Revitalized Grower Trial Network Provides “Star Alliance” Access and Opportunity

November 17th, 2020

By Stephanie Metzinger

Powering up the computer to see perfectly rectangular boxes with familiar faces peeking through, tiled one after the next, has become the new norm.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and hosting in-person gatherings was ill-advised, video conferencing became a common practice. Events and meetings across the world went virtual, opening the floodgates to broader reach and more opportunity. Members of the Grower Trial Network (GTN) have fully embraced the change and are using this COVID-induced opportunity to expedite the trial and adoption of technology within the agriculture industry.

The GTN is an organized group of Western Growers (WG) members who trial and evaluate technology coming out of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) in Salinas, CA. The group, which is led by Future Volunteer Leaders and supported by WG board members and the Center’s sponsors, held its kick-off meeting in February 2019 at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, CA. Since then, they have gathered at various locations up and down California and Arizona to hear pitches from agtech start-up companies, provide feedback and connect on potential trials or collaborations. However, when COVID-19 hit, all meetings went virtual and ultimately expanded the network’s capabilities.

“The growers and participants like the virtual format because sessions are an hour with only a couple companies presenting at a time so it’s more in-depth,” said WGCIT Director Dennis Donohue. “Even after COVID, the virtual aspect will stay part of the program in addition to physical gatherings.”

As part of the new format, growers can hear about budding technologies from startups residing in the WGCIT—some of which are located in other states and across the globe. These startups also now have the unique opportunity to speak to growers who previously would not have been able to attend in-person pitches due to conflicting schedules. The convenience of virtual GTN meetings has birthed new opportunities for growers and startups to, together, refine technologies to meet the exact needs of the agriculture industry.

“Technology has become such an integral part of agriculture, and it will continue to play a key role in the industry moving forward. The success of start-up companies depends upon receiving quality grower feedback,” said Colby Pereira, vice president of operations at Braga Fresh. “Specialty crops need tailored technologies in general and individual companies have very unique needs, so the GTN is an invaluable forum to facilitate the exchange of that information.”

During the sessions, Pereira focuses on providing direction on measurable objectives on the farm as well as input on certain data/metrics, cost-benefit analytics and ease of implementation. The meetings have resulted in numerous relationships with companies that have either previously been part of, or are currently part of, the GTN.

“I try to make a point of keeping in contact with companies I’ve connected with during the GTN meetings. I find it to be mutually beneficial as the startups are constantly evolving with their capabilities and we as growers are constantly identifying new operational needs for these technologies to fill,” she said.

Along with pitching their products, the startups also have the opportunity to receive feedback on their business model. WG members who participate in the GTN meetings are leaders at their companies—many of which have been in business for 50 or more years—and provide the entrepreneurs with guidance on how to build a thriving company. Most entrepreneurs in the Center are still in the beginning stages of building a scaling business, so the advice and mentorship from growers have proved invaluable.

Connecting with these growers during the GTN meetings has also played a crucial role in helping entrepreneurs grow their network. At each session, startups are in the “virtual room” with a handful of agricultural leaders, technology pioneers, business moguls and potential investors and customers. The online forum creates a more intimate environment, allowing both startups and WG members to further their engagement and deepen their relationships.

“A lot of the benefit we get from GTN is in introductions to other companies and potential customers,” said Bryan Banks, founder and chief operating officer at KipTraq. “While we have not yet closed any deals with companies we have been introduced to through GTN, we’re close to closing a few.”

KipTraq, which creates a flexible mobile data collection tool that streamlines any data collection process in minutes, is also delving into collaborations with other members of the GTN. The agtech company has been part of the WGCIT since May 2019, and since its involvement, has made significant connections by engaging in WG-related events such as the Forbes AgTech Summit and now the online GTN meetings.

Moving forward, the WGCIT will make the program more customized to better meet the needs of both the grower and the startup. GTN meetings will now target specific companies to be paired with specific growers. For example, WGCIT startups working on technology to help mitigate bee colony losses will be paired with almond growers and water technology startups.

The new tailored model will be implemented in future sessions with the help of Netafim, a GTN and WGCIT sponsor. Israel-based Netafim, a global leader in precision irrigation solutions for sustainable agriculture, has played an integral role in identifying participants for the program—in both the previous in-person forum and new virtual format.

“Netafim is on a vital mission to help our hungry world grow more food, using less of our precious resources,” said Roy Levinson, Netafim’s digital farming commercial lead. “The Grower Trial Network provides us with the unique opportunity of connecting our most forward-thinking growers with the latest innovation in agtech. This allows us to help growers vet new product offerings and we can contribute to the refinement of the startups offering to ensure efficacy in the field.”

Netafim joins a whole host of WGCIT sponsors from around the globe who have generously funded and supported the WGCIT. These include philanthropic-minded WG members across California, Arizona and Colorado as well as new supporters from Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Though an unexpected shift, the quick adaptation to virtual meetings due to COVID-19 has introduced a global connectivity element for WGCIT resident start-up companies. Startups housed in the Center can now have access to an unrivaled number of companies worldwide and can pitch to growers across the nation and in other parts of the world. GTN strives to provide widespread access similar to that of the world’s largest global airline alliance, Star Alliance, which offers its members a network that is constantly expanding and presenting new global business opportunities in emergent economies.

“Because the world is so virtual, thanks to COVID, it is also now smaller. You can talk to anyone, anywhere,” said Donohue. “The Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology has strengthened our global ties, and we are well on our way to providing ‘Star Alliance’ access through our Grower Trial Network.”

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Difficult Year for Food Donations But Need Continues to Rise

November 17th, 2020

By Tim Linden

It’s November and lots of harvesting equipment has transitioned from coastal California to the western desert growing regions for winter. And so has the search for fresh vegetable donations.

Feeding America is a nationwide network of food banks that provides an untold number of meals every year to millions of U.S. residents every week through food pantries and other programs. The umbrella organization, as well as the individual food banks, rely on government programs, cash donations, surplus food and fresh produce donations to help narrow the nutrition deficits that often plague the most needy among us.

Melissa Kendrick, executive director of the Food Bank for Monterey County said the approximately 10 million pounds of fresh produce her organization receives each year from local growers is critical to supplement the shelf-stable products that form the backbone of the federal government’s surplus food program. In fact, the Monterey Food Bank built a 30,000 square foot cold storage facility a couple of years ago. Kendrick admits that the main goal is to feed people who are hungry and her team accomplishes that task in any way it can. But fresh food is a vital element in that program as it provides good nutrition along with needed calories.

Kendrick said 2020 has been a very difficult year and it has been challenging to keep up with the need, especially as fresh donations have waned a bit. The Monterey Food Bank executive is quick to avoid the blame game. The entire nation was hit hard by the coronavirus, including both Monterey County growers and county residents.

The restrictions caused by the pandemic hit just as growers were beginning their spring/summer season and still planting field after field of fresh vegetables. Orders from the foodservice industry literally ceased overnight. While that could have meant a rash of donations if the season was a little bit further along, instead it resulted in fewer acres being planted moving forward and grower-shippers scrambling to salvage some returns on their already-harvested crops. It also meant the plowing up of some fields meant for foodservice as growers did not want to sink more dollars into a field that could not be harvested. That meant less surplus produce this past season.

As the Monterey Food Bank saw a tremendous increase in the number of people who needed help it also saw a significant drop in its fresh food donations. “We love our growers and couldn’t operate without them,” said Kendrick. “Unfortunately, this has been a very difficult year. And now that we are moving into winter, there will be more unemployed people and a greater need.”

Though there has been a drop in overall fresh produce donations, and for good reason, Kendrick does note that many Salinas Valley food bank partners continue to send over donations every day. She specifically mentioned some of the larger firms that help out regardless of the situation. She put Taylor Farms, Driscoll’s and Tanimura & Antle in this category and apologized that there are just too many others that help as often as they can to start naming them. “The agricultural community offers tremendous support for us.”

In Arizona’s most southwest region, the Yuma Community Food Bank is gearing up for increased donations as its area gets ready for the winter harvest to begin. Bruce Gwynn, who spent a career in agriculture—mostly with ag chemical firms but also running the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association for a time—now volunteers as a sourcing specialist working with growers and others to secure fresh donations. “We have amazing growers,” he said, again singling out both T&A and Taylor Farms as “champions” of the cause.

He said both firms are everyday donors but also said many other companies, including JV Smith Companies, Barkley Ag Enterprises, Pasquinelli Produce and Top Flavor Farms do yeoman’s work for the food bank. Gwynn admitted it has been a difficult year for fresh donations. Having been in the industry for many years, he gets it. He said profits have to come first and the Yuma Food Bank knows it does better when there is a surplus of products and prices are low. This year’s pandemic caused very robust sales on many vegetable and fruit items during the spring and summer. As such, Gwynn continued to expand his reach working with the local community college and research facilities to harvest their crops for the food bank after they have finished their educational use of the production. He said this is another area in which growers help as they often donate both land and seeds to these pursuits. He said Grimmway Farms recently donated carrot seeds for a local educational project in which one-third of an acre of carrots will eventually go to the food bank. “That’s a lot of carrots,” Gwynn said, adding that he has relied on Future Farmers of America students to harvest the crops. He noted that recently Steve Alameda of Top Flavor Farms donated an unharvested beet field that these FFA students then harvested.

Shara Whitehead, president and CEO of the Yuma Food Bank, agreed that it has been a difficult year for fresh vegetable donations. She said the local food bank has been serving the community for more than 40 years with more than 20,000 people being fed every month. She said about 8-10 million pounds of produce are donated each year, but those donations are dependent on weather and market conditions.

Whitehead credited Gary Pasquinelli, Robby Barkley and Vic Smith with lobbying the Arizona Legislature for a tax break on product that is donated to charities such as the food bank. She said that successful effort several years ago greatly increased the level of donations received by the organization.

She said that while the industry is excellent at sending its extra output to the food bank, there are always people who need a reminder. “We want them to look at the Food Bank as the end of the supply chain, and look at us as their partners.”

Whitehead did echo Gwynn’s comments that “Taylor Farms is our biggest provider. They are number one,” she said, adding that a day hardly goes by without them donating at least one-truck load full of baby greens or another healthy items that means the world to hungry people.

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Legislator Profile: Making Sure Government Works For the People Q&A with Congressional Champion Jimmy Panetta

November 17th, 2020

By Chardae Heim

Jimmy Panetta, who proudly serves California’s 20th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, has continually demonstrated a steadfast commitment to ensuring the sustainability and success of the nation’s food supply. Since being sworn into office in 2017, Rep. Panetta has fought for everything from immigration reform and accessible healthcare to the protection of the agriculture industry and its farmers and farmworkers.

Most recently, he has served as a true congressional champion for Western Growers members impacted by coronavirus. When COVID-19 hit in the United States and the foodservice sector virtually collapsed, many fresh produce farmers were forced to abandon their fields to cut their losses. This cost farming operations millions of dollars, adding to the existing sting of the State Department’s decision to suspend routine nonimmigrant visa processing in Mexico.

Panetta led the charge in urging for the immediate amendment of the suspension on visa processing for H-2A workers; advocating for a recovery and relief plan for the produce industry; and ensuring adequate financial support for producers who face considerable hardship due to the outbreak.

Western Growers had the opportunity to speak with Rep. Panetta about his efforts in Congress and his thoughts about the future of agriculture.

 

Why was it important to you to advocate for providing vital financial assistance to producers of agricultural commodities who have suffered losses due to COVID-19?

We need to make sure that the people who provide the food on our tables are protected, which includes our producers, our farmers, and our farmworkers. To harvest our specialty crops, it takes human beings and unfortunately, the administration basically blocked all the processing of the H-2As in Mexico.

Based on the bipartisan letter that I spearheaded, the administration reversed its decision and allowed those H-2A visas to be processed. What this highlights is not just how valuable our farmworkers are, but how vulnerable they are to COVID-19. That’s why I led the bipartisan effort asking for PPE, asking for education, and asking for testing. I did the same thing when we had the fires and the smoke.

On the Central Coast, our specialty crops are not used to getting subsidies like they do in other parts of this country. We’re not used to getting these handouts, but I can tell you, we want our fair share. Fortunately, with the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, the CFAP, I believe we got that in the $19 billion that was allocated.

What the USDA needs is obviously data to justify these types of payments and they needed more time. That’s why, once again, I led a letter to extend the deadline for acquiring CFAP applications because we needed more data. Our farmers needed to put forward more data and after we led that letter, we got that extension.

The last thing was the limitations…how much seed that an individual farmer can acquire. I led a letter to the USDA that basically asked to take the caps from the seed. They didn’t quite take the caps off it but they increased it. But there are more things that we need to do. And this has us thinking outside the box when it comes to these types of direct disbursements to our specialty crops growers, who are typically diversified among many crops. We are trying to get USDA to take a whole farm option rather than a specific crop option when it comes to CFAP.

 

What do you foresee as the biggest opportunity for specialty crop producers?

When you talk to people who work in specialty crops, they will tell you that the number one issue is ag labor because our types of crops are the ones that you cannot run a machine through the field as they do in the Midwest with field crops. Instead, it takes human discernment to actually figure out what is ripe, what is safe, and what is aesthetically pleasing for the consumer. That type of discernment is difficult to replace with mechanization at this point.

I do believe that the biggest option for next year, the lowest hanging fruit, if I may, is immigration reform. I believe that we’ve provided an excellent foundation upon which we can have meaningful immigration reform when it comes to ag labor. That’s the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that we passed out of the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis, a piece of legislation that in my limited time in Congress was formulated in a way that I haven’t seen done before. You had Democrats and Republicans, farmers and farm workers at the table grinding away to come up with not the perfect bill, but a compromise bill and we got that. It’s a good bill because of it. You don’t normally see that in Washington, D.C., but this is the way legislation should be created.

We also have to ensure that the initiatives that we put forward in the farm bill for ag research are funded appropriately.

When it comes to ag labor, it is a two-prong approach of having immigration reform, and funding ag technology at the same time…trying to find that mechanization that actually gets anywhere near the human capabilities that we have. We’re a long way away, but we’re slowly getting there, not to replace workers, but to replace the lack of workers. Our ag workforce is shrinking and it’s aging.

 

You have been such a staunch supporter for immigration reform. Where do you see this falling as a priority for the current and next administration?

The reason people sat at the table for eight months grinding out the Farm Workforce Modernization Act is because it was the right thing to do. I believe that when you actually have conversations about it and get through the politics and the anti-immigrant rhetoric that unfortunately we saw all too often these past three and a half years, people realize it’s the right thing to do. A Biden-Harris administration clearly will not be based on anti-immigrant rhetoric. Therefore, I believe that we’ll have an excellent opportunity to put forward the Farm Workforce Modernization Act because we have laid such a solid foundation with such a bipartisan bill. I hope that if we have a Trump administration, they look at the policy and the people, not the politics.

 

I know you visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology in 2018. What did you think about the Center?

I not only visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology, I brought my ag research co-chair, Rodney Davis, there to have a town hall with our producers and our farmers and farmworkers. I wanted him to see the type of collaboration that can go on with having that type of Center right in the middle of an ag town. I also brought the current chair of the House Ag Committee, Collin Peterson. As a representative of the salad bowl of the world, I need to make sure that people understand how important our ag industry is.

Getting in and encouraging and motivating companies to develop machines and robots that will actually replicate the human discernment when it comes to harvesting our specialty crops is very, very difficult. When I had Secretary Perdue here in the district last year, I took him out to a strawberry field and we saw some of the technology that they’re working on right now. One machine takes more pictures of a strawberry plant in one afternoon than has been taken previously in the entire history of the strawberry. It’s that outside the box thinking that you’d need in order to replace the humans’ ability to pick a fresh, ripe and safe strawberry.

 

What’s your fondest memory of agriculture having grown up in, and now representing, Monterey County?

I grew up here on the Central Coast, Carmel Valley, to be exact, on my grandfather’s farm, who was an Italian immigrant. I grew up on a walnut farm. I have an appreciation of the hard work that it takes to produce products from our earth. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a farmer, but I have an appreciation for it. I once took an ag-focused class, which is where I really was able to appreciate the skill that is necessary to be in agriculture. It’s the ability to constantly pivot in order to survive. People who work in agriculture are constantly dealing with the hurdles put up by Mother Nature. They’re constantly dealing with the mandates and the restrictions and the new laws that are put in place. They’re constantly dealing with changing markets that are always up in the air. It’s a constant risk-taking attitude that I believe leads to their success. It’s my job to make people appreciate that. The least that I can do as a representative of an agricultural area is to make sure that those risks are worth it.

 

What has been your primary motivation in continuing your fight for your constituency?

What keeps me motivated is knowing that I’m in Congress not to fight for a cause, but to fight for my constituents. I’m here to represent and to fight for the values and the people of the Central Coast. My goal and my fight is to ensure that the people of the Central Coast have confidence, knowing that the federal government works for them. I do that in my fights in Washington, D.C., be it on the Agriculture Committee, be it on the Ways and Means Committee, be it on the Budget Committee, in order to put forward the policies that benefit the people here on the Central Coast.

I also do it by providing essential casework to my constituents, being that bridge to Washington, D.C. and back, to make sure that our government bureaucracy actually works for the people here on the Central Coast. What people remember is how their congressmen helped them with a personal issue, an immigration issue, a Social Security issue, an IRS issue, a veterans issue, making sure that the government works for them on a personal issue. To me, that is how you affect their lives and that’s what motivates me. I’m helping them have the confidence that government can actually work for them.

 

You have been recognized as a politician seeking to restore bipartisanship. Why is being able to work on both sides of the aisle important to you?

Congress, like both most things, is really about relationships and it really is about the trust that you build from those relationships. I have experienced that firsthand, especially with my work on the Ag Committee, where we work not to find our differences, but to find our similarities and then work together on that, as we did in the 2018 Farm Bill. We had our differences when it came to the nutrition title of the 2018 Farm Bill, and I fought like heck to make sure that there were no changes to that nutrition title. I know that when it comes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, my district benefits from that and the last thing I wanted to do was to take that from them. At the same time, we also worked together to ensure that there was the appropriate funding and legislation in that farm bill to promote and to protect our specialty crops on the Central Coast. I was able to work with Republicans who were the ones in charge of formulating that farm bill. So much so, that Republican members came up to me and wanted to know what my interests were, how they could help me get my Central Coast interest into the 2018 Farm Bill. To me that’s why relationships are so important. It takes work to be bipartisan. I will never sacrifice the values or the desires of the people of the Central Coast for bipartisanship. But I will ensure that bipartisanship works for the people of the Central Coast. That’s why I’m bipartisan. And I think it works.

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California’s Move to 100% Zero-Emission Vehicles

November 17th, 2020

We have witnessed first-hand the unpredictability of 2020. The twists and turns caused by the layering of the COVID-19 pandemic, devastating wildfires, and widespread social unrest have left us wondering what challenge could possibly be next. Our industry has faced enormous obstacles this year with the closure of the foodservice sector and schools. The loss of those markets, albeit temporarily, combined with the significant investment in personal protective equipment and new regulations, have put our industry on edge.

On September 23, the next challenge for California agriculture came into sharp focus. On that day, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new executive order in response to the massive wildfires consuming a record number of acres within the state. The first of its kind order calls for 100% of new passenger cars and trucks sold in California to be zero-emission by 2035. If this were not eye-opening enough, the order continues that all medium and heavy-duty new trucks sold in the state must be zero-emission by 2045. New drayage trucks and off-road vehicle equipment are also to be zero-emission by 2035.

The broad scope and lofty goals set by the executive order is breathtaking. California now has a goal of having every new vehicle sold in the state be completely zero-emission by 2045. The cost implications of this as well as the many potential unintended consequences cannot be overestimated. To be fair, the order does say that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) needs to take into consideration the issues of technological feasibility and cost-effectiveness during its rulemaking processes to implement the goals under the order.

WG will be taking a very active role throughout this rulemaking process to highlight exactly those two issues: technological feasibility and cost-effectiveness. Both categories need to be thoroughly vetted in order to understand the ability of our industry to attain the zero-emission goals in a manner that is realistically achievable. If we are still waiting on unproven technology that is prohibitively expensive, agricultural absolutely should not be held to the implementation dates of 2035 and 2045. That would be a total disservice to California growers, farmworkers, and the consumer.

There are also other remaining questions that are equally important to resolve. The first has to do with charging infrastructure. California will have to rapidly put into place charging stations throughout the state for passenger cars, trucks, and off-road equipment to “refuel”. How long will it take to recharge a produce truck? Will charging be fast enough that supply chains will continue to operate effectively and efficiently? What about the feasibility of putting charging stations out in fields? Food processing facilities, packing sheds, and other agricultural facilities are often located in very remote locations. Will there be ample time allowed for lining up the appropriate permits to get the new electrical infrastructure sited and placed by the local or regional utility? These are just a few of the many questions that we will be asking CARB in coming months.

The other outstanding question focuses on grid reliability. To have a reliable, cost-effective, and efficient zero-emission fleet, agriculture has to be able to rely on a stable electrical grid. Our current electrical grid is not reliable. We are continuing to have Public Safety Power Shutoffs due to wildfire concerns. California also experienced rolling blackouts this summer for the first time in about 20 years. The reasons why they occurred is being investigated. However, the fact that they occurred at all is the problem. It is not hard to imagine the complete chaos that would unfold if rolling blackouts occurred in the years 2035 and beyond. Our personal activities would be halted because we couldn’t charge our vehicles. Commerce would come to a standstill since trucks wouldn’t be able to recharge their batteries and complete the delivery of the goods and services that are vital to a functioning economy. Growers would also be impacted since they could not plant, manage, or harvest their crops with off-road agricultural equipment that cannot be charged.

These concerns are just a small subset that need to be addressed by CARB and other stakeholders as the rulemakings proceed to implement the governor’s order. WG will be a voice at the table to help ensure that any future decisions/mandates are implementable and will minimize additional harm to our industry.

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Snapshot of Current Divisive Federal Pesticide Issues

November 17th, 2020

Pesticides continue to be a divisive issue, both in Washington and in the West. On one side, they provide much needed respite from the myriad challenges facing the produce industry, while on the other, environmental advocates push to restrict their use for concerns over the health and environmental issues. To help you remain up to speed on the current debate, here is a snapshot of federal pesticide issues.

Mexico Phasing-Out Glyphosate

Mexico’s Secretary of Environmental and Natural Resources Victor Toledo published an op-ed calling for decreasing the use of pesticides on crops, setting a short-sighted precedent on our food and trade system, particularly troubling during the already challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Toledo contends that glyphosate is causing “serious environmental damage” but banning the product outright would ultimately unwind important agricultural innovations that have shown to improve sustainability and environmental quality.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently announced that Mexico will phase-out the private use of glyphosate over the next few years, ending in late 2024 when his term is over. Western Growers has been working with allied organizations on this issue, urging the administration to address this issue directly with Mexico, so that our southern neighbor and trading partner does not follow the same path as the European Union to restrict our exports’ pathway into their markets based on unsound science.

 

Neonicotinoids

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently requested public comments on a petition by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which requested that the agency revoke all tolerances for residues of specified neonicotinoid pesticides. The NRDC claimed that EPA’s analysis of neonicotinoid toxicity to human health risk and drinking water assessments contained several flaws including not assessing the potential for cumulative toxicity from exposure to multiple neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids are a critically important class of chemistry for specialty crops, and further limiting their use will harm many growers’ ability to maintain production levels, particularly during this challenging time. When compared to available foliar application alternatives, neonicotinoids are more selective and allow for better preservation of mutually beneficial insects in the process. Western Growers filed comments with our allied associations on this issue to encourage the continued access to these compounds and to maintain flexibility in their safe and effective use.

 

Pesticide Ban Bill

Senator Tom Udall (NM) and Representative Joe Neguse (CO) recently introduced companion legislation that would ban organophosphate and neonicotinoid insecticides as well as paraquat, in an effort to follow the European Union’s lead on removing pesticides from the domestic marketplace. The Save America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act has the endorsement of the United Farm Workers as well as the Center for Biological Diversity.

Both bill sponsors acknowledged that this bill would not likely move beyond mere introduction during this session of Congress but hope that it will help educate other members of Congress on the issue. In a recent call with stakeholders, Udall (who is set to retire at the end of 2020) said the bill would provide necessary updates to outdated pesticide regulations that seem to be designed to protect the pesticide industry. Neguse said he was proud to sponsor the legislation, particularly for its potential environmental impacts.

While we agree that this legislation will not succeed in this congressional session, we will keep a close eye as it may lay a marker for future debates, depending on the results of the upcoming election.

Pesticides are one arrow in the grower’s quiver that need to be utilized in the ever-challenging, demanding environment they produce in. We should remain well-versed on these important issues to know how outcomes might impact our ability to continue to produce and when to assist pesticide registrants in debates that will ultimately take a toll on our businesses.

 

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The Mystery Behind Seasonality – A Leafy Green Issue?

November 17th, 2020

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) outbreaks in 2018 and 2019 linked to leafy greens have raised many questions regarding recurring STEC outbreaks. Until 2018 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented their analysis of eight years-worth of data to industry, it was largely unknown that seasonality seemed to be playing a role in STEC outbreaks associated with leafy greens. When and how have transition periods between growing leafy green regions become periods of vulnerability to STEC contamination? What is known and what is being done to address recurring outbreaks associated with leafy greens, namely romaine lettuce?

To answer these questions Western Growers Science hosted and led a two-part Seasonality Webinar Series in September 2020 in collaboration with the Arizona and California Leafy Green Marketing Agreements (LGMAs). The webinars, gathering a total of 276 registrants, were meant to increase awareness and share industry efforts to prevent leafy greens outbreaks during transition periods in California (September-November) and in Arizona (March-May).

What is ironic is that leafy greens grown under the AZ and CA LGMAs—about 90% of the leafy greens grown in the U.S.—follow stricter food safety practices than those required under the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) and other industry commodity-specific guidelines. Since 2018, when the leafy green industry was made aware of potential seasonality issues, many practices and procedures have changed for the industry. Being a leafy green producer in 2020 is quite different than what it was a decade ago.

Research suggests outbreaks are most likely not caused by one risk factor or hazard, but a combination of conditions and events that create a “perfect storm.” To decrease the likelihood of a “perfect storm” materializing, leafy green growers have implemented many new requirements. The LGMA-approved leafy green food safety practices have been updated 18 times since they were first developed in 2007; in some cases, there was more than one update each year. Numerous changes have been made to the LGMA in the last year; however, logistical and practical considerations must still be taken into account and, as appropriate, changes implemented.

A 2019 report by Dr. Gregory Astill of the USDA Economic Research Service demonstrated that USDA’s daily shipments data can be used in outbreak investigations involving romaine lettuce to estimate the specific timeframe of the outbreak. Currently, there are industry and government supported research efforts aimed at finding the root cause of this pattern of seasonality in leafy green outbreaks. In addition to water source quality, surrounding land use and crop products applied in the off-season, some of the factors under examination include risks associated with domestic and wild animal movement, changes in farm management as production slows down, and weather-related changes that may impact bacterial growth.

Despite all the additional requirements from LGMA revisions and new insights from research and data analyses, the leafy green industry continues to be under a lot of pressure. In the FDA’s 2020 Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan, the agency discusses its activities focused on three areas: prevention, response, and knowledge gaps. Many of these activities are underway and more continue to be announced. A few weeks ago, FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs initiated intensive testing in the Salinas area as part of the Action Plan targeting certain leafy green growing operations as part of their outbreak follow-up investigations. In addition, the agency recently resumed a one-year sampling assignment for romaine lettuce, which was on hold due to COVID-19 considerations. More details about the assignment can be found on the FDA website.

In addition to FDA’s domestic actions, foreign regulatory activity has also become quite intensive. Since October 7, romaine lettuce imported into Canada from specific California counties are subject to new requirements. These new requirements implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will be in effect until the end of 2020 and can be found on their website. Because the new requirements were enacted only five days after the official announcement, there was very limited opportunity for us to engage in the process. Moreover, the timing of these new control measures is not amenable to broad and straightforward adoption by all supply chain participants, so trade has been significantly impacted.

Co-existence is perhaps a topic for another story, but it should not be ignored, since pathogens can be transferred or come from other agricultural activities in the same region and can certainly also explain how crops may be more susceptible to contamination during transition periods. If you are a grower, please contact the Western Growers’ Science team to see how you can become engaged on different initiatives to advance science-based food safety practices. If you are not a leafy green grower, please know that leafy green operations are working diligently while under a lot of pressure to address what some call the “mystery behind seasonality.”

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Supporting Employee Mental Health During COVID-19

November 17th, 2020

Millions of Americans were struggling with depression before COVID-19 reared its ugly head. The number of adults in the U.S. showing signs of depression has tripled since the start of the pandemic, according to a recent study by JAMA Network Open. With prompted quarantines, stay-at-home orders, halted social events, job insecurities, personal finances, and other high stressors, it isn’t a surprise that a pandemic would take a toll on mental health.

These unwelcome signs of depression and stress have also found their way into the workplace. Nearly 20% of U.S. workers believe their mental health is currently poor, or very poor, compared to just 5% before the start of the pandemic, according to a Flexjobs survey in partnership with Mental Health America. The survey results also found that:

•   Four in 10 employees have experienced burnout during the pandemic

•   37% of employees are working longer hours because of the virus

•   Only 21% of employees said they were able to have open, productive conversations with HR about solutions to their burnout

•   56% of employees said their companies didn’t encourage such conversations about burnout

 

Encouraging Support

The CDC estimates that depression interferes with a person’s ability to complete physical job tasks about 20% of the time and reduces cognitive performance about 35% of the time. It’s crucial for companies to recognize the responsibility they have to their employees and provide support to reduce stress and prevent burnout. According to the Flexjobs survey, having more flexibility was the top priority listed among employees as a way employers can better support their people, followed by encouraging time off, offering mental health days, and increasing the amount of paid time off.

So how can employers better tend to employee mental health and help them cope with burnout, COVID-19 and other stressors? To start, employers can foster a culture of connection and communication through consistent check-ins. Many employees are finding themselves telecommuting for the first time, and it is possible some could be feeling isolated from co-workers. It is natural for this type of disruption to create stress and anxiety. Have a supervisor schedule weekly conversations with teams or individuals to check in not only on work progress but also to find out if employees need additional support in completing their jobs successfully.

 

Health Management

Not only does depression interfere with productivity, but it can also be costly for employers. One in five adults in the U.S. suffer from mental health challenges each year, costing employers a staggering 200 million lost workdays and up to $44 billion in costs, according to the CDC.

Health management programs can significantly help in reducing costs for employers and employees and significantly help improve the health and wellbeing of those living with chronic conditions, especially depression. At Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT), we collaborate with Pinnacle Health Management (PHM) to offer curriculum-based care management programs at no cost to employees with chronic care conditions. These conditions include Asthma, Hypertension, High Cholesterol, Weight Management, Depression, and Diabetes. Our care management programs are included with every WGAT health plan purchased.

At the beginning of the year, we launched our Uplift: Overcoming Depression program to provide additional mental health support for our members. While enrolled in the program, participants learn to better understand depression, along with its signs, symptoms, treatment, and support options. They also receive supportive resources, including monthly coping tools, curriculum-guided phone calls, and collaborative goal-setting.

Additionally, we recently launched HEIDI (Health Evaluation Interactive Discovery Intelligence), a text-based, artificial intelligence chatbot that provides on-demand support to help employees and their dependents manage stress levels and maintain mental balance. HEIDI is available in English and Spanish and comes at no cost to participants of WGAT and their dependents.

In the age of COVID-19, it is important for all of us to do our part in raising awareness about depression, supporting mental health, and promoting a healthy and balanced life. If you don’t have the WGAT plan, which includes a care management program with every plan, contact Western Growers Insurance Services for more information and to see how it can help you better manage your health care costs. You can reach a sales team member at (800) 333-4WGA.

 

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

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Beyond the Vine: Wineries Can Build Tailor-Made Health Plans

November 17th, 2020

Though COVID-19 has left a trail of destruction, the pandemic has also brought forth numerous opportunities for growth. One such being an opportunity for employers to play a central role in helping build a more resilient health system for the future.

For many employers, this period of economic strain brought about by pandemic-induced recession has exacerbated the challenges of managing the health care costs of employees. Western Growers Insurance Services (WGIS) has taken steps to alleviate that burden for you.

For three decades, we have been dedicated to developing insurance packages that meet your specific needs. Our main goal is to provide employers with solutions that allow them to be rigorous in the way they purchase health care benefits and better manage the roller coaster of health care costs and premiums.

Now we are taking it a step further.

Our ag-specific expertise has allowed us to build premium benefit plans that address the expanding and increasingly complex needs of today’s winery businesses. This plan was created specifically for wineries to help with improving their existing benefits program.

In order to cut costs, most other insurance carriers have reduced or narrowed their provider networks and have continually shifted health care costs to members via higher deductibles and out of pocket maximums. Our new winery program, which is the industry’s first tailor-made employee benefits package for winery employers, was created to help solve these issues.

The WGIS Winery Health Benefits Plans can support you in three main ways:

•   COST: The service we provide doesn’t stop with your plan design. When you partner with us, we will help keep your expenses in control.

•   ROI: Clearly defined goals for your HR/benefit/insurance efforts to make sure you are getting the most of your investment.

•   TIME: We handle any service issues associated with your benefits program so you can focus on attracting and retaining the best talent.

In addition to offering exclusive plans, our competitive pricing will make you an employer of choice as well as boost the level of morale and employee engagement.

It is also important for us to leverage our partners’ resources to help you better navigate the health benefits realm. Our trusted partner, Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT), has made some investments in how to support Western Growers members who have ongoing health conditions or are having difficulty with seeking care in the current COVID-19 environment. The use of technology allows WGAT to connect providers and members more effectively at a lower cost. This new winery program will incorporate these cutting-edge benefits.

The Winery Health Benefits Plans are employer-friendly, employee-focused and brought to you exclusively through Western Growers Insurance Services. For questions or additional information, visit www.wgis.com/wineryprogram or reach out to us directly at [email protected] or [email protected].

 

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FarmWise Completes First Commercial Season

November 17th, 2020

By Tim Linden

As 2020 moves toward the finish line, FarmWise has completed its first commercial season using automated machines to eliminate weeds on a variety of crops in the Santa Maria and Salinas regions. The company has now deployed its 12 machines for winter vegetable production in Yuma offering the same weeding service to growers in that region as it continues to prove that artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are real time solutions for growers.

Sébastien Boyer and Thomas Palomares, two European transplants with agricultural roots, founded FarmWise in the summer of 2016. They began their journey together a few years earlier as the pair of engineers pursued their studies in Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University computer labs. It was there that they combined their passion for sustainability with their love of technology and belief in the power of AI. They formed their company with its headquarters in San Francisco and quickly became a resident of the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology. For the past several years, they have been working hand in hand with visionary growers as well as a team of both farming and technology experts.

They believe that robotic technology can be used in many farming practices and have taken that concept to market with the automated weeder. After working on both the hardware and software for a couple of years and raising $20 million from the investment market, a dozen machines were built in a Michigan factory and brought to the California coast, first for trial and now for use on a commercial basis. Boyer revealed that each machine has five cameras and 12 tiny robotic hoes, which were designed to mimic a farm laborer’s weeding efforts. The cameras take pictures of the row as the machine travels over it, identifies weeds in less than a half a second and then the computer software instructs the hoes to eliminate each weed.

Boyer said the computer program utilizes AI so there is active learning occurring each time the machine works a field. Every week, the computer is programmed to update its software to capture that learning. It is the modern-day equivalent of taking software from a 1.0 to a 2.0 version, but it is an ongoing process.

Initially, the machines work best on some basic core crops such as cauliflower, broccoli, iceberg and romaine lettuce. Boyer said the first-generation machine is most efficient when there is spacing between each plant. But with its AI capabilities, he is certain the computer program running the machine will improve over time becoming more efficient with the ability to move faster through the fields and work on a wider variety of crops.

FarmWise’s business model is built on a service approach just as other ag service providers operates, though Boyer said other options may emerge in the future. With only 12 machines, FarmWise currently has more demand for the automatic weeding than it can handle. He said no longer is it just visionaries that are willing to work with the company but growers of all stripes. As it continues to improve the capability of its Titan FT 35 weeding machine, the company is trying to work with as many growers as it can. He added that a lot of doors have been opened since the machines began to be used commercially this summer and were seen out in the fields. To accommodate as many growers as possible, FarmWise is limiting the numbers of acres it will work for any one grower. “We can’t take 50 percent of a grower’s acreage,” Boyer said. “We are interested in working on one block per week, for example.”

The service is currently being provided for $100 to $600 per acre, depending upon many factors. Boyer said this is a competitive rate in which the grower can realize immediate savings versus a hand weeding crew or a chemical spraying operation.

FarmWise does need to add to its fleet of weeding machines and that effort is ongoing. But Boyer is also very excited about the future and the ability to use robotics and AI to tackle other labor-intensive farming activities, such as harvesting the crop. He said the basic concept for harvesting is the same as weeding. A crop will be photographed and in real-time, a computer will be utilized to identify which head of lettuce should be picked or stalk of broccoli cut, and that information will be relayed to a robotic arm or hand. “I definitely see that on the horizon,” he said. “The technology exists. My bet is we will see that in the next three to five years.”

Boyer said that being a member of WGCIT has been extremely useful in the evolution of FarmWise. “It was the entry point for farmers and service providers. It provided the link to the rest of the industry for us.”

As the company has developed relationships with many different growers, he said they do not need to go through the center for introductions anymore, but they still utilize the staff and fellow residents for guidance.

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Importer and Exporter Management of Records of Trade Transactions

November 17th, 2020

Companies engaged in international trade face an ever-increasing amount of challenges in their import and export transactions on account of increased tariffs and regulatory scrutiny. Managing trade data on a routine day-to-day basis can be overwhelming and challenging but is a necessary task to assist with company-internal management of trade transactions.

Even more important, companies that receive a request for information, for example from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce (BIS) or the Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of Treasury (OFAC) are usually asked to present specified trade data information under strict timelines. If trade data is not managed in a retrievable system and format, it may be impossible to comply with the tight timeline set forth in the request for information. Fortunately, CBP has developed a system, the Automated Commercial Service (ACE) Portal, where exporters and importers are able to access their own trade data collected by the U.S. government. One of the added bonuses is that ACE is free of charge!

An organization can apply for an ACE Portal as an importer, exporter or as a dual account, with an expected turnaround time of three to five business days, although this time may vary. When applying for a dual account, the applicant must request the Importer Account first and only once the Importer Account has been approved, will it be possible to set up the Exporter Account. All Exporter Accounts that are set up without a corresponding Importer Account require additional vetting from the U.S. Census Department, a process that can extend several weeks.

The ACE Portal for Imports provides visibility to entry numbers, ports, entry dates, HTS classifications and corresponding tariffs, CBP actions taken for each entry and a multitude of other elements in a searchable format, all of which provide an excellent window into the international trade transactions for the importer. The ACE Portal for Imports offers the capability to run specialized reports filtered across many shipping data elements, including the so-called Importer Trade Activity feature (ITRAC), that provides visibility into CBP exams, Import Specialist reviews and other CBP inquiries. When advising a company on its trade matters, we find the ACE Portal essential to understanding the footprint of the company’s trade transactions.

The Export ACE Portal provides extensive insight into Automated Export System (AES) filings and the listed Electronic Export Information (EEI) data elements. It is important to review in real time the AES data and maintain regular compliance audits of an organization’s export activity to assure that the AES system accurately displays all export activity. Submission of accurate AES data elements is the responsibility of the exporter and is subject to penalties. Many exporters delegate the filing of AES data elements to its broker or shipper without fully appreciating the fact that the exporter always retains primary responsibility for the filing of timely and accurate AES filings. To manage this exposure, we strongly recommend the use of Shipper Letter of Instructions (SLI) that list and instruct the filer on all required EEI data elements and then confirm SLI compliance through regular audits.

Prior Disclosures submissions, a remedy that is available to both importers and exporters to reduce the exposure of penalties, require a detailed explanation of the violation and its surrounding circumstances. A Prior Disclosure provides relief only for those matters that are disclosed. To get the full protection available through the Prior Disclosure process, it is important to review and present the circumstances surrounding the alleged violations for the entire statute of limitation period (in most cases five years). If the trade data related to the violation is not available for the entire statute of limitations period, a Prior Disclosure may no longer be an option. Having access to the ACE Portals is an essential tool to trade data access in an efficient manner.

In addition, exporters and importers are responsible for adhering to the applicable record-keeping requirements (generally not less than five years) and be able to retrieve all export and import trade documentation as required. For example, CBP generally requires the requested data to be produced within 30 days. Customs Broker and Freight Forwarders may maintain the transaction trade data as well, but the primary responsibility of the recordkeeping requirements is placed on the exporter and importer. Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders are an excellent resource; however, the ultimate responsibility remains with the importer of record and the exporter.

ACE is an indispensable element for the maintenance of “best practices” for import and export trade data management. Not only will the ACE Portal assist with compliance audits and managing responses to inquiries by regulatory agencies, it is also a wonderful resource in navigating business planning by providing an organized overview of past and present data points that assist in developing targeted business plans for international trade.

Please feel free to contact any member of the DCG or other Dentons group for assistance in Customs and Export Control matters.

 

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WGCIT Sponsor: Canada Becomes First International Sponsor of Innovation & Technology Center

November 17th, 2020

By Tim Linden

Recently, Western Growers and the Canadian government announced that the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) had become the first international sponsor of the trade association’s Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT).

The Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco Rana Sarkar explained that trade and investment promotion is an important part of TCS, which helps Canadian companies succeed in international markets. The government agency has a presence in more than 160 cities worldwide, and it is Canada’s most comprehensive network of international business professionals. “We provide Canadian companies with on-the-ground market intelligence and access to unparalleled business networks in order to reduce the costs and risks of exporting, and we help firms tackle in-market problems,” Sarkar said.

The Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) is one of the signature programs that the TCS runs at the Consulate. The CTA initiative helps Canadian companies with an existing technology, product or service explore opportunities in foreign markets. The program provides access to local mentors and experts, as well as curated introductions to potential partners, investors and customers. The Consulate in San Francisco, and its office in Palo Alto, operate several CTA cohorts each year to serve Canadian clients in technology sectors. The local Consulate has developed efforts ranging from relationships with local technology and venture capital firms and partnerships with local accelerators and incubators to engagements with local universities, such as Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Sarkar said the partnership with WGCIT is the first of its kind, both with its specific focus on accelerating agtech solutions, but also with giving Canadian companies direct access to both an innovation center and potential customers through connections to growers. “When the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco began to expand its support for Canadian agtech companies, developing a partnership with the WGCIT was the backbone of that plan,” he said. “While the overall program includes many aspects of support for Canadian companies, the partnership with WGCIT, with its reputation and access, remains critical in accelerating the growth of Canadian agtech companies.”

He added that Canadian agriculture and the western United States are tackling many of the same challenges. “One key example is climate change, which poses a number of challenges to farmers including the increased intensity and frequency of droughts and violent storms–and resulting impact on crop yields,” he said, adding that warmer summers are causing many problems including the potential increase in the range, frequency and severity of insect and disease infestations.

“Labor shortages are another major challenge,” Sarkar said. “As in the United States, Canada’s agricultural community has been grappling with chronic labor shortages, as the inability to find a skilled and knowledgeable workforce directly affects sales, productivity and expansion plans of farmers across the country. In addressing these two challenges, new technological solutions can help farmers navigate these issues and continue to thrive as an engine of economic growth.”

Canada is also poised to bring expertise to the WGCIT table, the Canadian representative said our northern neighbor has produced world-class engineers and innovators, many of whom have leveraged their education and entrepreneurial spirit to develop solutions for growers worldwide. “As a global leader in AI (artificial intelligence) research, Canada is poised to lead the technological breakthrough in applying AI to improve the food system supply chain, making food production more sustainable and resilient, and ensuring the safety of food grown and processed worldwide.”

In the early stages of this U.S./Canadian collaboration, coronavirus travel restrictions have created challenges with direct access to WGCIT but Canada’s accelerator program has been working closely with the WGCIT’s leadership to build a virtual connection. In fact, on October 27, the CTA agtech cohort was scheduled to pitch directly to members of Western Growers in a virtual event led by the WGCIT.

Sarkar said Canada takes a long view of this collaborations and the commitment is ongoing. “The Canadian Consulate in San Francisco expects the partnership between Canada and the WGCIT to be robust and long-lasting. By connecting its world-class agtech innovators with the hardworking growers in the western United States, we are confident that Canadian startups will not only be better informed of the pain-points of growers, but also able to provide solutions directly to these growers.”

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Through the Looking-Glass

November 18th, 2020

In his sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll depicts a fantastical world in which his heroine finds that, like a reflection in a mirror, everything is reversed, including logic. Since Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871, the idiom has come to describe situations where you find the opposite of what is normal or would be expected.

This frame of reference often pops into my mind as I observe our elected officials and regulatory agencies in California.

As our members can attest, the nonsensical and compounding regulatory burdens placed on businesses over the past several decades have taken much of the luster off the “California Dream.” No longer dreaming big, many business owners have succumbed to the relentless march of the regulatory state and now simply seek to keep their businesses alive against the onslaught.

I recently ran across a seemingly routine announcement from a state agency that was jarring, at least to me, as an example of the absurdity of the state’s regulatory demands.

The California Department of Industrial Relations announced the launch of a program by the Labor Commissioner’s Office to “help employers understand California labor law.”

The State of California is using your tax dollars to hire a private company specializing in payroll and human resources, to conduct a series of webinars for confused employers trying to understand the knotted mass of California employment laws and regulations. Truly a Through the Looking-Glass moment.

Like so many other aspects of the state’s regulatory reach, California employment law has become an electrified fence maze in which the walls shift without reason and once-safe paths are suddenly blocked without explanation.

This can’t be dismissed as exaggeration when the state itself feels compelled to retain private sector consultants to try to help employers avoid the fines, penalties and lawsuits that have come to define their experience with California labor law.

Perhaps our state’s elected leaders should consider unplugging the electrified maze and simplifying the pathway through.

The Enlightenment-era French political philosopher Montesquieu, who deeply influenced the framers of the U. S. Constitution, posited that laws should be easy to understand so that citizens might be able to protect themselves from punishment for breaking the rules. This novel concept resonated with our Founding Fathers and helped shape our system of limited government.

Unfortunately, in the two-plus centuries since our Constitution was written, the law has become, “so complex and voluminous that no one, not even the most knowledgeable lawyer, can understand it all,” according to Jay Feynman, Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. Consequently, California businesses are left to employ expensive armies of lawyers and compliance officers to try to avoid running afoul of the state’s convoluted regulatory scheme.

Former Governor Jerry Brown acknowledged this problem in a little-noticed remark during his tenure as Attorney General in 2009. “The whole framework of law is crucial for the operations of business enterprises,” Brown told Legal Newsline. “But when over prescriptive, it creates a huge and growing amount of overhead and it does seem that we’re reaching the point of counter-productivity.”

Expanding on the point, Brown said: “We are moving every year to add more and more legal prescription to our lives, to our organizations, to our businesses and how we all function…We’re overlaid too much with too many rules.”

Brown didn’t exactly relieve employers of the state’s crushing regulatory burdens in his final terms as Governor, but the wisdom of his warning is only more powerful 11 years later.

There is a propensity of our elected and appointed officials to pursue new laws and rules without seriously assessing the entire body of laws and rules already in place. New laws and rules make for nice press releases about some action that will show how the government is protecting us from some bad thing.

But as Jerry Brown observed, too many laws and rules are a bad thing, too. We’ve reached that point, and many business owners are motivated to move away.

While it is more difficult to do when land is your primary asset, companies in the agriculture sector are increasingly looking for the exits. Many of our members privately tell us their plans for expansion do not include California, and we have documented tens of thousands of acres that have already left for other states and countries.

I am enthusiastically committed to pressing for regulatory sanity, but if California’s political leaders won’t answer that call, we must help our members work around them.

Technology innovation is the beacon of hope. Automation in our fields and facilities reduces exposure to the maze of trip wires that defines California labor law. Technology improvements in irrigation and fertilization reduce exposure to increasingly impossible regulatory demands for efficiency and precision nutrient application. In these and many other aspects of our agriculture endeavors, innovative technology can enable survival and success even in the California labyrinth.

Every generation of farmer has faced seemingly insurmountable challenges, whether from Mother Nature or the actions of humans, and each has responded with an indomitable mix of ingenuity and hard work. That same innovative spirit thrives in our Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, and in countless fields across California, Arizona and beyond. Collectively, the innovations born out of these efforts will allow our industry to prosper in an era of diminishing resources and ceaseless regulatory demands.

In an ideal Wonderland, the government would operate as Thomas Jefferson envisioned in his First Inaugural Address, leaving its citizens “free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.” Unlike Alice, however, Californians for now remain in the illogical world on the other side of the mirror. Let us focus even more of our energies on technology innovation to make it back to the other side.

 

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Fred LoBue: A Career Well Spent

November 17th, 2020

By Tim Linden

 

Director Profile

Fred LoBue, Jr.

Chairman of the Board

LoBue Farms, Inc.

Lindsay, CA

Member Since 2000  |  Director Since 2000

 

When retiring Fred LoBue Jr. approached the subject of his life, he took to it in the same methodical way that largely defined the work he has done for the past 60 years. He began his produce industry career as a bookkeeper and has spent the past 55 years on the business side of the balance sheet for LoBue Farms. “For the purpose of this interview, I’ve divided my story into three sections,” he said. “My personal life. My career. And my service to the industry.”

His story begins in Porterville, CA, in 1940, where he was born and first became acquainted with the citrus industry, which has been his main pursuit almost ever since. His grandfather started the family citrus business in 1934. Fred’s father and his two brothers joined the family business and expanded it. Fred and several of his cousins followed suit, further expanding the grower-shipper company and then taking it back to its roots as solely a farming operation a couple of years ago.

But we’re ahead of ourselves. Fred Jr. remembers working on the farm when he was only 10 years old, driving the jeep down the grove as his grandfather sprayed the trees. He worked in the family operation through high school and knew from a very early age that it would be his lifetime passion. “I worked in the packing house when I was in high school and I just loved it,” he said. “It got in my blood.”

LoBue graduated from high school in 1958 as student body president. He first went to the College of the Sequoias and then on to San Jose State, where he received his degree in Industrial Management. “All through college I took classes that would help me run the business – marketing, accounting, investment classes, business finances. I even took an elementary computer class taught by IBM, which was located right down the road (from San Jose State).”

After college, LoBue got drafted and spent two years in military service stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington before he was able to come back to the San Joaquin Valley and start his citrus industry career in earnest. “In 1965, I went to work in the office learning all the clerical things from the bookkeeper.”

He soon took over that slot and spent many, many hours taking pencil to “reams and reams of paper” doing the all-important grower accounting work. LoBue Farms had many independent growers bringing fruit in every day during the season. It was a monumental task to log in every box, record the sales price, back out expenses and make the payments. “We did everything by hand. There were no computers.”

By this time, the company was called LoBue Brothers, with Fred Jr.’s father, Fred Sr., in charge of farming, Uncle Mario running the business side and Uncle Joe doing a bit of both. Fred Jr. actually worked under Mario and longtime company executive G.A. Wollenman, who ran the packing facility in Lindsay, CA. Fred’s brother tragically died in the mid-1960s, though several of his cousins and his brother-in-law joined the family business over the next decade or two.

By the mid-1970s, this third generation of the LoBue Farms family tree began buying their own citrus groves separately and in partnerships. Eventually, the family holdings grew to 1,000 acres. Fred Sr. died in 1980 with his nephew Robert LoBue taking over the farming side of the business. Fred. Jr., who already was CFO, officially became the president of LoBue Bros. Inc. in 1996. He credits the other members of the executive team for helping him tremendously and bringing the company to new heights as the new century dawned. “You couldn’t replace G.A. (Wollenman),” Fred said. “After he started slowing down and then eventually retired, we took more of a team effort approach.”

In the early 2000s, LoBue said the citrus operation was at its peak, always second or third in size behind Sunkist. LoBue Bros. had three packing facilities by then as well as a robust export business and represented many different growers. “Our average grower had 40 acres,” he said, proud of the family farm legacy that LoBue Bros. helped to perpetuate. “At our peak, we packed 4.5 million boxes a year. We were an important factor for quite a few years.”

He said the declining popularity of the Valencia orange caused LoBue Bros. to start to downsize. “We lost about 1.2 million boxes of Valencias,” he said, adding that corporate ownership of citrus acreage was another factor leading to the company’s decreased influence.

The advancing age of the partners as well as external issues such as higher labor costs and increased competition made for a tough decision a few years ago. LoBue said no member of the fourth generation was interested in talking over the operation and the partners did not want to invest the millions needed to upgrade and automate their packing facilities. In 2017, after more than 80 years as an independent citrus packer and marketer, the LoBue family merged these operations into a Sunkist packer/shipper, with LoBue Farms, Inc. continuing its citrus growing and farm management business. It grows mostly navels on its 1,000 acres but also has some mandarins, grapefruit, blood oranges and a specialty citrus item called Sumo, which LoBue described as a cross of a navel orange, a grapefruit and a tangerine.

As impressive as his business career is, LoBue has also left an out-sized mark on the many organization that he has served over the years. He announced his retirement from the Western Growers Board of Directors recently after 20 years of service. LoBue recalls that he first joined the Western Growers Board in 2000 when the Agricultural Producers Labor Committee merged with the much-larger trade association. He explained that Ag Producers, which was founded many years earlier, had a primary purpose of providing labor advice to citrus growers. Over the years, it expanded its suite of services to include health insurance, pensions plans and workers’ comp coverage. LoBue said merging with Western Growers was a great idea. Initially, WG gave Ag Producers several at large board seats and then carved out a district for the citrus grower community, with LoBue representing that industry sector for two decades.

Over the years, he was also a board member and chairman of California Citrus Mutual as well as the Citrus Avocado Pension Trust, and the California-Arizona Citrus League. He was also a founding director of a community bank and is active in many civic and church organizations.

During his years of services, LoBue became very involved in the political arena taking many trips to both Washington, D.C., and Sacramento to lobby on behalf of the industry. “My greatest honor was getting to shake hands with President Ronald Reagan,” he said.

He and his wife have four children, 12 grand children and one great grandchild. They have a second home in Morro Boy, which they occupy about one-third of the time and they love to travel by cruise ship. LoBue rattled off more than a dozen trips they have taken, including several of them more than once. “When we enjoy a trip, we like to take it again,” he said.

Though he has had a few disappointments and setbacks over his 80 years, LoBue has no regrets. “God has been very good to me,” he said.

While he is exiting the industry as a full-time occupant, he remains committed to his farm and the industry at large. “I see innovation and technology being a big part of the future and solving some of the challenges we have,” he said. “That’s the only way we are going to stay in business. Labor and water are still the biggest issues. As someone once said, if you don’t have labor, you don’t have a water problem. And if you don’t have water, you don’t have a labor problem.”

Speaking specifically of his efforts on behalf of the ag industry and his optimism for the future, LoBue said he has always been very impressed with how colleagues come together under the auspices of these industry organizations. “The big thing is how competitors mutually work together, partners in a common cause.”

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, November / December 2020 Issue | No Comments »

UPDATE from the CIT

November 17th, 2020

Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems.

At any one time, there are about 50 firms operating in the Center. The following is an update on the activities of some of those firms in an effort to keep the produce industry abreast of the work being done by the resident companies. The information below has been provided by the companies. You can reach any of the residents for more information through WGCIT at wginnovation.com.

 

Agtools is now part of Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator in Minneapolis working with Cargill, Ecolab, and many other corporations. The firm also made the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School 3rd Annual List of Most Fundable Companies. It made the Top 20 achieving a “Silver Award.” Recently, Agtools also received the 2020 Tech Innovation Forum Octane LaunchPad Investor Judges’ Award, which is a Small Business Administration funded program for tech companies.

 

ApisProtect is providing beekeepers with $98 of additional value per hive per season. The company is an Irish-based startup that has developed an innovative solution to help commercial beekeepers monitor their beehives remotely. ApisProtect has developed this technology with commercial beekeepers in the United States to provide highly accurate insights to deliver more and stronger hives to growers, while also increasing their profits. ApisProtect’s monitoring technology provides real-time hive monitoring and delivers a 24/7 early warning system about at-risk hives and gives beekeepers actionable information to help prevent losses and increase colony productivity. If you are interested to learn more, sign up to “Insights from ApisProtect” or download the commercial product specification sheet at www.apisprotect.com or email [email protected].

 

Energy technology firm Concentric Power Inc. and California’s Gonzales Electric Authority have entered into an Energy Services Agreement to deliver wholesale electric power via a community-scale microgrid in and around the Gonzales Agricultural Industrial Business Park. The microgrid will start with 35 megawatts of capacity to provide locally generated, resilient and sustainable power to the agricultural industrial park, which houses processing facilities for some of the country’s largest fresh vegetable and wine producers. Concentric Power designed the intelligent microgrid to integrate a mix of 14.5M megawatts of solar energy, 10 megawatts of battery energy storage and 10 megawatts of flexible thermal generation. All the power sources are managed by the company’s Advanced Microgrid Controller. The system will allow the park to island from the wider energy grid, ensuring that end users have reliable, high-quality power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even when facing planned or unplanned grid outages.

 

Ganaz, Inc. launched a solution for farms to modernize HR employee onboarding. More than 20 ag companies in three states (CA, WA & OR) have implemented paperless employee onboarding at their field and packing operations. The HR onboarding tool saves time and money for growers and helps them keep better records in their digital platform. Ganaz also saw a considerable increase in the use of their two-way texting solution this year. Growers have seen a significant benefit in communicating with their workers through this platform, sharing policies, procedures, and work updates directly to their employees’ phones. The current crisis may have accelerated its adoption but using a two-way texting platform for mass and personal employee communication has proved to be the way forward.

 

GeoVisual continues to deliver specialty crop measurement and analysis tools tailored on a company-confidential basis around the way each grower processor operates. With its core foundation built from work with national research agencies such as NASA, USDA, and FFAR, GeoVisual’s data scientists build information focused to help your team tackle what you see as the biggest problems or greatest opportunities. A lean operation funded by family and friends, it is boots on the ground backed by top-notch scientists, working side-by-side with you and organizations you trust like Western Growers, YCEDA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Monterey Bay, and the University of Arizona, to build unique tools that make your best people even better.

 

iFoodDS (iFoodDecisionSciences) has expanded its solution suite to offer food safety, quality and traceability solutions from the field to the consumer, with solutions optimized for growers, packers, processors, distributors, retail and foodservice organizations. The company is expanding its Salinas and Seattle hubs and has sales or distribution presence in North America, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Australia.

 

Naïo Technologies USA had a very successful season in Salinas/Santa Maria cultivating more than 950 acres with its grower partners. Naïo will be adding two more robots to its U.S. fleet in December, and will now have a total of five Dinos in operation. The company is shifting its operations to Yuma, AZ and is looking for companies interested in its WaaS program for the winter in Yuma.

 

Harnessing the power of DNA, SafeTraces continues to offer rapid on-food traceability and rapid sanitation verification solutions to customers throughout the food and agriculture industries. SafeTraces’ miniDART solution is the most cost-effective, scalable on-product traceability solution for produce and bulk goods, applying unique edible, invisible DNA tags (FDA-GRAS) directly to the product for unsurpassed supply chain security. The saniDART solution is the first rapid solution for verifying sanitation effectiveness at a microbial level to receive certification from the Association of Analytical Chemists Research Institute (AOAC-RI). As consumers and regulators continue to demand higher standards and visibility into food safety practices throughout the supply chain, SafeTraces’ solutions provide valuable risk management and are easily integrated into existing food production and safety programs to protect product quality, consumer health and safety, and brand equity.

 

SWIIM and WiseConn hosted another edition of its Equipment Integration Series where attendees learned how SWIIM, combined with WiseConn, can further help growers achieve desired yields through the use of sensors, plant requirement recommendations and advanced water use data analytics. For those farmers who already have, or are considering WiseConn telemetry for their farming operation, with the flip of a switch, they can add the power of SWIIM’s water balance data easily without adding new equipment. SWIIM is able to connect with most already-installed brands of commercial irrigation automation equipment in the field including Netafim, Bermad, Campbell and many others, which allows SWIIM to use the data already created to provide detailed, multi-dimensional water use reports. A list of current of SWIIM-compatible equipment providers is located on its website. If you don’t see your equipment vendor listed, contact SWIIM to discuss integrating your equipment provider of choice.

 

Are you a specialty crop grower interested in reducing your hand-weeding labor costs? Tensorfield Agriculture has been conducting on-site weed pressure studies throughout 2020 in order to provide competitive quotes for its precision post-emergence thermal weeding services. Using on-board cameras, their precision sprayers hit only the weeds and leave your crops to flourish—suitable for all specialty crops grown on 40/80 inch beds. The only applicant is organic-approved food-grade canola oil, which is heated, then precisely sprayed to destroy weeds upon contact. Early projections estimate a 40% reduction against today’s hand-weeding labor costs using their technology. To arrange a trial for 2021, contact them today at [email protected]

 

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Posted in November / December 2020 Issue | Comments Closed

Western Growers’ Jason Resnick Promoted to Senior Vice President

November 30th, 2020

IRVINE, Calif. (November 30, 2020) – Western Growers’ veteran Jason Resnick has been promoted to Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

“Over the past 17 years, Jason has demonstrated an unrivaled commitment to Western Growers and our membership and has provided indispensable counsel to the senior leadership team throughout his tenure with the organization,” said Western Growers President & CEO Dave Puglia. “In addition to his core responsibilities as General Counsel, Jason has helped shape our work on important public policy issues, especially immigration. His strategic mind and trusted counsel are of immense importance to me and our Board of Directors.”

Resnick joined Western Growers in 2003 as a staff attorney and most recently served as Vice President and General Counsel. The promotion is in recognition of the additional duties he has assumed, such as managing the affairs of the Board of Directors as corporate secretary, establishing Western Growers H-2A Services as a premier H-2A services agency and overseeing the Legal and Trade Practices and Commodity Services Departments.

“It’s truly an honor, and I’m humbled and grateful for this opportunity,” said Resnick. “During my time at Western Growers, I have learned so much about this wonderful industry from extraordinary colleagues, past and present, our visionary members, and the dedicated attorneys who have been zealous advocates for the industry for many years. I am inspired every day by my colleagues who continue to raise the bar for serving our members.”

Resnick is “AV” Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is a frequent speaker and contributor to Western Grower & Shipper magazine on employment law and ag labor issues. He serves as vice president on the board of directors for the Agricultural Personnel Management Association (APMA), is on the board of iFoodDecisionSciences, Inc. and is a past co-chair of the Agribusiness Committee of the State Bar of California.

Resnick received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine and his JD from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. 

Click here to download Resnick’s headshot. 

About Western Growers:
Founded in 1926, Western Growers represents local and regional family farmers growing fresh produce in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Western Growers’ members and their workers provide over half the nation’s fresh fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, including half of America’s fresh organic produce. Connect and learn more about Western Growers on Twitter and Facebook.

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U.S. Supreme Court to Review Union Access to California Farms

November 17th, 2020

The United States Supreme Court has granted review in a case that will determine if the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) regulation granting union organizers the right to enter private property to recruit employees constitutes an unconstitutional “taking” of private property under the Fifth Amendment. Under the “Access Rule,” farms must allow labor organizers onto their property three times a day for 120 days each year.

The case, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, was initiated by strawberry nursery Cedar Point Nursery and stone fruit producer Fowler Packing after union organizers relied on the access regulation to enter their property. A federal district court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the regulation violates the Fifth Amendment and the nursery appealed. A divided 3-justice panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, but a group of eight judges dissented from the majority’s opinion in a subsequent denied petition for rehearing by the full panel of the Ninth Circuit. The dissenting judges agreed with the plaintiffs that the rule constituted a taking because it granted the union an easement to access and use the employer’s land in furtherance of a governmental purpose. The dissenting judges would have ruled the ALRB’s access rule unlawful as an unconstitutional taking of the employer’s property without just compensation in violation of the 5th Amendment.

In its petition, the agricultural employers are asking the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit’s ruling, arguing that the federal courts of appeals are divided on the question whether an easement like the one created by the regulation constitutes a state-sponsored trespass for which its owner must be compensated.

Western Growers and allies are filing amicus briefs in support of the petitioners. We will provide additional updates regarding the case as they become available.

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