WG Seeks Participants for New Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group

April 26th, 2022

The push for climate-minded policies at the state and federal level is getting stronger than ever. Countless proposals are being floated – from carbon emission reduction and renewable energy technologies to farm conservation programs and water quality. However, all these efforts currently overlook or miss a key point: their impact on – or usefulness to – specialty crops like fruits, vegetables and tree nuts.

In response, Western Growers is forming a new Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group. Members of this committee will be involved in WG’s key efforts and projects in this area and will have the opportunity to provide the Science and Advocacy staff with feedback.

If you are interested in joining WG’s Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group or would like more information please contact Science Programs Director Afreen Malik at [email protected] or Federal Government Affairs Specialist Tracey Chow at [email protected]
 

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USDA Visits WGCIT to Learn About Agtech Innovation

April 28th, 2022

On April 26, 14 representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas, Calif.

Among those who toured the facility to meet with the startups was Bill Richmond, Chief of the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program for the USDA and Robin Chilton, Director, Standards Division of the USDA’s Specialty Crops Program.

The group met with WGCIT member Solare Holdings about their hemp program and the USDA requirements for hemp. In addition, the group me with the following WGCIT startups:

  • Heavy Connect
  • AgTools
  • Clean Works
  • Hummingbird
  • Ganaz
  • Food Origins

More information and photos from the visit can be found on the WGCIT Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wgcit/

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VofV Podcast: Cybersecurity and the Virtual Threats to Farming

April 12th, 2022

Do you use computers in your office? Guess what, you’re a tech company.

“We’re not in a paper world anymore,” says Greg Gatzke, President and CEO of ZAG Technical Services, countering the common misconception that there is a dividing line between the Salinas Valley and Silicon Valley.

“The more reliant you are on technology, the bigger you are, the more processing systems you have, the more vulnerable you are to attack,” he says.

In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Gatzke talks about cybersecurity and virtual threats to the farming, and how his company bolsters safety in the online realm. Listen here.

 

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Western Growers to Sponsor Western Food Safety Conference Scheduled for May 4-5

April 5th, 2022

Western Growers is sponsoring the 17th Annual Western Food Safety Conference, which will be held May 4-5, 2022 at Hartnell College in Salinas, Calif. This will be a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual attendance via Zoom.

The speakers from Western Growers include Sonia Salas, the AVP of Science; Dennis Donohue, the Executive Director of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology; Afreen Malik, the Science Programs Director; and Walt Duflock, the Vice President of Innovation.

Western Growers will highlight their groundbreaking Food Safety Data Sharing platform during the conference, which is a secure, cloud-based program that allows users to analyze their individual company’s food safety data and anonymously compare and benchmark food safety performance with aggregated industry data.

More information about the 17th Annual Western Food Safety Conference can be found here.

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Last Chance to Register for California Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Webinar

April 12th, 2022

Join us on April 13 at 11 a.m. PT as we discuss the 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Law reviving an employer’s obligation to provide paid sick leave for COVID-19 related absences.  

During the webinar, we will discuss the new legislation and how it interacts with California paid sick leave, exclusion pay, and supplemental paid sick leave under local ordinances. 

The webinar will be lead by Western Growers SVP and General Counsel Jason Resnick and BakerHostetler Partners Michael Chamberlin and David Stern.

For more information and to register, please click here.

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Western Growers Food Safety Cohort Meets With Industry Leaders

April 5th, 2022

Drew McDonald, the Senior Vice President of Quality & Food Safety at Taylor Fresh Foods, shared his insights on April 4 in a virtual webinar with the inaugural class of the Western Growers Food Safety Cohort.

The webinar, entitled “A Year of Food Safety Acceleration for Rapid Diagnostics and Prevention Technologies,” focused on McDonald’s “three C’s” that are vital to the industry: “keep it cold, keep it clean – and keep it cold.”

As part of the inaugural AgTechX Food Safety event hosted by the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, the Center for Produce Safety and the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture in February, WG introduced the AgTechX Food Safety Cohort. It is a global group of innovators specializing in prevention technologies and rapid diagnostics who will receive exclusive resources to help them launch and scale their projects,

The initial members of the cohort are:

  • Javier Atencia, CEO & Founder, Pathotrak
  • Alex Athey, CEO, En Solución Inc.
  • Rafael Davila, Founder, Priority Sampling
  • Dr. Eyal Gerecht, President & CEO, TeraBAT, Inc.
  • Mike Hogan PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, PathogenDx
  • Tom Jacobs, VP Sales and Marketing, SnapDNA
  • Marc Petitpas, Senior Director, North America Sales, ScanTech Sciences, Inc.
  • Carl “Skip” Rapp, CEO TeraBAT, Inc.
  • Jonathan Sierra, CEO, Yarok Microbio Ltd.
  • Chip Starns, Co-Founder, EVP, ScanTech Sciences, Inc.

The next meeting of the cohort will take place at the AgTechX Food Safety event in Modesto, Calif. on July 6-7, 2022. Registration details and an agenda will be available soon.

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VofV Podcast: Working at the Digital Farm of the Future

April 7th, 2022

Mark DeSantis, CEO of Bloomfield Robotics, makes a return visit to the podcast to discuss how agtech can improve work conditions for those employed at a farm.

It’s not about making humans irrelevant to the field, he says, but instead it’s about creating new job categories in the labor market. “It’s not that people are replaced,” he says. “The world evolves and creates new opportunities.”

Listen in to hear about a future world with digital agronomists, horticulturalists and botanists.

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Western Water Coalition Begins National Campaign to Highlight Drought’s Impact on Food Security

April 7th, 2022

The California Farm Water Coalition and the Family Farm Alliance teamed up with farms and farm-related businesses to buy a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on April 2 to inform a mainstream audience of the impact that the region’s drought will have on consumers. It warns about the risk to a key element of life that Americans have long taken for granted: a safe, affordable domestic food supply.

“Consumers have experienced supply chain disruptions over the past two years and now see the tension around the world as a potential threat to global food supplies. It was important to remind them that California remains our best, most reliable source for food if farmers have the water they need to grow it,” Mike Wade, Executive Director of the California Farm Water Coalition, said in a statement.

Warning that higher prices and food shortages could be coming soon, the Coalition called on the government to quickly build necessary infrastructure to store water from wet years for use in dry ones like 2022.

“Western irrigated agriculture supports the national economy and is the foundation for U.S. consumers to pay less of their disposable income on food than anywhere else in the world,” Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Family Farm Alliance, said.

The ad includes a QR code that takes consumers to a website where they can take action by sharing accurate information about the region’s water supply issues and the link to food security.

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Farming’s Secret Weapon: California Community Colleges

April 19th, 2022

Dr. Jerry Buckley, the President of Reedley College, joins Voices of the Valley to talk about the vital need to expand the relationship between agriculture and community colleges in California.

“Across the country, community colleges are the best-kept secret that we have,” he says, noting that with its 2.1 million students in attendance every year, California community colleges represent the largest system of education in the U.S.

For instance, the AgTechX Ed workforce development program spearheaded by Western Growers and California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross to train community college students is a perfect example of the way to pass along knowledge about on-farm skills and technology.

“I can teach theory all day long,” Buckley says, “but it doesn’t make sense until they put it to use.”

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Last Chance to Register for Foundations of Management and Employee Handbook Workshops

April 21st, 2022

There are only a few days left to left to register for the Foundations of Management and Employee Handbook Workshop that will be held on April 28-29 in Salinas.

Together, this multi-workshop will help you build a better workplace and ensure compliance.

In Foundations of Management workshop, you will learn:

  • What is management, its function and the various roles; and know how to:
    • Improve management efficiencies
    • Help decline legal complaints
    • Create a safer environment
  • What specific skill set are needed to be a successful manager
  • What the four leadership styles are and how to apply their style in the workplace
  • Best Practices to increase their confidence and become a stronger, more confident influencer. 

In the Employee Handbook Workshop you will:

  • Participate in the build out of your own complete and customized, legally compliant Employee Handbook ready to distribute to your organization’s employees
  • Learn from the extensive Q&A discussions regarding the content of the Model Handbook
  • Receive dedicated time to have your questions answered all the while being walked through the process of editing and customizing the model handbook. 

The venue for these workshops is:

Farm Credit

924 E. Blanco Rd.

Salinas, CA 93901

Please register today! 

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AgTechX Ed Event April 13 to Showcase 14 Startups

April 12th, 2022

The AgTechX Ed workforce development event tomorrow at Hartnell College in Salinas will feature a fireside chat with Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture – and the opportunity to examine robots from agtech startups up close.

The startups showcasing at the event include AerialPlot, Corigin, Pago, iFoodDS, AgTools, AgMonitor, Kiptraq, AgNote, Ganaz and Boost Biomes.

Robots from Naio Technologies, Verdant Robotics, Carbon Robotics and Burro will be parked outside the STEM building during the end-of-event mixer.

This event is part of the AgTechX Ed Initiative – a statewide effort, led by Western Growers and Ross, to cultivate a future workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to navigate emerging on-farm technology. 

The full agenda and registration information for AgTechX Ed can be found here.

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New Report Details Outbreak Investigations of Cyclospora cayetanensis Infections from 2013-2020

April 12th, 2022

Last week an article entitled “Outbreak Investigations of Cyclospora cayetanensis Infections 2013-2020: Progress Made and Challenges that Remain” was published in the April/May issue of Food Safety Magazine.

The article’s main discussion points include common challenges encountered during outbreaks of Cyclosporiasis, successes and breakthroughs, sample findings and how to address future outbreaks. The authors note that recurring outbreaks of cyclosporiasis underscore the need for a comprehensive understanding of how Cyclospora cayetanensis contaminates water and produce.

We encourage you to read through the entire piece, which is located here.

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