Ann Donahue
Western Growers, Director, Marketing and Communications
Ann Donahue serves as Director, Marketing and Communications for Western Growers, where she is responsible for external communication efforts and publicizing the Association’s executives, initiatives, and members across all media platforms. Ann spent more than 20 years as an editor and reporter covering entertainment journalism, with bylines at publications including Variety, the L.A. Times, Billboard, […]
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VofV Epsiode: Don Cameron on How Innovation and Automation Can Boost California Agriculture
Don Cameron, Vice President and General Manager of Terranova Ranch, joins the Voices of the Valley podcast to share his experiences with agtech start-ups looking to gain traction in California agriculture. “The ones that tend to come early and listen and hear what we’re saying are the ones that tend to be successful,” he says. ...
Western Growers Leads Innovative Discussions at the Western Food Safety Conference
The Western Food Safety Conference was held May 4-5, 2022 at Hartnell College in Salinas, Calif. This year’s edition of the conference had the theme “The Culture of Food Safety,” and WG members and executives shared their first-hand learnings based on their years of experience in the industry. Sonia Salas, AVP of Science at Western ...
New VofV Episode: Verdant Robotics and the Secret to Making Farmers Superhuman
Verdant Robotics Co-Founders CEO Gabe Sibley and COO Curtis Garner join Voices of the Valley to discuss the power that digitized precision farming gives to the industry. Verdant Robotics wasn’t “a solution looking for a problem,” Gabe says; instead, the multi-action robot that provides both data analytics and crop applications is the result of a ...
In Memoriam: Franz De Klotz
Western Growers mourns the loss of board member and beloved fresh produce industry veteran Franz De Klotz.
USDA Offers March 30 Webinar on Drought and Farm Loan Programs
In response to the ongoing drought in California, the USDA Kings, Tulare and Kern County Farm Service Agency (FSA) and USDA Office of Partnerships & Public Engagement are partnering to conduct a short webinar on FSA programs that offer drought benefits to farmers and ranchers. The webinar will take place on March 30 from 10-11 ...
March 29 Webinar to Focus on Using Microgrids as Practical Energy Solutions for Food Processors
Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology Executive Director Dennis Donohue will speak at a March 29 webinar hosted by Microgrid Knowledge and entitled “Microgrids for the Food Industry: Simple and Practical Energy Solutions for Food Processors.” The panel will cover what the typical components of a microgrid are and related forms of on-site generation; ...
Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) Asks for Investigation Into the Department of Water Resources
In an opinion piece that was published Monday in CalMatters, Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) called for the California State Auditor to investigate the Department of Water Resources’ operations and management. “In the 2021 water year, California water officials disastrously miscalculated the moisture content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack,” Gray wrote. “Because the Department of Water…
VofV Podcast: Cybersecurity and the Virtual Threats to Farming
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 ...
VofV Podcast: How AI on the Farm Can Sense What Humans Can’t
In this week’s episode of the Voices of the Valley podcast, Larry Taylor, Co-Founder of The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, and Mark DeSantis, CEO at Bloomfield Robotics, bust the myth that artificial intelligence isn’t as adaptable as human intelligence when it comes to managing the health of specialty crops. With the right kind of technology, ...
Final Weeks: Deadline Extended to Complete Compensation and HR Practices Survey
The deadline for completing the Western Growers’ annual Compensation and HR Practices Survey has been extended by two weeks to April 15, 2022. The Compensation and HR Practices Survey provides key insights, analytics and data that are vital to keeping pay programs, human resource practices and employee programs current and competitive. Your participation contributes to sound, ...
Western Growers to Sponsor Western Food Safety Conference Scheduled for May 4-5
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 ...
Last Chance to Register for California Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Webinar
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 ...
Western Growers Food Safety Cohort Meets With Industry Leaders
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 ...
VofV Podcast: Working at the Digital Farm of the Future
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 ...
Western Water Coalition Begins National Campaign to Highlight Drought’s Impact on Food Security
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 ...
Farming’s Secret Weapon: California Community Colleges
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, ...
AgTechX Ed Event April 13 to Showcase 14 Startups
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, ...
New Report Details Outbreak Investigations of Cyclospora cayetanensis Infections from 2013-2020
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…
Venture Capital Money in Agtech: Hazel Technologies Outlines a Successful Pitch
On this week’s episode of the Voices of the Valley podcast, CEO and Co-Founder Aidan Mouat discusses the trajectory of his company since its 2017 AgSharks win.
Applications Now Open to Compete for $250,000 in AgSharks Pitch Competition
IRVINE, CALIF. (Aug. 10, 2022) – Western Growers and S2G Ventures are now accepting applications for the 2022 AgSharks Competition, a unique event where startup companies pitch their innovations in front of a live audience of the world’s largest specialty crop producers to win a $250,000 minimum investment. Impact-driven entrepreneurs and startups developing technologies that…