The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT) in Salinas hosted the Sakata Seed Global Academy on May 16 to discuss and share valuable agtech insights.

WGCIT Director Dennis Donohue addressed the 16 leaders in attendance, discussing the fresh produce supply chain and Western Growers’ innovation initiatives designed to support it. Charles McGregor, General Manager of Denver-based GeoVisual Analytics, also talked about running a startup in the Salinas Valley and working with different types of farming operations.

Founded in 1913 and headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, Sakata Seed Corporation is a global leader in seed breeding and production.

The Western Growers Board of Directors visited Washington D.C. in May to advocate on behalf of the membership on a wide range of issues, including the Farm Bill, plastic packaging, labor, food safety and sustainability.

On the heels of the release of two separate farm bill frameworks by the chairs of the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees, the board met with representatives and staff from both committees – including House Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson. The board reiterated the priorities outlined by the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance and urged the lawmakers to collaborate on a bipartisan bill that can get signed into law this year.

In addition to legislative visits on Capitol Hill, the board also engaged with key agency officials on topics ranging from H-2A rules to FDA reform to biological pesticide registrations, including Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones, and Senior Advisor for Agriculture to the EPA Administrator Rod Snyder.

Finally, one interesting side trip included a working lunch with officials at the Canadian Embassy to discuss plastic packaging and other trade related issues. Economic Minister John Layton delivered opening remarks on the Embassy’s trade, economic and business development programs in the U.S.

Western Growers will bestow The Growers Company President and CEO Sonny Rodriguez with the 2024 Award of Honor at the organization’s 98th Annual Meeting in November. The Award of Honor is Western Growers’ highest recognition of achievement and is given to individuals who have contributed extensively to the agricultural community.

The Growers Company has offered custom produce harvesting since 1950 and is a third-generation family business. It is based in Yuma, Arizona, with offices in California; the company harvests lettuce, mix lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and many other commodities.

Rodriguez was first elected to the Western Growers Board of Directors in 1998.

“I have no words to describe how grateful I am to be chosen this year for the Award of Honor,” Rodriguez said. “I am truly humbled to be recognized by my peers and to stand among the great men and women who were honored before me. The real honor is being able to serve our industry by being on the Board of Western Growers.”

Rodriguez’s achievements will be celebrated at the Award of Honor Dinner Gala at the Western Growers 2024 Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Nov. 3-6, 2024.

This interview has been adapted and expanded from an episode of Western Growers’ Voices of the Valley podcast. It has been edited and formatted for print.

Garrett Nishimori grew up in a farming family in Oxnard, Calif. He left to attend Cal and culinary school, after which he became a chef in a two-star Michelin restaurant in San Francisco. Fifteen years ago, he returned to his family’s farm, San Miguel Produce. His unique perspective on the “Farm to Fork” movement provides a first-hand account on food waste prevention, the intricacies of the supply chain – and why consumers should all get to know where our food comes from. Nishimori talks about his family’s legacy, the July 2024 acquisition of San Miguel by Grimmway Farms and how realistic FX’s “The Bear” is with Ann Donahue, Director of Communications at Western Growers.

Ann Donahue: Can you talk a little bit about your experience in farming and your experience as a chef?

Garrett Nishimori: In high school I had the opportunity to spend my summers here at San Miguel Produce. I was on the cucumber packing line at the time, sizing, grading spec’ing out cucumbers. They put me at the very end, because I was a little slow. The next summer I got to work in our fresh cut operation, mainly folding boxes cause I don’t think I could keep up with all the bags coming off, either. (Laughs.) Finally my third summer I got to work in our field mechanic shop and got to learn how to service trucks and tractors. On the culinary side, I, I was probably cooking since I was in middle school – just starting simple, grilling some meat, making some rice, making a vegetable. As I got into college at UC Berkeley, I got exposed to a lot more different types of food, more ethnic food, more authentic flavors, and got really excited and explored more and ate out more and gained a few pounds, which was fun. I went to culinary school in San Francisco…and eventually worked at Aqua in San Francisco, which was a two-star Michelin California seafood restaurant.

AD: I’m going to totally derail this interview right now and ask you how realistic “The Bear” is.

GN: I did watch that show – it was recommended to me by many friends. A lot of the drama, it was pretty real. A lot of crazy stuff happens in the kitchen. It’s kind of a high stress atmosphere with not a lot of sleep and different personalities… one day we’re cooking and one of my, my buddies comes running in the kitchen. He yells something, he grabs the blowtorch and runs out. Apparently he was out having a smoke break in the alley behind the restaurant. Three guys came up to him and jumped him, and he chased him down with the blowtorch after he got jumped. I don’t think they ended up catching him. He was a big guy, so I would definitely not have messed with him. That was a fun one.

AD: Next season, on “The Bear!” So after Aqua closed, you came back home. San Miguel is your family farm, you are the General Manager, and you guys just announced that you will be acquired by Grimmway. Can you talk about that?

GN: San Miguel Produce was founded by my uncle Roy in 1976. Roy wanted to grow year ‘round here in Ventura County and was successful even though it hadn’t been done before. He started as a commodity grower, growing items like celery, cabbage and broccoli. At the time Oxnard had their season in between Salinas and the desert, and then over time as growers were expanding their seasons he saw the business shifting. In the early 1990s, he decided to move it into what we call it the cooking green category: collard, kale, mustard, turnip, those types of greens. He did a phone survey to see if people would want a fresh cut option, a value-added option on greens that were traditionally very hard to clean. That’s when he launched the first fresh-cut cooking greens in a bag, called Cut N Clean Greens. That’s been our cornerstone brand for almost 30 years.

I think Roy and I had a very similar career path. He went to UCLA and became an accountant and think when he was around the same age as me  – mid-30s – he decided he wanted to get back into farming. I don’t know why we did that! (Laughs.) Must have been in our blood. His father, my grandfather, he had been farming with his brother here in the Oxnard area since the 1950s. Roy started learning about farming and then started his own business, and he’s been doing that for almost 50 years.

We’re being acquired by Grimmway, effective in July. That is very exciting – they grow a lot of the same crops that we source, so we’re excited about helping them increase yield in the field. It’s exciting for Roy too, because he’s finally going to be able to retire at the young age of 79. Hopefully he gets a nice retirement and gets to do some of the stuff he wants to enjoy.

AD: Given your experience on both sides of the equation, what do you think of the “Farm to Fork” movement? Is there something to it? It is just a buzzy marketing term?

GN: What sparked my interest in it was really working in
the kitchen. We did things that were probably not normal for home cooks – finding new ways to use different parts of the plant. One of my favorite things to eat is chard stems, and unless you’re buying a bunch, you’re probably not eating that. If you braise them down, they’re super tender, sweet and delicious. For consumers, I think the people that cook more often are probably a bit more open to try new things, try new flavors, utilize the whole plant or animal or whatever they’re cooking. But for the most part, consumers are kind of disconnected to the food supply system and how things are grown and processed and the challenges that come along with that.

AD: What can we do to fix that?

GN: I think it’s a very complicated answer because our food system is very dynamic and changing. I think the best thing consumers can do is to start asking questions. If you buy a product ask the company who packed it, where it came from. Build a relationship with farmers! If you’re lucky enough to know a farmer – ask us. We’ll tell you.

The Voices of the Valley podcast is available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube. Like, subscribe and comment to be entered to win a free branded Western Growers Stanley mug.

The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) is extremely polarizing – for some, the possibilities of AI are exciting and endless; others worry about the profound effects AI could have on society, the economy and, well, humanity. Paul Mikesell, Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, best known for the LaserWeeder, says his company exemplifies how AI can be harnessed to make a positive impact.

“We’re in one of the areas in AI where it’s completely non-controversial,” he said. “We’re not influencing people, and we’re not generating, you know, deepfake videos. We’re just finding weeds and killing them.”

Carbon Robotics’ intentions and groundbreaking achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In May the Seattle-based company secured an investment from NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA—a world leader in accelerated computing and AI. Mikesell said the two companies came together at FIRA USA in Salinas, Calif. last year, where the NVentures team met with Carbon Robotics’ grower clients and observed robots in the field.

“The NVIDIA name is exciting. The fact that the heads of the NVentures group were willing to take a whole day, get actively engaged and come visit robots with us impressed me,” Mikesell said.

Carbon Robotics launched its Autonomous LaserWeeder in the spring of 2021, which combines computer vision, AI deep learning technology, robotics and lasers to identify and eliminate weeds. The LaserWeeder uses 24 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to process 4.7 million high-resolution images per hour, offering rapid plant detection and identification. The lasers can target and destroy up to 5,000 weeds per minute, according to the company.

“In the last few years, AI has exploded, and NVIDIA GPUs are essential for building AI models,” said Mikesell. “Our robots are full of AI systems, and we use a lot of NVIDIA GPUs. NVentures is always looking for areas in which their GPUs can be put to good use.”

The investment money will help Carbon Robotics in a number of ways, one of which will go toward continued geographic expansion of the LaserWeeder product. A number of Western Growers members are already using the LaserWeeder, including Sábor Farms, Taylor Farms, Braga Fresh, Grimmway Farms, D’Arrigo Bros. of California and JV Smith Companies. Additionally, Mikesell said the company has plans to launch several products—completely independent from the LaserWeeder—later this year.

As a Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) resident, Mikesell was interviewed by Western Growers at the end of 2022. And much like the evolution of technology, since then it has been full steam ahead for Carbon Robotics. The company has spent the last year continuing to build out its LaserWeeder units, even expanding internationally. “We have machines going to Europe now and Australia, and we’re already shipping across the United States,” Mikesell said.

While Carbon Robotics doesn’t disclose the number of units it sells, Mikesell shared that at the time of this interview, the company had exceeded the milestone of 10 billion weeds eliminated by the LaserWeeder. To put that achievement in perspective, that number was at 100 million in November 2022.

“Growers are continuing to see a huge amount of benefit from our LaserWeeder,” he said. “We were originally selling on a value proposition of just straight money saving dollars per acre, but we’ve now discovered a huge amount of yield improvement as well because the LaserWeeder doesn’t touch soil or the crops.”

The CIT released its first of an ongoing series of case studies on the financial impact of agtech earlier this year. In the case study, the CIT collaborated with two grower operations to share quantifiable data of the financial value of Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder after one year.

The case study found that in a span of eight months, growers not only reduced weeding expenses with the LaserWeeder, but also improved yield. One grower’s yields with several crops were improved by an estimated 10 to 15 percent – and up to 50 percent, in some cases. The increased yield came in the form of recoverable product and less crop damage from hand-weeding.

The study also found that the LaserWeeder can reduce weed seedbank. “It was important for us to not only weed at a relatively low cost, but that we would improve our weed-to-plant ratio over time by reducing the weed seed count in the soil,” said Josh Roberts, former President of Triangle Farms, who participated in the case study.

Carbon Robotics’ customers range from farms as small as 300 acres to farms that are hundreds of thousands of acres. Mikesell said his goal is to have a product for growers that will pay for itself in less than three years.

“We’ve saved farmers a lot of money. Most of our farmers are seeing that payback period between one to three years…sure, there are growers who are more conservative in nature and are conscientious of how they spend their money, but we have enough machines out there in the field now that most people know somebody, or are two or three steps removed from somebody, who has a LaserWeeder and can get some questions answered firsthand,” Mikesell said.

And while the LaserWeeder is getting a lot of attention by word of mouth, Mikesell said another big reason for his company’s success is that his team makes a concerted effort to get to know farmers and uses their feedback to optimize his products.

“We have our laser weeders, and through a collaboration with our managers and Carbon Robotics, we have them weeding and thinning at the same time,” said Kristen Smith Eshaya, President of JV Smith Companies, to Western Growers last summer.

“In the early days, we had engineers basically living out of trailers in the middle of these farm fields because we were actively developing and changing and editing things,” he said. “Our earliest growers and customers were in Salinas and are all part of Western Growers, and we’re very happy to continue to participate.”

Mikesell said he makes it a point to visit with his customers as often as possible, stating that the growers are the ones who really hold all the knowledge. “The only way you can make a good product for growers is by building that relationship and having conversations,” he said. “A lot of tech companies have made the mistake of feeling like they’re experts in one field and thinking they’re just going to show up and give farmers a piece of equipment to solve all of their problems. It doesn’t work like that.”

Mikesell’s familiarity and experience in the tech startup space has served him well. For more than 20 years, he’s contributed largely to robotics and advanced techniques for AI-driven computer vision systems for notable companies in Silicon Valley, including Uber—and he has no plans for Carbon Robotics to slow down any time soon.

“I have a long background of making venture capitalists a ton of money through my inventions, and I hope to continue doing that with Carbon Robotics,” he said. “I’m very proud to have NVIDIA invested in us, and if you think that’s exciting, just wait until you see what we do next.”

The third annual FIRA USA event is set to take place Oct. 22-24, 2024 in Woodland, Calif., and will showcase more than 35 robots demonstrating advancements in agricultural automation solutions in several demonstration zones. The exhibition hall will include more than 70 indoor booths. This year, for the first time, growers will be able to attend the three-day event for free.

Staying informed about production trends, economic information and food safety is extremely important for grower operations. Data analysis helps in making informed decisions regarding farm management, production and food safety. This article highlights three resources that provide valuable insights into trends in the produce world and food safety: the Census of Agriculture, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service
(ERS) Yearbook Tables and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Data Dashboard.

Census of Agriculture: Comprehensive Agricultural Data

Every five years, the USDA conducts The Census of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture offers extensive data and statistics related to land use, production practices, income and expenditures. The 2022 Census of Agriculture was released in March of this year (2024). Some key takeaways from this year’s census include California accounting for 68 percent of the value of fruits, tree nuts and berries and 41 percent of the value of vegetables. In 2022, 74.6 percent of the lettuce area harvested was in California and 17.7 percent of the lettuce area harvested was in Arizona, totaling 92.3 percent of lettuce area harvested in the U.S. Similarly, area harvested from multiple Census reports can be used to look at production trends of cantaloupes per state. See Figure 1 as an example as a plot for the top 10 states by cantaloupe area harvested, where California and Arizona have consistently been the top two producing states.

USDA ERS Yearbook Tables: Production and Trade Data

The USDA Economic Research Service develops yearbook tables for fruits, tree nuts, vegetables and pulses. These yearbook tables can be used to develop timeseries of annual production, prices, trade use and more for all these different commodities. Analysis of this data can allow growers to understand trends and help assess production plans for upcoming years.

For fruit and tree nuts, click here.

For vegetables and pulses, click here.

We can use this data to see production trends of multiple leafy green commodities. See example in Figure 2. We can see that Leaf and Romaine lettuce production has taken off since the 1990s, while head lettuce production has seen a decline since the 2000s.

FDA-Data Dashboard – Recall Data: 

The FDA Recalls Data Dashboard is a valuable resource for staying updated on food safety issues. This dashboard provides detailed information on recent recalls, including the reasons for the recall, affected products and the steps being taken to address the issue. By monitoring recall information, growers can proactively address potential safety issues, implement corrective actions and enhance their food safety protocols.

The dashboard offers a historical perspective on food safety recalls, allowing growers to analyze trends and identify common safety issues. This information is critical for understanding the potential risks associated with specific crops or production practices. Staying informed about recalls helps protect consumers and maintain the integrity of produce, ensuring that only safe and high-quality products reach the market.

You can access the dashboard and recall data here.

Access to reliable data is essential to understand production trends and ensure food safety. While there are thousands of other resources, The Census of Agriculture, the USDA ERS Specialty Crops Table and the FDA Recalls Data Dashboard are resources that can provide data, answers and guide data-based decisions.

In today’s digital age, the threat of cyberattacks looms large over businesses of all sizes. From data breaches to ransomware attacks, the potential for economic loss and reputational damage is real and growing by the day. Today, cyber risk involves much more than protecting personal information – it has evolved and can lead to business interruption or, in many cases, complete business shutdown.

Take United Healthcare (UHC), for example. One of their subsidiaries, Change Healthcare, was hacked Feb 21, 2024. According to reports, data obtained by the ransomware group during the breach was posted to the dark web on April 15, 2024, compromising the personal and protected health information of millions of patients; the compromised data also include contracts and agreements between Change and its clients. Change took their IT systems offline after the cyberattack, leading to widespread claims processing delays across the U.S. Preliminary estimates are that the breach will cost UHC up to $1.6 billion.

In part due to these types of prominent cyberattacks, many organizations across virtually every industry sector, including agriculture, now recognize cyber insurance as a crucial part of their risk management strategy. However, the market is still evolving, and rapidly at that, with insurers continually refining their offerings to keep pace with emerging cyber threats and regulatory changes.

Types of Events Covered by Cyber Insurance

While cyber insurance policies vary, typical covered events may include:

• Data breaches involving sensitive customer information
• Ransomware attacks and other forms of malware
• Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that disrupt network access
• Business email compromise (BEC) and social engineering scams
• Insider threats and employee negligence leading to data breaches
• Legal and regulatory fines resulting from non-compliance with data protection laws

Types of Cyber Insurance Coverage

Cyber insurance policies vary widely in terms of coverage, limits and exclusions. However, they typically fall into one of several broad categories:

• First-Party Coverage: This covers direct costs incurred by the policyholder because of a cyber incident. This may include expenses related to data breach response, such as forensic investigations, notification of affected individuals, credit monitoring services and public relations efforts. Additionally, first-party coverage may reimburse businesses for lost income and extra expenses resulting from a cyberattack, as well as the costs of restoring data and systems.
• Third-Party Coverage: This protects the policyholder against claims and lawsuits filed by third parties, such as customers, vendors or regulatory bodies, alleging harm or damage resulting from a cyber incident. Third-party coverage typically includes liability for privacy breaches, network security failures, and media liability arising from defamation, copyright infringement or other content-related issues.
• Cyber Extortion Coverage: With the rise of ransomware attacks, many cyber insurance policies now include coverage for extortion payments and related expenses. This can help businesses negotiate with cybercriminals and mitigate the financial impact of ransom demands.
• Business Interruption Coverage: This compensates policyholders for income lost due to a cyber incident that disrupts their operations. Business interruption coverage may also include reimbursement for extra expenses incurred to minimize the disruption and expedite the restoration of normal business operations.
• Cybercrime Coverage: Some policies offer coverage for financial losses resulting from fraudulent electronic transfers, social engineering scams or other forms of cybercrime.
  As cyber threats continue to evolve in sophistication and frequency, cyber insurance has become an essential tool for businesses to mitigate the financial and reputational risks associated with cyber incidents. However, navigating the complexities of the cyber insurance market requires careful consideration of coverage options, policy terms and exclusions.

Businesses should work closely with experienced insurance brokers and cybersecurity professionals to assess their risk exposure, identify appropriate coverage needs and select cyber insurance policies that align with their risk management objectives. By investing in robust cyber insurance coverage, organizations can better protect themselves against the potentially devastating consequences of cyberattacks in an increasingly digital world.

Western Growers Insurance Services is a full-service insurance brokerage offering a suite of insurance products and tailored risk management solutions to agribusiness and related industry members. For more information or assistance, please contact Ken Cooper, Director of Risk Strategy for Western Growers Insurance Services, at [email protected].

I have written many times about union and labor activism in California and how their advocacy efforts have a very strong impact on legislative and regulatory activity.

Likewise, I have also called out the tendency of our state government, especially at the agency level, to default to a risk avoidance strategy when dealing with everyday activities that play a critical role in helping us all live within a productive, safe and healthy environment. The most common examples tend to occur within the California Environmental Protection Agency and the evaluations for new pesticide registrations as well as the routine reevaluations that are required by law. Another key example is the strict air emissions mandates that are promulgated by the California Air Resources Board. Too often, economic realities and other practical effects are ignored for the sake of some arbitrarily defined safety factor.

Overly aggressive labor activism that both treats and assumes the employer as the bad guy is terrible enough on its own. However, when you couple that sentiment with a strategy of strict avoidance, you end up with a recipe for lopsided decision-making that often disregards important data and facts. Nowhere is this philosophical confluence more pronounced than at the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Board). This board is charged with maintaining and adopting regulations to ensure the safety of California’s workplaces. Western Growers doesn’t have any beef with the goal. We do, however, raise concerns with how the Board views employers and how they ignore scientific facts and data if that data in any way supports an employer’s claim. They almost always side with labor activists, even when the science and data warrant otherwise.

A case in point is the ongoing conversations at the Board regarding the use of autonomous tractors in farm fields. Under existing law, this equipment is not able to be operated unless you have a human operator stationed at the vehicular controls. This essentially bars the use of new driverless technology in California’s farm fields. There have been two unsuccessful attempts to change this law via a petition process to the Board. In both instances, the petitions were summarily denied and even the creation of an advisory committee to review the regulation and identify options to potentially move forward was also denied. Why? Because labor requested that the petition not be approved and that safety of this equipment cannot be guaranteed. More unsettling, the safety data provided by a tractor manufacturer was called into question by one Board member claiming it to be essentially insufficient because it wasn’t collected at the site of a unionized employer. If you are stupefied by the logic, you should be.

That said, I firmly believe that the use of fully autonomous tractors will be made lawful for operation in California’s farm fields in the future. The real question is how long this should take in reaching a successful outcome. While the technology we are discussing is highly complex, amending the regulation needn’t be. Western Growers will continue to work with our allied organizations to determine the best pathways forward. I’m optimistic that we’ll get there sooner rather than later. California is known as a technology leader. We should continue to live up to that name. Risk avoidance gets nothing done. Progress doesn’t happen and you get left behind. We cannot afford that to happen to California agriculture. The more we can encourage the usefulness of risk mitigation and trusting data, the better off we’ll be.

The July/August 2024 digital issue of the Western Grower & Shipper magazine is now available online.

This issue features the articles “A Hopeful Moment for California’s Reservoir Projects,” “Wonderful Nurseries Challenges AB 113,” “Agrology’s Innovative Solutions for Carbon Sequestration and Sustainable Agriculture” and more.

The cover article features Paul Mikesell, Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, and explores how AI in agriculture is revolutionizing the industry worldwide.

Click here to read more.