘phase one’ deal by the end of the year, which is expected to address agriculture and the tariffs; the exact scope of what issues will be addressed, and which crops will be included, remains unknown. With much national attention being paid to the trade impact on program crops and livestock, Western Growers and the other signatories continue to proactively elevate the impact our own industry has faced, demanding that specialty crops not be left out in any deals with China.

The industry letter expresses the urgent need for USTR and the Administration to demand from China that retaliatory tariffs be lifted off specialty crops. The letter also highlights other important export issues that will need to be addressed in future negotiations with China, as certain other crops like strawberries require more than retaliatory tariff removal to truly penetrate the market. This includes reductions or eliminations of certain pre-retaliation tariff rates, as well as improvements to China’s sanitary-phytosanitary (SPS) regime, which can be notoriously difficult to navigate and has repeatedly blocked several U.S. commodities from the country.

Western Growers continues to follow the progress of the negotiations closely and reiterate our industry’s needs to USTR, USDA, and Congress. If you or your operation has current or previous issues getting into the China market (tariffs or otherwise), we encourage you to contact us with your stories.

For questions or more information, contact Dennis Nuxoll or Tracey Chow at (202) 296-0191.

Hong Kong Suspends Romaine Lettuce from Salinas

November 26th, 2019

The Hong Kong government has suspended the import and sale of Salinas-originated romaine lettuce, due to the most recent E.coli outbreak. According to the USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the ban has been effective since November 23, 2019, and applies to any and all forms, including head and salad mixes.

Per this latest notice, Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has already identified one importer that has imported product from the region in question; a voluntary recall has since taken place. CFS will also be enhancing the surveillance of “romaine lettuce produced in the U.S. at import and retail levels.” This is a similar course of action that Hong Kong took during the previous romaine-associated outbreaks of April 2018 and November 2018. At that time, import bans were placed on all lettuce originating from California and Arizona. The bans were subsequently lifted February 2019 and March 2019, respectively.

As Western Growers continues its diligent work with growers, FDA and others to investigate and resolve the latest outbreak, we are also working with FAS and its Hong Kong counterparts to address their concerns and reopen trade for the industry as soon as possible. If you are a romaine supplier or exporter who is already experiencing issues into Hong Kong, we encourage you to contact us.

For questions about exporting into Hong Kong, contact Dennis Nuxoll or Tracey Chow.

For questions about the latest E.coli outbreak, contact Hank Giclas or Sonia Salas.

Standard Operating Procedures To Help You Get Paid (Part 1)

November 5th, 2019

Here at Western Growers Trade Practices, we encourage shippers to embrace a culture of best practices by putting in place every day procedures and protocols. As part of that mantra, I am pleased to provide a two-part guest blog from Mr. Bart Botta with the law firm of Rynn & Janowsky, LLP. Mr. Botta is a partner at Rynn & Janowsky which specializes in agriculture, PACA and employment law. You can view Mr. Botta’s bio HERE. Below, Mr. Botta provides some practical guidance of which standard operating procedures every shipper should have in place to ensure you get paid. After all, a sale is completed when the money is in the bank, not when the cooler is empty.

Having some good standard operating procedures in place when dealing with customers that may have financial difficulties is very important, and will serve you well if (and more likely “when”) you have to take steps to collect. The first line of defense against customers failing to pay you is to be proactive. It is important to prevent a customer from getting too far behind in the first place, and this can be best accomplished by having procedures in place before you begin selling to a new customer. 

Some tips for being proactive include, first and foremost, using a detailed Credit Application. These applications are great sources of information, and you can request information such as bank accounts, customers, credit limits, etc. Because the customer is new and is hoping to buy from you, this is the best time to get as much information as you can (to use later if necessary). Plus, a detailed credit application will help you successfully evaluate credit risk and manage credit.

We usually recommend that clients also request that the new customer sign a personal guaranty. Once again, because the customer usually needs you more than you need the customer at this early stage of a potential business relationship, getting a personal guaranty in place should not be too difficult. Also, before selling even one strawberry to a new customer, check the PACA website to make sure that company has a valid PACA license and to confirm there are no PACA reparation or disciplinary cases pending against the company. The website is found at: https://usdaams.service-now.com/public_search.

If you cannot locate a valid PACA license, or if you want more information, just call the PACA Department (either a regional office or the D.C. main office) at 1-800-495-7222.  You can and should also check the company’s rating with Blue Book Services, which provides invaluable information on a company’s credit worthiness, trade reputation, and integrity.

Another thing you can do to be proactive can be summarized by the old saying that it is important to, “document, document, and document.” Making sure your sales related documents are in order can give you greater priority and may result in better recoveries for you if problems arise.

Make sure your documents contain the PACA trust language on the face of each and every invoice you send to a buyer. You, as the seller, must have a valid PACA license, and assuming you do, including this statutory language will automatically give you a PACA trust claim against the buyer. This trust claim will allow you to have extremely high priority in a bankruptcy, will allow you to obtain injunctive relief (freezing assets) against a non-paying customer, and will usually give you the ability to hold the controlling insiders of the company personally liable. The PACA trust language must be on each and every invoice to the seller, and must be word for word as set out in the PACA statute.

In addition to the PACA trust language, making sure your invoices and sales documents have “PACA Prompt” payment terms (i.e., 10 days) is also important. While payment terms can be extended beyond 10 days, if you do so, the PACA requires a pre-transaction written agreement. Therefore, we always recommend that clients keep the payment terms at ten days, since no agreement extending the payment terms is then necessary.

Finally, on your sales documents, make sure all documents contain consistent payment terms, and also make sure to include language on your invoices allowing for the recovery of attorney fees and finance charges of 1.5% per month. 

On your Bills of Lading, there are several provisions that you should be sure to include, the most important of which possibly being the “No Recourse” language. If you need any of these specific terms, do not hesitate to contact Western Growers’ Bryan Nickerson or me.

Bartholomew M. Botta
Partner Rynn & Janowsky, LLP

I would like to personally thank Bart for letting us all know of the standard operating procedures each shipper should have in place. And as always, should you as a Western Growers member be in a position where you are dealing with an issue and not sure what your next step should be, give me a call at 949-885-2392 or email me at [email protected] to discuss your available options. 

USDA Issues Second Tranche of Market Facilitation Program

November 15th, 2019

USDA announced today the second allocation of 2019 Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments to farmers who have been impacted by the trade wars. The payments will begin the week before Thanksgiving. Producers of MFP-eligible commodities will now be eligible to receive 25% of the total payment expected, in addition to the 50% they have already received from the 2019 MFP. If conditions warrant, the third allotment will be made in January 2020.

MFP signup at local FSA offices will run through Friday, December 6, 2019. MFP payments will be made to producers of almonds, cranberries, fresh grapes, fresh sweet cherries, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. Each specialty crop will receive a payment based on 2019 acres of fruit or nut bearing plants.

MFP payments are limited to a combined $250,000 for specialty crop producers. Eligible applicants must also have an average adjusted gross income (AGI) for tax years 2015, 2016, and 2017 of less than $900,000 unless at least 75 percent of the person’s or legal entity’s AGI is derived from farming-related activities.

For more information, visit the MFP website. To apply, download the MFP application and submit the completed form to your local FSA county office in person or by fax, mail or email. 

CDFA Hosts Informational Webpage on Wildfire Recovery Resources for Farmers and Ranchers

November 5th, 2019

California is only halfway through its fire season, yet the fires the state has been plagued with over the past month have ruined thousands of acres of land and caused many evacuations. Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of RESPONSE.CA.GOV, a state website supplying Californians, who have been impacted by wildfires and utility-directed power shutoffs, with the proper tools and resources needed for wildfire recovery. This portal houses local and state resources, health services, shelters and housing, preparedness information, and more.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has several agencies offering financial and/or technical assistance to farmers, ranchers and rural landowners recovering from natural disasters, such as wildfires. 

Click here to access a list of programs and services offered by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency for communities, farmers, ranchers, and businesses that have been hard hit by natural disaster events.

Click here to view state website RESPONSE.CA.GOV.

Bioplastics Startup mobius Wins $500,000 in Seed Funding at AgTech Pitch Competition

November 12th, 2019

Western Growers, S2G Ventures awards mobius pbc substantial funding to accelerate development of tech that aids farmers in battling regulatory pressures, scarcity of resources

IRVINE, Calif. (November 12, 2019) – mobius pbc, an early-stage company that creates waste-based biodegradable polymers to promote sustainable agriculture, won the grand prize of a $500,000 equity investment at Western Growers’ 2019 AgSharks® Competition today. The pitch competition is one of the agricultural industry’s most popular and coveted events for companies developing key technological innovations for agriculture. The funding was awarded by S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth).

“Improving and maintaining the sustainability of our food system is critical for the future of agriculture and requires innovations focused on everything from the 260 million tons of unavoidable organic food waste produced each year to the half million-tons of single-use plastics used on the farm for things such as mulch film and seed coatings,” said Tony Bova, CEO & co-founder of mobius. “At mobius, we’re incredibly excited to have S2G and Western Growers as partners, helping us develop technologies to convert that unavoidable organic waste into much-needed products like waste-based fertilizers, biodegradable seed and fertilizer coatings, and biodegradable mulch films and nursery containers. The direct connection with the front lines of the food system sustainability challenge – our growers – will be invaluable as we push for a circular economy in agriculture and pursue our mission to create a world where ‘There’s Wonder in Waste.’”

AgSharks, which launched in 2017 to help budding agtech startups bring their inventions from development to market, was the first agtech event to offer real-time investment opportunities in front of a live audience. During this year’s competition, mobius faced off against four other companies that are also building new technologies to solve agriculture’s most pressing issues – everything from labor availability and water scarcity to food safety and compliance costs.

“As agriculture faces an intensification of regulatory pressures and a growing scarcity of resources – shortage of skilled labor, exhaustion of land and depletion of water – farmers are increasingly turning to innovation and technology to remain viable,” said Western Growers President/CEO Tom Nassif. “We are encouraged by talented agtech entrepreneurs, such as those at mobius, that are inventing solutions to help farmers accomplish their noble goal of feeding the world. mobius’ promising technology will play a role in sustaining agriculture, as well as aiding the industry in taking a great leap forward in food production.”

mobius is building a future where food, forestry and agricultural waste streams are upcycled into valuable chemical and material building blocks. Its first product is a proprietary, biodegradable polymer made from lignin, a natural material found in all grasses and trees that is produced as waste at a rate of over 50 million tons each year by the paper and biofuel industries. With this biopolymer, mobius is creating bio-based, biodegradable plastic pellets for applications in agriculture, foodservice packaging, horticulture and beyond. The applications for these products include thermoplastic materials for plantable horticultural and nursery containers and plastic mulch films; matrix materials for controlled-release fertilizers; and in the future, potential seed coating materials.

The company, along with its competitors, pitched seven expert judges who evaluated each company on the strength of its solution and potential to scale, among other assessment categories. The panel of judges – which was comprised of leaders in the investment, agriculture and tech industries – provided feedback to the companies, and after deliberation and receiving input from the audience, they offered mobius the top prize.

“Western Growers, through the AgSharks competition, continues to lead the industry in supporting entrepreneurs that are building solutions for the best growers in the world,” said Chuck Templeton, managing director at S2G Ventures. “Combining our investment in mobius with WG’s market knowledge and access, we can more rapidly deliver on building a healthy and sustainable food system.”

Templeton was on the judges panel, which also included Neill Callis, general manager at Turlock Fruit Company Inc.; Audre Kapacinskas, vice president at S2G Ventures; Frank Maconachy, president and CEO at Ramsay Highlander, Inc.; Aidan Mouat, CEO and co-founder at Hazel Technologies; Craig Reade, partner at Bonipak Produce; and Matthew Walker, managing director at S2G Ventures.

Click here for a hi-resolution image from Western Growers’ 2019 AgSharks® competition.

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 to Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture. 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 or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Western Growers Statement on Committee Passage of Farm Workforce Modernization Act

November 20th, 2019

IRVINE, Calif. (November 20, 2019) – In response to passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act by voice vote in the House Judiciary Committee, with a recorded vote to take place tomorrow morning, Western Growers President & CEO Tom Nassif issued the following statement:

“Western Growers applauds today’s passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in the House Judiciary Committee. We thank the lead authors, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Congressman Dan Newhouse, and the bipartisan group of legislators who have negotiated and supported this bill.

“Throughout the U.S., agriculture is experiencing a critical shortage of labor that jeopardizes our ability to continue producing an abundant, safe and affordable domestic food supply. Securing a reliable and skilled workforce is critical to the future viability of America’s family farms.

“This bill does exactly that.

“By protecting existing, experienced farm workers, and streamlining the agricultural guest worker program to provide a more accessible, predictable and flexible future flow of labor, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act contains real solutions to the labor crisis facing the industry.

“This bipartisan bill, which has 29 Democratic and 23 Republican co-sponsors, has been carefully crafted through a series of difficult stakeholder-driven negotiations, and has garnered the widespread support of nearly 300 agricultural organizations across the country, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and farm worker unions.

“While the Farm Workforce Modernization Act is not perfect, we remain committed to working through the legislative process to address our outstanding concerns, and encourage to Speaker to bring this bill before the House floor for a vote as soon as possible.”

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 half the nation’s fresh fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, including half of America’s fresh organic produce. For generations we have provided variety and healthy choices to consumers. Connect with and learn more about Western Growers on our Twitter and Facebook
 

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How Do You Measure a Career?

November 2nd, 2019

I have discovered that as I near retirement, I have become more introspective. The song, “Seasons of Love,” asks a thoughtful question: “How do you measure a year?” Lately, I have found myself asking a similar philosophical question: “How do you measure a career?”

On February 1, 2020, I will step down as president and the chief executive officer of Western Growers. The date will mark 18 years of service to the fresh produce industry, in what has been a fitting capstone to a God-inspired career that has taken me from the green fields of the Imperial Valley to the hallowed halls of the Reagan White House to the exotic shores of North Africa, and back again.

Every decision I have made in my career has been prayerfully considered by my loving wife and me, and I have always been driven by the desire to impact the lives of others. Like the multi-generational farming families I have been honored to represent for the past 18 years, my intention has always been to leave a lasting legacy for the next generation, to make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren.

Practically speaking, during my tenure at Western Growers, my focus has been on enhancing the competitiveness and profitability of our member companies, ensuring that we have a viable industry capable of thriving for decades to come.

Achieving this goal has required strengthening the capacity of our association to serve our members. Western Growers was founded nearly a century ago on the concept of strength in numbers, and over the years has played a significant role in shaping the fresh produce landscape. Since taking over in 2002, my motivation has been to build on this tradition and solidify Western Growers’ position as one of the leading grower-based trade associations in the country.

Today, Western Growers is a leader in food safety, labor and immigration, water, business insurance and employee benefits, technology and innovation, and in many other areas. Our organization is politically influential, financially resilient, and poised to achieve even greater gains for the industry. I am proud of our accomplishments as an association and confident in our future.

To what do I attribute such success, and why do I view our outlook with such certainty? The answer to both questions is the same: our staff and board. The enduring greatness of Western Growers stems from our deeply knowledgeable, extremely passionate, highly motivated staff and an equally impressive and committed board.

Our board of directors is unparalleled in the industry in that it is comprised almost exclusively of decision-makers, which means we can address any matter in any board meeting and walk out of the room ready to act. Simply put, the makeup of our board gives us clout.

However, as you can imagine with a room full of owners and CEOs, there are many strong personalities involved. I have often been asked if I would prefer to lead an army of generals or soldiers, to which I unequivocally answer: “Generals.” Recall that both Presidents Eisenhower and Lincoln assembled war councils made up of strategic-minded and battle-hardened generals committed to the successful conclusion of World War II and the Civil War. What better leaders to emulate?

Similarly, one of our greatest assets as an association is the strength of our board; we have talented men and women who set aside their personal interests to serve as dedicated advocates for our industry and faithful stewards of our members’ resources.

Make no mistake, we are fighting a war. Everyday, we go into battle against adversaries who seek to restrict, eliminate even, our ability to operate at a profit. Without the collective engagement of the generals on our board, success would be elusive for Western Growers and the fresh produce industry.

Beyond the service of our board members, Western Growers has been blessed with the visionary leadership of a number of five-star generals, our board chairs. Ninety-four individuals have taken up the mantle since the founding of our association, each one standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before them. Over the years, our chairmen have helped to chart the course of our association and deserve to be recognized for their unique contributions. In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to each of the 18 chairmen I have worked with as president & CEO, all of whom I hold in the highest professional regard, many of whom I call close personal friends.

This atmosphere of respect and camaraderie defines the Western Growers family, which is what we are at the end of the day, part of the same family. Our membership is made up of family businesses, and our mission at Western Growers is to help our members pass their farming legacies down to the next generation.

Here is where my optimism comes in. Nothing is more inspiring than to observe the pool of talented young family members rising through the ranks of our member companies. Nine years ago, we set out to identify the next generation of leaders in our membership and prepare them for potential service on the board. Now, six graduates of our Future Volunteer Leaders Program sit on the board, in addition to several other “next generation” board members. The fresh perspectives these younger board members bring to the table will ensure that our association stays ahead of the curve and our members remain competitive and profitable for years to come.

I still don’t know if I have an answer to the question of how to measure a career. But I do know for certain that the state of our association is strong and the future of our industry is in good hands, which gives me great satisfaction and comfort as I turn over the reins at Western Growers.

Ag Career Was Always On Tap

November 2nd, 2019

Dominic J. Muzzi

CEO/COO

Muzzi Family Farms, LLC

Moss Landing, CA

Member Since 1984 | Director Since 2018

CATCHING THE FARMING BUG: When Dominic Muzzi was six years old, his father put him on top of a tractor and let him drive it. From that day on, he knew he would take up the family business and specialty agriculture would be his career choice. He worked in the family farming operation throughout his youth and after one year at Hartnell College in Salinas, he joined the company full time in 1983 at the age of 19. Today, Dominic works alongside his sister, Lisa Muzzi, and his father, Dominic Sr., running the operation, which consists of a handful of entities.

THE BACK STORY: Dominic Sr. and his future wife, Martha, met in Pescadero, north of Santa Cruz, where Martha grew up and Dominic had family connections. In fact, both families farmed the area and it is where Dominic Sr. started his career as a farmer with his family. But in 1964, the young couple moved 60 miles south to Moss Landing and began their own farming company with Martha’s father growing Brussels sprouts, English peas, fava beans, broccoli and cauliflower. They also began their family with Dominic Jr. coming first followed a few years later by Lisa.

A STABLE OPERATION: For the next 20 years, the Muzzis raised their family and farmed the land. They added a roadside stand in 1975 and altered their crop rotation as opportunities arose, but no major changes occurred as the company concentrated on building their reputation as a top-quality and service-oriented organization.

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES: Since the mid-‘80s, the Muzzi family has changed its business model, added new entities and thrived as a processor and sales agent for both fresh and frozen specialty vegetables. The business model began to change as Dominic and then Lisa became more involved in the company.

In the mid-1980s, the family stopped farming the ground they owned but rather leased the land and became a sales agent for other growers. In 1984, Watsonville Produce Inc. was formed to handle cooling, sales and shipping of vegetables grown on area farms. Through the ‘90s, partnerships were formed with many growers and companies as the company became a co-packer, as the value-added revolution took center stage. Dominic Jr. modestly admits the company was not a pioneer in the movement but was an early adopter and provided co-packing services for several other companies as they dipped their toes in the value-added category.

Along the way, they added a cooling and shipping facility in Yuma, the Red River Fresh Produce Facility

Two decades later, in 2007, the family business became the managing partners of Blue Ribbon Frozen Foods, LLC in Watsonville to process, freeze and pack locally grown vegetables.

In 2012, they added a sales division, Muzzi Family Farms, and began selling the products they were packing and cooling, both on the fresh and frozen side. Dominic says there are some synergies on the growing side between fresh and frozen vegetables, with many of the growers supplying both and the frozen facility does give growers an extra option for their excess production.

Continuing its steady growth, earlier this year, Muzzi Family Farms, in partnership with Coastline Family Farms, launched C&M Family Cooling LLC, a cold storage and shipping facility in Castroville, CA.

STILL A FAMILY AFFAIR: While 77-year-old Dominic Sr. is phasing out of day-to-day management, he still serves as the president of Watsonville Produce and is still an important member of the family team. Dominic Jr. spends most of his time managing the numerous entities, which include the multiple fresh cooling and shipping plants, the frozen vegetable operation as well as the sales team. Each facility has its own senior manager in place. He calls Lisa the “hub” of the organization as she handles administration, the IT (information technology) department and accounting. Dominic considers the Muzzi Family Farms’ operations a small player in specialty agriculture, especially when compared to the very large companies in the industry. But with the company’s many different entities, he does allow that maybe they are a medium-size operation. “Among all of our entities, we sell about 10-12 million packages a year,” he said.

FAMILY LIFE: Dominic Jr. and his wife, Casey, live on the Muzzi Family Farm in the same house in which Dominic grew up. The two met at the annual rodeo in Brawley, where Casey also grew up in a farming family. “We have no kids, but lots of animals,” Dominic said.

For fun, the couple love to travel and has spent many vacations following the career of a nephew who is a pilot in the Air Force. They have visited him at many of his assignments, including when he graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and while he was stationed in Florida. They also are very much looking forward to the 2019 Western Growers Annual Meeting in Hawaii.

THE FUTURE OF AG: Like most in the California agricultural business, Dominic is an optimist. He acknowledges that producing food in the Golden State is a challenge with seemingly new hurdles to jump every year. “It is getting more challenging with labor and water issues and new regulations,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for 50+ years and we plan to continue.”

WESTERN GROWERS CONNECTION: The company has been a member of Western Growers for many years but it was only in 2018 that Dominic got actively involved in the organization as a member of the Board of Directors. “It is very interesting and helpful to interact with the other board members who have different commodities and are growing in different regions. It is very good to be exposed to other ideas and hear how others are dealing with their concerns and the issues we all face.”

Agriculture Provides Gateway to Achieve American Dream

November 2nd, 2019

The American Dream, the idea that anyone, regardless of social class or location of birth, can attain prosperity through perseverance and hard work, has inspired the migration of millions of people from around the world to the United States. Though the term was not officially coined until it appeared in James Truslow Adams’ best-selling novel, “Epic of America,” in 1931, the concept has been deeply rooted in our nation’s history since before its inception, and has formed the foundation of its success.

This dream is achievable largely through the opportunities offered by America’s employers, in particular, the agriculture industry. A recent Feeding the Economy study revealed that 22.8 million of all U.S. jobs are directly related to food and agriculture, representing approximately 15 percent of all U.S. employment. Even more significantly, agriculture provides jobs and opportunities for immigrants to take the first step on the American Economic Ladder.

These immigrants travel from Mexico and other countries looking for higher-paying opportunities that will allow them to utilize their skills while building a secure future for their families. According to a study conducted by the University of California, a worker paid on a piece-rate basis could earn up to $45 per hour—an amount well above wages available in Mexico and elsewhere around the world. The research also showed that the fastest worker in a crew was capable of four to eight times the performance of the slowest, demonstrating that hard work results in higher wages and upward mobility.

In addition to providing employment, many farms take it one step further to enrich the lives of their employees. Western Growers recently released its 2019 Professional Compensation & HR Practices Survey, which compiles and analyzes exclusive data on base pay, incentive pay, merit increases and health plan coverages for the California and Arizona produce industry.

The results revealed that of the WG members who participated in the survey:

•   93% offer a health plan coverage

•   77% offer a 401(K) retirement plan to field workers

•   61% offer an annual bonus plan to field workers

This data demonstrates that agriculture cares for its people, provides opportunities for immigrant families and sustains rural communities. Farmers are continually developing programs that enrich the lives of all their employees—everyone from the field to the office.

The following are just a few of the countless initiatives launched by WG members to build a positive company culture for their workers:

1.  Christopher Ranch’s Commitment to Balancing Work and Family

As the only family-owned commercial garlic farm in the country, Christopher Ranch understands the importance of balancing work and having a family. The farm offers on-site daycare to its 1,000 employees—900 who work at the company’s headquarters in Gilroy, Calif. In fact, Christopher Ranch is the first agricultural operation in the state to partner with the federal government and operate a Head Start Preschool.

“We provide the facility, they provide the instructors and our employees have a great place for their kids to be while they are at work,” said Ken Christopher, executive vice president of Christopher Ranch.

2.  Tanimura & Antle Now Family AND Employee Owned

In 2017, Salinas Valley grower-shipper Tanimura & Antle launched an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), allowing employees to become partial owners of the company. Last year, on the first anniversary of the ESOP, the company deposited $21.7 million into the plan on behalf of its employees, which represented nearly 18 percent of wages. This first payment allowed the ESOP to distribute shares of stocks to all eligible employees.

Tanimura & Antle is proud of the fact that the majority of these contributions go to the company’s farm and harvest employees.

“For these employees, such a large start towards a company-sponsored retirement plan, in addition to their preexisting 401(k) Plan, is a game-changer,” said CEO Scott Grabau in a press release. “Labor is, and will continue to be, one of the industry’s greatest challenges. We are proud of the employees who chose to join the Tanimura & Antle family and look forward to adding new employee-owners each year.”

According to Tanimura & Antle, the company is one of the first grower-shippers in the United States to share company ownership with all qualified, domestic employees.

3.  DFF University Encourages Employees to Grow Their Careers

Duncan Family Farms created an employee education program called DFF University to help team members advance their skills and grow their careers. The purpose of the university is to help team members develop the skills that will allow them to grow within the business.

“As a fifth-generation Arizona farmer, there’s many things I learned from my father and the thing that stuck with me the most is to value our people,” said Sean Duncan, supply chain manager at Duncan Family Farms. “That’s one of the reasons why we started Duncan Family Farms University.”

Paving the way for standardized employee education across the farm’s seven locations, DFF University covers everything from management practices, technical skills, operational expertise, language skills, team collaboration and mentorship. The university also prepares employees for purposeful, sustainable company growth, as well as offers an archive of courses where team members can explore their own passions and interests.

“I recently started DFF University, where I’m learning English right now,” said Francisco Gonzalez, food safety crew leader for Duncan Family Farms. “Every night at home, I spend 30 minutes teaching and speaking English with my daughter and my wife. I hope to be a better leader and one day become a manager at Duncan Family Farms.”

4.  Andrew & Williamson’s Workplace Initiatives Increase Retention

Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce has implemented numerous workplace initiatives throughout their farms that improve the lives of workers and have significantly increased retention.

“Our farmworkers are so important to us. We’ve developed unique programs to ensure that we benefit their lives in different ways other than just a paycheck,” said Jackie Vazquez, director of operations at Andrew & Williamson’s Sundance Berry Farm.

The company started a program with the Food Bank of Monterey County where harvesters can pick up their allotment of healthy and nutritious food right at their workplace. Rather than standing in line and missing work to pick up fruits, vegetables, proteins, diaries and bread for them and their families, the Food Bank and Andrew & Williamson have farmworkers’ food delivered to the farm and available for pick up after their shift.

Additionally, Andrew & Williamson has developed a host of programs geared toward supporting women farmworkers. They recently collaborated with Women Infants and Children (WIC) to provide new moms with a comfortable and safe environment to pump in the field, including a private location to pump and coolers to ensure that the breastmilk stays fresh. The company also partners with local Catholic charities to offer moms free diapers and car seats and works with United Way to give the children of harvesters free school supplies.

5.  Mountain View Fruit, California Farmworker Foundation Help Farmworkers Gain New Skills

Mountain View Fruit Sales has formed an official partnership with the California Farmworker Foundation (CFF) to provide employees with access to programs and services geared toward strengthening their personal and professional skills.

“The California Farmworker Foundation was built to improve lives and we want to make sure that we are investing into communities where farmworkers live,” said Hernan Hernandez, executive director for the CFF.

CFF, a non-profit association where every dollar donated goes directly to programs for farmworkers, is currently targeting farmworkers who are in the Central Valley. By analyzing farmworker data and speaking directly to employees on-site, CFF determines what the most pressing needs are for farmworkers.

“We are improving lives by investing in five areas: personal development, professional development, community engagement, immigration and citizenship, and health and wellness,” said Hernandez.

Some of the services CFF offers include women’s self-defense workshops, health education classes, financial wellness workshops, fitness classes, immigration services and English classes.

Now playing an official role in this grassroots movement, Mountain View Fruit Sales can directly enrich their relationships with their employees and provide opportunities that will allow them to learn and master new skills that can improve their quality of life.

6.  Ocean Mist Offers Scholarships to Employee’s Children

Since 2017, Ocean Mist Farms has awarded academic scholarships to high school graduates who embody the farm’s four guiding values—integrity, quality, passion and success. The Ocean Mist Farms Academic Scholarship Program grants a total of seven $1,000 academic scholarships each year, with two of those scholarships exclusive to a dependent of an Ocean Mist Farms Affiliate Company employee.

“As a company that values family, education and community, we’re happy to offer a program that embodies these values to our employees and their families,” said Diana McClean, Ocean Mist Farms’ senior director of marketing, in a press release.

These scholarship opportunities provided by Ocean Mist, as well as the real and substantial investments being made by many WG members into their workforces, are part of the American Dream and will help these employees and their families climb the American Economic Ladder.

Nassif Takes His Place in Western Growers History Always the Advocate

November 2nd, 2019

A few months ago, former Western Growers chairman and longtime board member Gary Pasquinelli commenting on the career of soon-to-be-retired WG President & CEO Tom Nassif, said the association got more than it bargained for when it hired the former ambassador to Morocco almost two decades ago.

“When we hired Tom, we knew we had a good man. He possesses a rare skill set and has brought a remarkable degree of professionalism to the job,” Pasquinelli said. “His commitment to the job and his integrity are unmatched.”

Others pointed to those same varied talents, specifically mentioning his financial skills. Pasquinelli succinctly said, “we got a twofer” referring to Nassif’s ability to handle the business side of running a large organization as well as the politics involved in any member association.

Interestingly, when Tom Nassif recently looked back on his Western Growers career, he noted his biggest surprises upon taking the position was the immediate need for his business acumen. “I was surprised by the financial shape the organization was in,” he said. “Very few people knew it…not on the staff nor on the board.”

But Nassif quickly tapped into his ability to run a company and righted the ship. He worked with the board to jettison some financially failing programs and sharpened the accounting pencil. Over the past two decades, he has developed what is arguably the most innovative, and most financially secure, trade association in the fresh produce space.

Nassif came to the position with a lot of experience because of both a fascinating career that spanned a couple of continents and several industries. He worked in the United States and North Africa; lived in the East, West and Midwest; worked as a lawyer, businessman and diplomat; lived a spiritual life and founded a church; and through it all, has had a thoroughly rewarding and challenging life.

The Early Years

Thomas A. Nassif was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July of 1941, and lived there for the first decade of his life. His family had emigrated from Lebanon to the United States, first coming to the East Coast. Nassif said the relocation to Iowa by his parents was simply an effort to pick a place where they could try to be successful. “Immigrants went to areas where they could make a living. My dad came to Iowa to barter with farmers bringing dry goods out to the farms trading them for food to feed his family,” he said, adding that there was a Lebanese community in Cedar Rapids large enough to support two Orthodox churches.

The Nassifs moved to Hollywood, CA, in the early 1950s with the elder Nassif exploring an opportunity to invest in a draft beer business.  “My dad wanted to use the proceeds from the house we sold in Iowa; my mom would have none of that, telling my dad he had to buy the family a house.”

So Tom’s dad sold Oriental rugs instead. “He was a great salesman,” Tom remembers.

Tom graduated from high school and then went on to Los Angeles State College, getting his degree in business in 1965. That was the first year the school became part of the State College system, changing its name to California State University at Los Angeles.

Though his father wanted him to become a doctor, Nassif had set his sights on a law degree in high school after reading a book about the famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow.

He, in fact, graduated from California Western School of Law in 1968.

The Labor Lawyer

By the time Nassif began his law career in Los Angeles, he was married to Zinetta. “We were living in L.A. with all the freeways, and it didn’t seem like a great place to raise kids.”

The Nassifs did have some familiarity with the Imperial Valley as he had college classmates who lived there. “We thought we would give the small town a try. What I remember is that there were locusts everywhere. They were on the grass; they were on the roof. A thick layer of locusts. That was tough getting used to.”

But relief came to the pest problem and Nassif remembers the Imperial Valley as “a wonderful place to raise a family.” Both of his children were born there, and the family lived there for more than a decade.

At first, Nassif hung out his own shingle, handling whatever cases came through the door. During this period, he interacted with local growers both socially and professionally. It was at the beginning of the ‘70s that the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association was looking for a lawyer to handle some labor law cases. Nassif was recommended for the position by his local farmer friends. “When they interviewed me, I told them I know nothing about labor law and I know nothing about agriculture. But I told them I hate to lose. If they hired me, nobody would work harder.”

He did get the contract and represented the association and Imperial Valley farmers throughout the 1970s. He practiced a lot of labor law with Western Growers member and fellow attorney Ron Barsamian. In fact, he recommended Mike Saqui to Ron and they eventually became partners. Saqui noted that Nassif was a “badass” lawyer in his day.

Nassif remembers that he was the first attorney to lose a case in front of the newly-minted Agricultural Labor Relations Board in the mid-1970s. He said it was a sham case with a pre-ordained decision in which he had no chance of prevailing. But the loss did lead to a partnership position with San Diego’s largest firm—Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye. He maintained an office in the Imperial Valley and got further involved in that community, both professionally and personally. It was that involvement that led to his second career…this time in the public sector.

The Public Servant

It was in late 1980s, after President-elect Ronald Reagan had won the election, that Chuck Tyson contacted Nassif and asked him if he would consider working in the Reagan Administration. Tyson had worked for Reagan when he was governor of California and he was named as a member of Reagan’s first National Security Council team in D.C. Nassif went to President Reagan’s inauguration, but was reluctant to take a position in the new administration and disrupt his family life and career. “But then I was offered the position of Deputy Chief of Protocol for The White House where I’d be greeting all of the leaders and high-level people that would come visit. That was just too interesting to pass up. Zinetta and I prayed about it and decided we would do it for a couple of years. I was appointed in April. The kids (ages of 11 and 9) finished the school year in the Imperial Valley and then the family joined me in Washington.”

From there, Nassif’s diplomatic career took off. “It was a case of the harder I worked, the luckier I got.”

He became Acting Chief of Protocol and then was promoted to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian affairs in 1983. It was a plum job as Nassif was very much interested in working on policy for the Middle East, where his family roots were deeply planted. Two years later, in 1985, he was selected by President Ronald Reagan to serve as ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco. He and his family moved to Morocco, and he stayed in that position until the end of Reagan’s term.

In the world of ambassadors, about half are career diplomats and about half are political appointees, who typically are large donors to the party in power. Nassif secured his position through hard work as he was neither a large donor nor a career public servant. He came to the ambassadorship with several goals established by President Reagan involving diplomatic relations among the countries in North Africa, including re-establishing the relationship between Algeria and Morocco and ending the war in the Western Sahara. There were also many other initiatives including rooting out some systemic diseases. While he was ambassador, some significant activities occurred including the bombing of Libya by the United States. “We were very successful in getting everything done that was asked of us, including restoring diplomatic relations with Algiers and ending the war in the Western Sahara.”

In fact, Nassif was decorated by the late King Hassan II of Morocco and the president of Lebanon for his work on Middle East issues. He calls the experience life-changing and said it is one of the highlights of his life. “I was asked to stay on for the administration of George Bush I, but it was time to go home.”

A New Home & New Skill Sets

Nassif took a position as chairman of Gulf Interstate Engineering, a Houston, Texas-based company working on developing oil and gas pipeline properties in North Africa and the Gulf. His position required a lot of travel so he gathered his family and let them decide where they should relocate. “They picked La Jolla.”

The family did move to the San Diego County city in California and Nassif stayed in that position for six years. His bona fides as a businessman were well developed, but he said it was a period in which he had to travel too much, spending too much time away from his family.

Next on the professional bucket list was work in the immigration environment. From 1994 until he joined Western Growers in 2002, Nassif worked as a consultant on border crossing issues helping to develop the Calexico East Point of Entry. “We built the border crossing from scratch,” he said.

The actual crossing was built in 1996. As the work was winding down, Nassif was just starting his own consulting firm when Western Growers came calling.

A Final Career Stop

In 2001, longtime Western Growers Board Member the late Jon Vessey asked his friend Tom Nassif if he would interview for the top staff position at the organization. Nassif was not that interested. He liked the idea of establishing his own consulting business, working on the international stage, and he was happy with his home location in La Jolla. But after consulting with Zinetta, he agreed to at least interview for the spot. A couple of interviews later, he was offered the position. “We prayed about it and decided that if it were offered we would take it,” he said.

At the time, the search committee had been charged with “looking outside the box” as they contemplated potential candidates. Nassif’s depth of experience checked many of the boxes that were on the committee’s wish list, and the position also checked many of the boxes on his wish list for future employment. First and foremost was his passion for produce. As a labor lawyer for agriculture three decades earlier, he learned to love the industry and the people in it.

It seemed like a match made in heaven…literally.

Setting the Association on a Better Course

Nassif took the position on February 1, 2002, and was raring to get to work to tackle the thorny issues that faced agriculture, such as immigration reform. He never gave it a thought that the association was in a difficult financial position. But it was, and that became his first order of action.

Nassif realized that several programs were not fiscally solvent and he went about to eliminate those financially failing efforts. By the end of his first year in office, the necessary steps had been taken and he was named president/CEO of both the association and insurance sides of the business. Running a fiscally solvent organization has been at the top of his agenda ever since.

Since those early days, the organization has done very well with its for-profit entities running a profit every year. “My goal was to create a rainy day fund of $10 million that was free of obligation so that no matter what happened, we would always have that. We have established that and exceeded it many times over.”

In fact, he notes that being a fiscal conservative might be a drawback. “The board is always telling me we should spend more money. I’ll leave that to the next president,” he quipped.

The Western Growers Experience

While Nassif did list some specific highlight efforts during his Western Growers career (which are explored below), it is the association’s culture that he both inherited and honed that will be his most enduring legacy. He noted that Western Growers is a “top roots rather than grassroots organization.” The board of directors is made up of company owners and CEOs. They are the people that run companies and quickly make decisions. That structure was instrumental as Nassif and his staff tackled emerging problems and launched new entities.

Under his watch, Western Growers greatly expanded its business in the agricultural insurance world expanding Pinnacle Claims Management and becoming a contractor for Covered California working with small business firms. For this, David Zanze and his team deserve the credit, he said. The association took the lead in the development of food safety solutions after the spinach outbreak and has led the charge in ag innovation.

The ability of the association to pivot quickly meshed well with Nassif’s leadership style. “I don’t micromanage but I will get into the weeds,” he said, adding that he likes to give his staff direction and then let them take the ball and run with it.

He was reluctant to single out staff or board members for specific praise as he has worked with dozens of excellent people and didn’t want to leave anyone out. But he did say that many of the accomplishments under his watch came about because of the hard work and direction of many staff and board colleagues. For example, board members Bruce Taylor and Vic Smith, as well as staff member Hank Giclas, were instrumental in establishing the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology. David Zanze took the lead for the advancements on the insurance side of the building. Jasper Hempel and Giclas were the point people for the solutions that came from the spinach crisis. “Matt McInerney and Jasper Hempel were my mentors and most trusted colleagues,” he said “Dave Puglia’s hire was a seminal moment for the organization and the recruitment of Ward Kennedy, Karen Timmins, Jason Resnick and Dennis Nuxoll has formed a strong foundation for our future leader, Dave Puglia.”

Nassif believes his first non-moves after joining the organization were critical to his success. “The staff in place was a blessing. I didn’t clean house like a lot of CEOs do after they take over. I didn’t fire one person and I never hired a family member or a friend, except my executive assistant, Audrey Seybert.”

Instead, he has utilized the talents around him to achieve great success for the association as a whole, leaving Western Growers as a leader in the ag space on so many fronts.

Immigration Reform

The battle to achieve immigration reform has been the source of Nassif’s biggest frustration and, ironically, possibly his greatest success. Under Nassif, Western Growers has been leading the charge for immigration reform, and the creation of regulations that would establish a legal workforce for production agriculture, for two decades.

That outcome has not yet been achieved, though Nassif remains optimistic that it will come to fruition and he plans to work on the issue for Western Growers even after he leaves his post. Speaking on the third day of October, he was hopeful a bill, with bipartisan support, would be passed by the House of Representatives by the end of October. “We will know by the end of the month but I’m hopeful. We are working with representatives on both sides of the aisle and we may get it done.”

He says bi-partisan support is critical as the bill would have no chance in the Senate unless it can garner 20-30 Republican votes in the House.

Nassif has been at this crossroads before. In fact, he calls the effort in 2013 that saw the Senate pass an immigration reform bill with bi-partisan support one of the most rewarding moments during his Western Growers career. He has long been credited with spearheading that effort and being the difference-maker in getting the Senate bill passed. Unfortunately, it was killed in the House by a group of inflexible legislators.

Nassif knows it is a Herculean task to pass immigration reform, especially with the divided political nation that currently exists. Compromise is the key. Whatever bill emerges is not going to be perfect but to Nassif it can be good enough. He said that for agriculture that means there has to be provisions for a legal workforce as well as a path to legal residency for the millions of workers who are established in this country, have raised their families here and are doing the nation’s work in agriculture and in other industries. A bill that doesn’t address that is not good enough for the Western Growers leader who has devoted countless hours over the past two decades to this issue.

The Spinach Outbreak

When looking at the highlights of his Western Growers career, Nassif points to another effort that had a very negative connotation. In 2006, the E.coli outbreak in spinach led to a financial bloodbath for spinach growers and a gigantic black eye for the industry. “It was my first experience with a major contamination issue and we jumped right in and were determined we would solve it ourselves without State legislative assistance. Jasper Hempel, who was the first person I had hired, was very instrumental in helping to establish the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement in California and another one in Arizona.”

It took time, but the spinach industry came back and contamination issues have been few and far between since then. And Nassif said that effort has been used as a national model in establishing food safety regulations for the industry.

Science & Technology

An additional business direction for Western Growers came earlier this decade when it launched the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology. The center is a place for ideas to incubate and for thinkers to work on solutions for the industry’s most challenging problems such as a shortage of labor and water.

Industry leaders Bruce Taylor and Vic Smith were instrumental in launching this effort, and Nassif says it wouldn’t have succeeded without them. But it was his idea to build and own the Center with Western Growers taking the lead position in this effort rather than a secondary role. Though, it will take time for solutions to emerge, Nassif said “we have seen phenomenal progress. Ag innovation has taken a prominent place with many investors coming forward. We are on the right track and we are starting to see results.”

Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance

Nassif plucks a success story from the early days of his Western Growers career as another highlight of his tenure. Working with the association’s contract lobbyist, Robert Schramm, Nassif said the two of them wrote the bill that eventually led to the inclusion of a Specialty Crop title in the Farm Bill. For decades, program crops were the only teams on the Farm Bill playing field. The work by Western Growers, in conjunction with other specialty crop organizations around the country, led to the new dynamic, which has funneled billions of dollars of public investment to the industry.

That also led to another Nassif initiative with the invaluable assistance of Steve Patricio and Matt McInerney to establish full-time representation in the nation’s capital for the association. Western Growers had always used contract lobbyists but under Nassif’s watch, the organization has established one of the most robust government affairs offices for specialty agriculture in D.C.

The Relationships

As Nassif prepares to exit the Western Growers center stage, he does say it is the relationships that made the job, both with staff and industry members. Again, he was reluctant to single out the few at the expense of the many. He did say he formed an extremely close relationship with his first two chairmen of the board—A.G. Kawamura and Edwin Camp—as he traversed the early days of his presidency. He also mentioned longtime top lieutenant Matt McInerney. “Matt and I developed such a great relationship and respect that I expect to endure long after I leave the office. There are a lot of people on the board and on the staff that have been very special but I just hate to name names as I will leave out too many.”

He did note that he is leaving behind an excellent staff and is hopeful that the new CEO will treat them in much the same way he did 18 years ago. He mentioned that a handful of longtime WG staffers have retired in the past few years, creating a loss of a great deal of institutional knowledge.

Western Growers Afterlife

Tom Nassif’s spiritual side has been on display for all to see throughout his years at Western Growers so it is not surprising that his first thought for retirement is to be able to get more involved in his church. Nassif, who was ordained a deacon in 1998, was a founding member of St. Anthony Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in San Diego two decades ago. He serves the congregation every Sunday as a deacon but plans to do more as he time will allow.

He also expects to spend more time on Middle East issues, as he has done at various times in his career. With more time on his hands, he plans to once again work with the American Task Force for Lebanon, a group that he has led as both CEO and chairman over the years.

He also will continue to work with Western Growers on a four-year consultancy contract in which he expects immigration reform to be on the top of that list.

And of course, Mr. Nassif is looking forward to spending more time with his immediate family, which consists of his wife, Zinetta; his two adult children and grandkids. “My clear inspiration came from the sweetest heart I have ever met, my loving wife Zinetta,” he said. “My family is my treasure. We have unconditional love and an infinite fount of love for one another. My sisters and brothers-in-law gave me unending support which has never wavered.”

The motivation and timing of his retirement were fairly simple. “I have had to wake up to an alarm for too many years now; it is time to go.” He added that while many might have expected him “to die with his boots on” retirement has been in the works for a lot longer than most people knew. “Two and a half years ago I told the Executive Committee that I was planning to retire at the end of January 2020.”

And while he is looking forward to sleeping in, he also quickly added that he is “not going to be a couch potato” leading one to suspect there may be another chapter in the Tom Nassif biography.

The Advocates: A Week in the Life of Western Growers’ DC Lobbyists

November 2nd, 2019

“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” – The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Lobbying is a vital part of American democracy and helps ensure that grievances that threaten the livelihood of individuals or an industry are heard and, ideally, resolved. This tool is especially important for agriculture, which continually faces a plethora of legislation and regulation that make it increasingly difficult for farmers to grow healthy, nutritious food.

Western Growers (WG) understands that the policymaking processes that govern our nation are complex and can be overwhelming for individual citizens or business owners.

“At its heart, Western Growers is an advocacy organization,” said Dave Puglia, WG executive vice president. “We’re in front of legislators and regulators in Sacramento, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., fighting for the interests of our members. Our advocates don’t represent anyone else, and their intense dedication to our members becomes very personal. I certainly know the elation, frustration and anger that come with every success and setback. No group of professional advocates is more dedicated to this industry than ours.”

For more than 90 years, WG staff have acted as the liaisons between fresh produce farmers and elected and appointed representatives. They understand the legislative process inside and out and have made it a priority to educate policymakers about the importance of agriculture before they vote on bills that affect the fresh produce industry. With fully staffed government affairs offices in Sacramento, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., WG’s dedicated investment to advocacy is unique to the industry.

Since opening the Washington, D.C. office in 2007, WG’s influence has grown substantially at the federal level. For example, the D.C. staff organizes an annual “fly-in” in the spring, where members of the WG board of directors and executive staff convene with federal lawmakers and administration officials face-to-face to address issues critical to the agriculture industry.

Today, the D.C. office is comprised of three staff members: Dennis Nuxoll, vice president, federal government affairs; Jonathan Sarager, director, federal government affairs; and Tracey Chow, federal government affairs specialist. These advocacy experts act as the on-site warriors promoting policies that protect the industry and fighting against legislation that endanger growers and their operations.

Here is a behind-the-scenes look into what a week in September 2019 looked like for the tremendous trio.

MONDAY

The Morning

With negotiations surrounding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement heating up, Dennis meets with Tracey at the office to discuss the week’s pending meetings. This includes speaking about WG’s position, ironing out talking points, discussing the latest updates on the negotiations and determining which WG staff member will attend which meetings.

Dennis and Jonathan meet with the D.C. steering committee for the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) to collaboratively work on a House ag labor bill. WG is among the 130 global organizations in the AWC that share the goal of achieving agricultural immigration reform that will protect current workers and pave the way for a future flow of labor; in D.C., the steering committee is comprised of representatives from about a dozen of those 130 groups.

The Afternoon

Tracey meets with the Food and Ag Dialogue’s North American Working Group to discuss USMCA updates and strategies. This includes determining what the goals are for the week, what needs to be accomplished in the coming days and exchanging pertinent information about each of their respective organization’s needs. Next, the group—which solely represents food and agricultural organizations—finalizes the key messages and talking points and collaborates on organizing meetings with target Congressional offices.

Tracey reaches out to congressional staffers to set up meetings with legislators to discuss agricultural needs in the USMCA.

Dennis and Jonathan conduct a download from the AWC and delve into other topics surrounding immigration, including updates on H-2A and farmworker wage negotiations.

TUESDAY

The Morning

Jonathan reviews food safety documents that WG Senior Vice President of Science, Technology & Strategic Planning Hank Giclas sent over the previous night relating to E. coli and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s latest efforts to identify a kill step. Jonathan researches and reviews past articles and webinars on the topic.

Tracey prepares for her upcoming meetings with congressional members about USMCA. She then heads out to those various meetings to speak with staff of House and Senate leaders about agriculture’s needs as they relate to international trade.

As part of his role on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees for Trade (ATAC), Dennis participates in a classified briefing with the Administration and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) about the various trade negotiations. During today’s briefing, Dennis hears about updates in negotiations with Japan. He also has the opportunity to engage with Administration officials and discuss how aspects of the potential agreement will affect the agriculture industry.

The Afternoon

Jonathan reaches out to WG members in Colorado to coordinate “farm tours” for the upcoming week. Next week, Jonathan and Tracey will fly out to Colorado to meet with Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association/WG members to inquire about what federal issues are most important to Colorado fruit and vegetable growers and how the WG D.C. team can help solve those challenges.

Dennis and Jonathan participate in a two-hour meeting with the AWC, exchanging information on the latest updates on negotiations relating to a House ag labor bill.

The Evening

Dennis reads and reviews the documents discussed during the ATAC briefing, focusing on the agriculture-specific items.

WEDNESDAY

The Morning

Tracey heads to a meeting with the USMCA Coalition, a broader business coalition focused on educating representatives about USCMA and securing congressional passage of the agreement. As one of the members of this coalition, WG works with other business partners to lay out a plan, share feedback from congressional meetings and discuss tactics on how to get USMCA across the finish line.

Dennis and Jonathan meet with members of Congress and the AWC steering committee to review, edit and strengthen the House ag labor bill.

The Afternoon

Dennis works with Hank Giclas and Dennis Donohue, director of WG’s Center for Innovation & Technology, to set up meetings with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on mechanization and automation. WG is gaining steam on its efforts to accelerate the pace of automation in agriculture. The team continues to collaborate with USDA on potential programs and initiatives to advance specialty crop mechanization.

Dennis participates in a classified briefing for ATAC to receive an update on the U.S-Japan Trade Agreement.

The Evening

Dennis attends a fundraiser for Congressman Salud Carbajal, where he has the opportunity to speak with Rep. Carbajal about concerns of WG members farming in the Santa Barbara/Santa Maria areas.

THURSDAY

The Morning

Jonathan attends an intimate breakfast fundraiser for Congressman Dan Newhouse, where he speaks to Rep. Newhouse and his staff about the necessity of passing a House ag labor bill. Over the past months, Dennis and Jonathan have worked closely with the Newhouse office on immigration reform efforts.

Tracey fields calls from WG members to assist in solving importing and exporting issues.

Dennis strategizes with Dave Puglia and Cory Lunde, WG senior director, strategic initiatives & communications, on a media campaign to secure passage of a House ag labor bill and lay the groundwork for the bill to be passed through the U.S. Senate. The team brainstorms an integrated media campaign that will target California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

The Afternoon

Tracey attends the meetings with members of Congress to discuss USMCA.

Dennis and Jonathan meet with the AWC to strategize on how to finalize the immigration reform bill language and move into the next steps for official Congressional consideration.

The Evening

As the end of negotiations on the House ag labor bill nears, Dennis spends hours speaking with Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s office to discuss items such as where the bill stands, components and elements within the bill, what language needs revising, and much more. The discussion also identifies stakeholders who will be crucial in helping the bill pass through the House.

FRIDAY

The Morning

Jonathan attends the CropLife America Government Policy Weekend and Annual Meeting. In addition to being a part of two coalitions that fight for the use of crop protection tools, WG is actively engaged with organizations that produce and protect the necessary crop protection and biotechnology products used by farmers. During the meeting, Jonathan receives updates about the latest and pending threats to pesticides and speaks with other advocates about ways to protect these necessary tools on a federal level.

Dennis speaks with the chief of staff for a California congressional representative to outline the pending House ag labor bill and explain how the bill would benefit the constituents the member represents. This is in an effort to gain momentum for the passage of the ag labor bill in the House.

Tracey communicates with several WG members on their export issues and walks them through how to resolve those challenges, which often includes close coordination with USDA staff. She also finalizes the agenda for the Colorado farm tours she and Jonathan will be participating in next week.

The Afternoon

Dennis works with congressional staffers and water and irrigation districts on the mechanics of a House water bill that can accompany the Drought Resiliency and Water Supply Infrastructure Act (S. 1932) authored by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema. The larger objective is to secure a legislative package to address water supply and drought resiliency needs throughout the country, particularly in the Western states.

The Evening

Dennis connects with WG President & CEO Tom Nassif and Jason Resnick, WG vice president & general counsel, to provide an update on the House ag labor bill and discuss tactics on how to move the bill forward.

For many, the thought of spending long hours every workday in the halls of government is about as appealing as a dentist appointment. Fortunately for Western Growers members, Dennis, Jonathan and Tracey are driven to be there, to fight for good ag policy, and to never give up.

Together, We Can Create a Booming AgTech Ecosystem

November 2nd, 2019

By Hank Giclas and Stephanie Metzinger

Farmers across the world face the daunting challenge of producing 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed an ever-growing population. Achieving this dramatic increase in global food production will require a proactive approach to modernizing our food system.

Growers are “taking the bull by the horns” and implementing innovative practices on their farms to help them increase yield while facing more restrictive access to natural resources. However, they are not alone in their quest to save our food system and feed the world.

Across the food supply chain, there are a host of industry partners who are coming together and collaborating on solutions. These players are the academics who are researching how to get ahead of critical issues such as food safety outbreaks. They are trade associations that are advocating for necessary resources that allow farmers to continue to grow food, and the government agencies that are implementing initiatives to sustain a viable food supply. They are the entrepreneurs who are developing technologies to optimize growing practices and the investors who are providing capital that enable emerging businesses to build infrastructure and scale new ideas. Together, as partners, they are moving the needle to ensure a safe and sufficient supply of food for decades to come.

In 2017, Western Growers (WG) partnered with S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth) to launch a groundbreaking initiative to identify key innovations in the fresh produce industry, called the AgSharks® Competition. AgSharks is a live event, hosted at the WG Annual Meeting, where start-up companies compete for equity investments totaling up to $250,000 to support the development and growth of their businesses, as well as for farm acreage to pilot their technologies. These startups pitch their ideas to a panel of AgSharks—which is comprised of venture capitalists and growers—who will decide on the spot whether and how much to invest. The entrepreneurs must then accept the offer, negotiate or decline.

“We strongly believe that in order for entrepreneurship to be successful and innovation to take hold, you need to have the right stakeholders around the table,” said Audre Kapacinskas, vice president at S2G Ventures, a multi-stage food and agriculture venture fund. She refers to interested parties such as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and end users like WG members. Kapacinskas also expresses how domain experts, like WG Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Science & Technology Hank Giclas, are key players as they have a deep understanding of current trends and challenges and are knowledgeable on what priorities matter to all audiences involved.

“Combining the capabilities of an association like Western Growers with all the resources that a corporate partner such as S2G Ventures can offer results in a unique innovation model of one plus one equals three,” said Kapacinskas. “Working together, we have taken a holistic approach to the advancement of our food systems and expedited the time it takes to develop and deploy emerging technologies that can have an extraordinary impact on the evolution of the industry.”

Though AgSharks is only going into its third year, the initiative has already produced tangible results. The three winners of the competition have used their winnings to elevate their businesses to the next level. Here is a look at where they are now:

HAZEL TECHNOLOGIES

Technology Offered: Hazel Technologies’ products are inserts that time-release active ingredients into the storage atmosphere of commercially-packed produce. The active ingredients biochemically fight spoilage by slowing the aging process and fight the proliferation of diseases.

AgSharks Winnings: $2 million in equity investment during the 2017 AgSharks Competition.

Startup’s Progress Since AgSharks:

•   Funding: The $2 million contribution that S2G Ventures awarded to the startup during the AgSharks competition led to a $3.26 million Series A round. Just this July, the startup closed $13 million in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total private equity capital to $18 million.

•   Expanding Client Base: In 2017, about a dozen customers were trialing Hazel’s products. Today, they are active in 14 countries, servicing more than 300 million pounds of produce this year and preventing upwards of 60 million pounds from going to waste. They also closed a final deal with Mission Produce (a WG member) and launched a formal partnership with the avocado giant earlier this year.

•   Technology Enhancement: The company is launching new product offerings, along with the core product pitched at AgSharks.

•   Expanding Employee Base: Going into the AgSharks 2017 competition, the Hazel team consisted of 14 employees; today, the company has 25 employees and plans to hire five more by the end of the year. Going into 2020, the startup expects a 10-fold increase in revenue, which will require the startup to expand its workforce to 40 team members.

“There’s really a quality partnership between S2G and WG, and I believe that they have built a community that promotes good emerging companies. You see a lot of these pitch-orientated competitions, but not a lot of them necessarily have actionable investment behind them. I think the dual system that S2G and WG have created where you get in front of customers to build customer confidence and get in front of investors to build confidence on the investment side is critical.” – Aidan Mouat, CEO and Co-Founder at Hazel Technologies, Inc.

AGVOICE

Technology Offered: AgVoice is a mobile voice-interaction service designed for food and agriculture professionals to capture insights on the go. By using proprietary analytics and processing of raw voice files—including captured time stamps and location data—users can improve productivity and workflow management, increase documentation accuracy and gain valuable insights to optimize the use of resources in production.

AgSharks Winnings: A $250,000 convertible note at a $4 million cap, during the 2017 AgSharks Competition. The cap is the maximum price at which the note will convert. AgVoice is still in the early stages of growth and when it reaches the next round of growth, the convertible note will transform into a percentage of the company.)

Company Progress Since AgSharks:

•   Funding: The startup closed a pre-seed round six months after AgSharks. With S2G’s help in networking with additional investors, AgVoice has expanded its network and is currently working on a seed round.

•   Expanding Client Base: Since the AgSharks competition, customer interest in AgVoice has increased. AgVoice has gained early adopter customers and now has 10 large customers who are all participating in paid pilots.

•   Technology Enhancement: The startup has grown its product from a mobile app to now a fully integrated product, where customers can easily integrate AgVoice into their existing food safety software. The company is in the midst of developing a seamless integration kit that will allow fieldworkers to work with their eyes free and heads up as they dictate food safety updates into the farm’s current data collection system.

“If startups have a solution that solves real-world problems, the AgSharks competition is the best ecosystem in the world for helping them get to the next level.” – Bruce Rasa, CEO of AgVoice

AUGEAN ROBOTICS

Technology Offered: Augean Robotics builds robots to help farmworkers work more productively, with the long-term objective of automating all of the tedious work performed on the farms and outdoors. Their product, Burro, is a robotic platform that follows workers, moves cargo autonomously, and captures the data needed to further automate farm work.

AgSharks Winnings: $250,000 in equity investment during the 2018 AgSharks Competition.

Company Progress Since AgSharks:

•   Funding: The $250,000 equity investment from S2G Ventures played a significant role in helping propel the robotics startup to reach a $1.5 million seed round in April.

•   Expanding Client Base: Augean has been working with the California Table Grape Commission and several WG member companies to deploy their robots in table grape vineyards across the state. The robots are assisting farmworkers who are picking 12 to 16, 40-pound bins per hour. After the implementation of the robots, table grape farmers are now seeing a 20-30 percent productivity gain from having Burro carry materials autonomously in the field.

•   Technology Enhancement: As a direct result of the AgSharks winnings, the startup was able to launch a fleet of 16 Burros. The fleet has run for about two months now, racking up several hundred autonomous miles in a variety of fields including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and grapes. Burro is now on its fifth version and the startup is working out the last kinks related to the autonomous movement of the robot. Augean anticipates that going into the 2020 season, the sixth generation of Burro will be available commercially to growers of table grapes.

•   Expanding Employee Base: At the time of AgSharks, the company had four employees. Today, the company has seven team members, all who have a technical focus.

“AgSharks very directly helped us raise enough money to scale up and get a fleet of robots out there in the field. Also, as a result of the competition, customers are very apt to talk with us because if they Google us, they see how we are supported and backed by well-respected, well-regarded organizations like WG and S2G.” – Charlie Andersen, CEO of Augean Robotics

In addition to creating the AgSharks competition, S2G and WG are embarking on several other initiatives to accelerate technology in the food and agriculture industry.

“Through AgSharks, we’ve created a foundation that will allow us to be more fruitful beyond one event each year,” said Kapacinskas. “We are now going deeper with members to identify specific pain points and opportunities that can result in serving the grower/shipper community and ag network in a more engaging manner.”

S2G is fully engaged with WG in developing a deep understanding of member concerns and works directly with both WG and its member companies to develop strategies and bring technology forward to address those concerns. S2G holds a unique position within the WG Food Safety, Science and Technology committee, which is comprised of 20 members of the WG Board of Directors who are involved in routine discussions with the board about priority issues for the association.

In addition, WG and S2G staff work together to conduct “deep dives” with select WG members to better understand technology needs, problems, markets, etc. These one-on-one conversations with leaders in the produce industry are invaluable for both WG and S2G as they provide detailed information on technological needs, how things are being received and the potential for them to scale.

WG also engages companies that S2G has invested in with member trials, as appropriate, and S2G has full access to the innovation sessions that originate within WG or the WG Center for Innovation and Technology. S2G is currently participating in WG’s automation initiative as well as the Association’s food safety and data initiatives.

“Through these initiatives, we are hoping that the industry will get increasingly capitalized to push forward with innovations that are still in a nascent stage,” said Kapacinskas. “We anticipate that in the future, we can be more preventative and have a concrete system in place that allows us to test and deploy in a turnkey manner.”

The S2G – Western Growers relationship is extremely valuable to Western Growers, as it allows the Association to marry deep domain expertise that originates from staff and members of WG with a massive technology pipeline administered by S2G and their expertise on what is necessary for a startup to succeed in the early stages of development. Together, the two organizations are poised to help these companies succeed and bring solutions to the industry much more quickly.

The Future World of Autonomous Vehicles

November 2nd, 2019

By Mark Petersen, Vice President of C.H. Robinson

Autonomous vehicles are making headlines. Whether for personal or commercial use, there’s a lot of speculation about what the future will bring. However, autonomy isn’t all or nothing. As shown in the graphic below, it’s a progressive continuum with five distinct levels of capabilities.

Not all levels of automation are equal

As you might have noticed, there’s a significant gap between level three—having your eyes off the road but at the ready—and levels four and five. Both four and five are completely self-driving, but level four still requires a human present while five involves no human driver. Many agree, levels one through three are achievable on a broad scale in the next five years. Levels four and five are likely 10 or more years away.

Autonomy in food transportation today

Based on these five levels, we are still on level one when it comes to moving food via trucks. Using this interpretation of autonomy, there simply hasn’t been a real impact today.

When you think about the planting, growing, and harvesting of food, tractors and other agricultural field equipment are far more automated than highway vehicles. That’s not to say food transportation is without any technology or automation.

  • Long-haul autonomy

    In the long-haul foods space, platooning, or the grouping of vehicles, is one technology that stands out as effective and the most likely to soon appear on a broad scale. Platooning uses truck-to-truck communication, advanced sensing technology, and data to improve the safety and efficiency of trucks.

    When engaged, drivers operate as usual while wireless technology links each vehicle; a forward-looking radar sensor can sense obstacles ahead and automatically apply brakes in multiple trucks faster than humans can. Platooning allows trucks to travel closer together than manual driving. The shorter gap between trucks positively alters aerodynamics, reduces wind resistance, and results in fuel savings for these trucks.

    As self-driving capabilities in trucks increase, so do the savings. It’s estimated that removing one driver from one truck (partial autonomy) plus platooning can lead to 15 percent savings per mile, and removing drivers from both trucks (complete autonomy) plus platooning could lead to 40 percent cost savings per mile.

  • Last mile autonomy

    From a curbside pickup to meal delivery, there are a number of automated ways to deliver food to consumers’ doors.

    When delivering to consumers, people trust others to handle and pick their food. This has been a slow shift as some struggle with food safety or proper selection of ripeness in the case of produce. With more comfort delegating food orders, more doors for automation are possible. In this space, we won’t be limited to autonomous vehicles but could soon see drones and other robotic delivery mechanisms in use.

    One thing is for certain, as more automation enters our industry, we can expect more accurate tracking and real-time visibility throughout a shipment’s life.

Expect an impact on infrastructure and regulations

The physical structures that support the movement of goods must adjust for automation. Parking facilities and loading docks are just one example. If platooning becomes more common with only one driver for multiple trucks, how do multiple trucks in a convoy unload at a dock? Is there enough space? Are drive-through loading locations going to be more like rail yards? These are only some of the unanswered questions we’ll need to resolve.

Regulations have potential to change too, as fully autonomous vehicles won’t have a driver requiring sleep, hours of service (HOS) may need to take that into consideration. More autonomous vehicles on the road could also create a culture of more law-abiding drivers. From speed limits to using blinkers, there’s no human element to refute a law.

Looking to the future of automation

Of course automation could also increase efficiency in labor for the food industry as well. For example, finding labor to pick fresh produce can be challenging; if there’s a way to combine machine learning with autonomous vehicles, we may overcome this challenge as well.

As you can see, there are many questions still to resolve before food transportation becomes fully autonomous. The Western Growers Transportation Program’s exclusive provider, C.H. Robinson, has both the people you can rely on and technology built by and for supply chain experts that improves your efficiency and performance. This balance of deep expertise and tailored, market-leading solutions will be critically important as our world undergoes so many changes. To learn more, visit www.wga.com/logistics.

Food Safety – Let’s Take a Step Back

November 2nd, 2019

In a recent article, I talked about Western Growers’ leadership in the food safety arena. For decades now, Western Growers has been the leader in what has been the single largest shift in food safety culture for growers and handlers on record. We have worked hand-in-glove with our members to design and consistently enhance preventive controls in the field as the first line of defense in food safety. Our member companies, steadfastly committed to providing the safest, highest quality produce in the world, have quietly and diligently worked to create a food safety paradigm that has now spread beyond the West and beyond those few commodities-of-concern to the entire produce industry. The Produce Safety Rule—which affects (almost) all suppliers both foreign and domestic—incorporates much of the seminal work that we, as a Western industry, have labored over for the last decade. We truly have made a difference.

Despite that very productive work, foodborne illness outbreaks continue to occur. Now is not the time to grow weary, but to think through and act on what more we can do and what we can do better. While others are recommending unrealistic deadlines and questionable priorities for the leafy greens industry—recommendations I believe set the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreements up for failure. I think our next smartest course of action is to take a step back and work directly with Western Growers to aggregate food safety data to inform our next steps. Let me explain.

What has been talked about for quite some time now in food safety circles is the need for quantitative risk assessments (QRA) that can truly make an impact—using real-world experience, data, and costs of key food safety interventions—on public health. Analyzing risk is very consistent with the grower/handler mentality. There are many hazards associated with growing fresh produce outdoors in a largely uncontrollable environment, and industry astutely wants to know which of those hazards are the most important, which translate to the highest risk, and if you have a dollar to spend on food safety interventions, where is that dollar best spent?

I don’t think we can sit here today with the data that we currently have and say the next best investment is in the development of controls for furrow irrigation systems. It is time to put industry and agency data to work for the benefit of all. We need to take the qualitative risk assessment work that has been guiding us for the last decade and move to a formal quantitative risk assessment process. Growers and handlers deserve to better understand where their efforts and investments are best deployed. And as leaders in the food safety arena, it is incumbent upon us to help them gain that understanding.

So how do we go about this? In 2012, Drs. Rock, Gerba and Bright, a very competent team hailing from the University of Arizona (UA), showed the way with a Center for Produce Safety study entitled, “Assessment of E. coli as an indicator of microbial quality for irrigation water use for produce.” While the first phase of this study looked at comparing methods for detecting E. coli in irrigation water as well as factors that might influence false positives, the second phase was about evaluating the risks associated with varying irrigation methods.

Specifically, Dr. Rock’s team set out to: 1) develop an exposure scenario (model) for E. coli in irrigation waters; 2) estimate the risk of illness from ingestion of various levels of E. coli from varying irrigation scenarios; 3) develop a simple, user-friendly guideline for estimating risk of infection from the different irrigation scenarios; and 4) compare their results to risks associated with current standards (at the time 126 CFU/100 mL).

This is a quantitative risk assessment—and specifically a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). QMRA is a data-driven process that estimates the risk of infection and/or illness from a pathogenic microorganism. Indeed, the UA team’s QMRA results showed a decreasing level of risk for overhead, furrow and drip irrigation (in that order), but as outstanding and important as it was, their work only looked at irrigation water and only used data from the Yuma region.

QMRA is typically used to estimate the risk from the ingestion of a known pathogen by water or food. The UA team’s QMRA factored in the number of pathogenic E. coli in water, the amount transferred to produce, and E. coli survival rates on the crop (both pre- and post-harvest) to estimate the number of E. coli ingested by a consumer eating a typical serving. This information coupled with infective dose was then used to calculate the probability of illness. Granted, there is some uncertainty embedded in all QMRA models—but it is, to date, one of the more interesting studies that provides a focused look at food safety hazards associated with the routine production of fresh produce. More studies like this need to be conducted in other regions on other types of food safety hazards.

Imagine if we understood the varying risks of hazards related to soil amendments or the proximity to different types and sizes of animal operations in terms of “probability of illness.” We could then begin to look at these risks in total and assign our efforts and interventions to areas having the most significant positive impact on public health. Instead of spending time, energy and money on every risk under the sun, we could focus on the areas having the highest probability of illness and, therefore, have a more meaningful impact on public health.

These types of studies are only possible with robust data sets. The data collected by industry presents a great opportunity to understand and evaluate hazards and risks more completely. Through better understanding, we can target controls to areas of highest impact, and save both time and money for industry as well as potentially reduce the number of foodborne illness outbreaks. Unfortunately, the data mostly resides within the walls of the discrete companies that collect it, which is why Western Growers has made it a priority to push for our member companies to share data with us so we can facilitate broader industry learning and improvement. For nearly a century, Western Growers has been a trusted grower and handler representative and though some folks may have reservations sharing this type of information, we have a history of protecting individual member data and information while putting it to its highest use in academic, regulatory and industry circles.

Today, I am calling on Western Growers members to share with us their food safety data in order to empower the industry to make meaningful changes to food safety programs. It is only through an engaged membership that we will continue to make progress for our members. The time is now to harness and analyze decades’ worth of data to more effectively improve food safety systems rather than heaping new, unexamined controls on growers without the confidence that they will indeed reduce illness.

Western Growers members, across the board, have implemented the strongest preventive controls to date. These controls undoubtedly make a difference and have become the foundation for fresh produce food safety throughout the world. That said, we must embrace the use of quantitative data analysis to continue to evaluate where we are and how we can deploy the most effective controls rather than just reacting to outside recommendations based on anecdotal evidence.

The Health and Wellness Landscape

November 2nd, 2019

Health and wellness are ideals everyone strives for, but finding a balance of the two while navigating the intricacies of our daily lives is something many struggle to achieve. When life throws some unexpected turns into the mix, it not only creates stress at home but also in the workplace. The effects of those stressors can have a significant impact on employees’ mental wellbeing and even affect their performance at work. In fact, a survey from Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) this year found that employees experiencing stress miss an average of nine workdays each year.

Many employers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of managing the wellbeing of employees as a whole. When employees are happy and healthy, it improves workplace productivity, decreases absenteeism, attracts and retains top talent, improves employee morale, and ultimately, reduces medical and pharmacy costs.

Large employers in the United States are expected to spend an estimated $3.6 million each on wellness programs in 2019 to support a healthier and more productive workforce, according to the NBGH and Fidelity’s 10th annual Health and Wellness survey. One of the reasons is that wellness has a huge impact on healthcare costs, and employers want to address these rising costs by taking preventive measures.

The Wellness Movement

Health and wellness have come a long way, but when you look back in history, you can’t help but notice that employers have always recognized the benefits of happy and healthy employees. In the ‘80s—the 1880s, that is—the president of National Cash Register (NCR) met employees for horseback rides after work. Later, NCR instituted exercise breaks twice a day, constructed an employee gym and, in 1011, added a recreational park for its employees, according to the National Council of Behavioral Health.

In the 1930s, we saw the introduction of Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to help employees with occupational alcoholism, but they gradually expanded to address other work-life issues. It was also around this time when the U.S. saw employers begin to offer health benefits to employees as an incentive instead of solely competing on the basis of pay.

In the 1980s, we saw the emergence of health and fitness, and anti-smoking measures were becoming more prominent. It was during this decade when one of the largest U.S. corporations, Boeing, banned smoking in the workplace. Today, smoking-related illnesses cost the U.S. more than $300 billion each year, including an estimated $170 billion for direct medical care for adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which can be a huge expense for employer health plans.

Making the Most of Wellness

Employer-based programs that focus on physical health are quite customary, and those programs typically include reduced gym membership fees for employees and chronic disease (care) management programs. Employers who self-insure can purchase a chronic disease management program as an add-on to their employee health plan or a health plan carrier may include a similar program in the cost of their plan.

At Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT), we partner with our sister company, Pinnacle Health Management (PHM), to offer a care management program at no cost to employees diagnosed with a range of chronic care conditions. This program is included with every WGAT health plan purchased. Additionally, employers can obtain our Wellness Program as an add-on, which includes quarterly wellness challenges, wellness toolkits and other educational resources, newsletters on popular health topics, and customized reports at the end of all wellness challenges.

Wellness challenges this year have included the “Slash Your Sugar Challenge,” a 21-day challenge that focused on reducing sugar consumption; the “Step Up Challenge,” which is a walking challenge to improve the general health of employees through daily movement; and the “Rest and Revive Challenge,” a mental health challenge that promotes positive emotional wellbeing through preventing and managing stress.

If you don’t have the WGAT plan, which includes a care management program with every plan and the added option of a Wellness Program, contact us to see how we can help you better manage your healthcare costs at (800) 333-4942.

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

Our Investment in Your Employee Benefits Experience

November 2nd, 2019

The employee benefits renewal season is upon us and many of our members are evaluating their current benefits options. As always, one of the key questions is: how does their plan positively improve the lives of their employees and their families, with what sort of financial impact on the bottom line of their business?

Western Growers Insurance Services (WGIS) has heavily invested in people and technology, significantly increasing our capabilities to help you answer the many questions and challenges associated with the employee benefits process and experience.

Earlier this year, our (your) employee benefits leadership team increased by three talented individuals—Eric Trost, Jodi Martin, and Darcie Floyd. Each brings more than 20 years of experience as benefits consultants, enhancing our ability to give the best advice and service to you and your employees. We know the commitment you place on your own employees, and our goal is to make sure we are matching that level of commitment with the team members we bring to you.

Beyond adding top talent to our team, we are focused on following a core service delivery model to ensure your needs are always met. This covers everything from customer support to technology offerings, and our communication commitment to you.

When it comes to technology, we have a client portal that is up to date and easy to use for anyone who has a policy with us. A real-time online enrollment system has been added to streamline that process for you, and a Human Resources (HR) library has also been built out to give you access to the latest resources. Each of these platforms was chosen and designed to make your HR team more efficient and effective.

Communication is one of the most important aspects of any business relationship. Our team communicates with you regularly to ensure you are informed and up to date with all compliance requirements, legislative changes, plan designs and medical trends. It is our goal to help your employees understand their benefits and the financial value of those benefits. This is why we understand the importance of educating your employees on the value of their plan.

With the many options available, it can be a challenge to navigate what decision is best for you and your business. At WGIS, we know Western Growers Assurance Trust (your association health plan) better than any other agent. This puts us in the unique position to help your team design the best value plans for the most competitive premium. We work every day with WGAT’s underwriting, claims, and field service teams, which translates to maximum flexibility to meet the needs of you and your employees.

As brokers, we actively assist your team with securing the most competitive options, offering alternative carriers for those cases where the Trust isn’t the best fit. We assist your team with comparisons of plan designs and premium levels as needed, ensuring your team makes an informed decision.

What I want to leave you with is the feeling of optimism and excitement for the employee benefits experience we are now capable of delivering. As mentioned, we have made major investments in our people and capabilities and would appreciate the opportunity to work with your team. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits options we can provide, then we are ready to set up an introduction with your team. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] or visit our website at www.wgis.com for more information on how we can make your employee benefits experience the best one yet.

Creating Value in Agtech: The Role of Intellectual Property

November 2nd, 2019

By Rudolph P. Darken and Nelson T. Rivera

 

Agtech entrepreneurs have a lot in common with the growers they serve. Just as a grower plants, nurtures, and harvests products for their market, the agricultural technology (agtech) entrepreneur takes an idea, grows it into tangible goods and services, developing products for their market. All agtech startups are concerned with value of one form or another: the value of their products and services and ultimately, the value of their company. But there’s a lot more to consider that is often overlooked. A better understanding of the intangible assets your company has—that is, your intellectual property (IP)—can be a critical factor in building value for your organization.

Your company’s intangible assets are many. Your products may have unique features that you should protect either by patenting them, or by securing them as trade secrets. As you gain customers and grow your reputation, you’ll want to consider trademark protection for your company name, as well as for your products and services, to assure that customers can’t be confused by some other company with a similar name or with similarly named products and services. If any of your products are packaged in a particular way that is an important part of your brand, you can consider protecting them as trade dress and/or with design patents.

One of the many advantages of owning rights to IP is the ability it gives you to license or sell your rights as part of your business development strategy. For example, if your company has limited resources or needs to get to market faster, you might choose to license the development, manufacturing, or distribution of your protected IP—this further monetizes your IP and enhances the value of your company. But that only works if you legally own the IP! This strategy might help you get your products to market faster while sharing risk with your partners, and ultimately obtaining a competitive advantage over your competitors. There’s a lot to consider beyond just the value of your products and services in the marketplace!

An often-overlooked aspect of agtech is that almost all agtech startups are software-intensive, meaning that an important part of the value you create for your customers is in the software that you provide. Certainly, there are startups focused on sensors, fertilizers, energy, water, and other tangible elements, but commonly, a key concept behind agtech startups is a source (or sources) of data that flow into a software product that manipulates, correlates, or otherwise transforms the data into something new and useful that produces some unique output or effect.

This raises an interesting issue with regard to protecting your intellectual property and adding value to your company. Since the Alice v. CLS Bank decision by the Supreme Court in 2014, patenting software has been challenging, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has continued to revise its guidance on how to patent software inventions. First, it is important to know that software is patentable. There are those who will say that because of Alice, you can’t patent software. That is incorrect. But software inventions tend to fall under an exception to the rule called an “abstract idea” that can make them unpatentable.

As an example, let’s consider a food security application that tracks source data from the specific location where a product is harvested through packaging, shipping, and final distribution. Your company has invented a new algorithm that can locate a container with increased speed and precision and can identify other containers that could be compromised. Now you want to patent your invention.

On the surface, this appears to be an abstract idea of data collection, data storage and data transmission. We would address this by showing that your invention is more than just the abstract idea—that you are claiming a specific implementation with meaningful limitations to the abstract idea. We would ask you how your invention collects the data, manipulates it, stores it, and transforms it, resulting in the end product. We would then write the specific implementation details into your claims, also showing that what you are doing is neither a well-understood, routine or conventional activity in the agriculture industry. Of course, there are no guarantees of success, but this is the general approach we take to get software-intensive patents issued for our clients.

When you are successful, you have a patent that can protect your idea from others who might try to copy it. That has value in and of itself, but when coupled to your other products, your business strategy, your customers and your workforce, it could make an enormous difference in the value of your company. And that’s what you work so hard for, isn’t it?

 

Rudolph P. Darken is an intellectual property attorney and is also a professor of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Nelson T. Rivera is an intellectual property attorney. JRG Attorneys at Law is a full-service law firm on the Central Coast with a team of attorneys specializing in intellectual property law.

November/December 2019 Digital Edition of WG&S Magazine Now Available

November 5th, 2019

The latest and final 2019 edition of Western Grower & Shipper magazine is now available online and in print. As Western Growers President and CEO Tom Nassif  prepares for retirement, this edition highlights many of his advocacy efforts and his legacy on Western Growers and the produce industry. Click here to access the electronic version of the magazine.

Some highlights from this issue:

Always the Advocate
Western Growers got more than it bargained for when it hired the former ambassador to Morocco almost two decades ago. “His commitment to the job and his integrity are unmatched.”

A Week in the Life of Western Growers’ DC Lobbyists
Lobbying is a vital part of American democracy and helps ensure that grievances that threaten the livelihood of individuals or an industry are heard and, ideally, resolved. For more than 90 years, WG staff have acted as the liaisons between fresh produce farmers and elected and appointed representatives.

Together, We Can Create a Booming AgTech Ecosystem
Farmers across the world face the daunting challenge of producing 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed an ever-growing population. Achieving this increase in global food production will require a proactive approach to modernizing our food system.

The Future World of Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles are making headlines. Whether for personal or commercial use, there’s a lot of speculation about what the future will bring.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

Upcoming Lunch & Learn Webinar Covers Root Cause Analysis and Produce Safety

November 14th, 2019

It is imperative for the produce industry to identify and understand the cause or causes of food safety system failures during growing, harvesting and post-harvest operations. Root Cause Analysis is a method of evaluating failures and involves a systematic process to determine how and why a failure occurred. This approach is commonly applied to process improvement and it is vital to a produce safety system. This webinar will cover key concepts and tools available to conduct a root cause analysis. In addition, our featured speaker will share a case study to illustrate this process. Don’t miss this opportunity, join us to hear about this topic and to ask questions. Register today!

WEBINAR DETAILS

Root Cause Analysis and Produce Safety

Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PDT

SPEAKER:  Michelle DanylukProfessor of Food Science at University of Florida,

 Ph.D., Food Science – Specialization Microbiology, University of California, Davis 

RSVP: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Participation is complimentary.