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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AgtechX Ed Initiative at Woodland Community College Focuses on Real-World Skills
Last week the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology hosted AgtechX Ed at Woodland Community College as part of an ongoing initiative to highlight the innovations being made in agtech education and career development. California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, a key supporter of the AgtechX Ed Initiative, was the keynote ...
Western Growers Publishes Two New Food Safety Documents
The Western Growers Science team just released a pair of documents providing guidance on pre-harvest product testing sampling plans and how to utilize specific tools during root cause analysis (RCA) investigations. The first document titled “Considerations and Resources for Conducting an Environmental Investigation During an On-Farm RCA”, provides considerations for the benefits, challenges…
WG Members Receive Registration Discount to FIRA USA
The first edition of FIRA USA, the cutting-edge agtech robotics conference, will be held from Oct. 18-20, 2022 in Fresno, and Western Growers members are eligible for a 15% discount on registration through the end of June. Co-sponsored by GOFAR-FIRA, the University of California and Western Growers, FIRA USA 2022 is a unique event dedicated to ...
New VofV Episode: Space AG and the Secret to Producing More Food with Less Effort
Fresh off being accepted into the elite THRIVE agtech accelerator and winning the Innovation Award at THRIVE Demo Day 2022, Space AG Co-Founder and CEO Guillermo de Vivanco joins Voices of the Valley to discuss the evolution of his company in the digital agriculture arena. Space AG is a software platform that increases efficiencies through ...
WG Member Benefit: Attend the Agri-Pulse Food & Ag Issues Summit on July 11
Western Growers has a limited number of complimentary tickets for members to attend the Agri-Pulse Food & Ag Issues Summit on July 11. The summit will take place at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento, and will also include a virtual component. Speakers slated to appear include: Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Dept. of Food and ...
New Voices of the Valley Episode: Food Safety and Using Automation to Mitigate Risk
Priority Sampling Founder and CEO Rafael Davila joins the podcast to talk about his company’s efforts to improve the safety of the food supply chain. “I focus on the tissue sampling process, which is between the grower and the harvest,” Rafael says of his company, which is currently focused on the leafy greens industry. In ...
New Voices of the Valley Episode: Hadley Date Gardens President and Western Growers Chair Albert Keck on the Future of Specialty Crops
Albert Keck, President of Hadley Date Gardens and current Western Growers Chair of the Board of Directors, joins the podcast to talk about his family’s history in farming and how his decades of experience in the industry leads him to believe that the future could be bright for specialty crops. “You want to talk about ...
New VofV Episode – Albert Keck: It’s Time to Stop Just Preaching to the Choir About Ag
Hadley Date Gardens President and Western Growers Chair of the Board Albert Keck returns to the podcast to talk about what it will take for farmers and rural communities to change the narrative about the realities of earning a living in agriculture. “We’ve been playing defense for so long…boy, I would love to be able ...
WG Women: Sign Up Today for Two New, Free Training Events!
Two new, free WG Women training events that are happening in the coming weeks – register today and beat the rush! The first is a virtual Advocacy Training that is occurring on July 19. Our Director of Federal Government Affairs, Tracey Chow, will give an overview of the current legislative slate and give tips on how ...
Western Growers to Honor John Harris at the 2022 Annual Meeting
IRVINE, CALIF. (July 14, 2022) – Western Growers will honor California agricultural icon John Harris with the 2022 Award of Honor. The Award of Honor is Western Growers’ highest recognition of achievement and is given to individuals who have contributed extensively to the agricultural community. With more than 50 years’ experience in ranching, farming, hospitality ...
Karl Rove to Speak at PAC Lunch at Western Growers Annual Meeting
Karl Rove, the former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, will speak at the Nov. 3 PAC Lunch at the Western Growers Annual Meeting. Before the White House, he ran Rove + Co., a Texas based public affairs firm that consulted on over 75 GOP campaigns for Senator, Governor, ...
Tom Nunes and Monitoring the Speed of Technology Adoption on the Farm
The Nunes Company President Tom “T5” Nunes joins the podcast to discuss how his company remains nimble and open to technology adoption in an industry beset with challenges. The Nunes Company, known for the Foxy label, grows 40 conventional and 35 organic commodities. With that breadth of product, Tom is looking for common technologies that ...
WGCIT Hosts Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association ELDP Class 11
The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology this week hosted the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association’s ELDP Class 11, giving the group of future ag leaders an overview of the center and WG’s agtech initiatives. Besides a tour of the WGCIT and a presentation from Dennis Donohue, the Center’s Executive Director, the group went ...
Western Growers Annual Meeting Sets Award of Honor Recipient, PAC Lunch Speaker – Register Now!
Registration for the 96th Western Growers Annual Meeting is now open! The annual meeting will be held Nov. 2-5, 2022 at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas – and the lineup for two of the gathering’s most popular events has been finalized. Western Growers will honor California agricultural icon John Harris with the 2022 ...
Register Now for AgTechX Food Safety Aug. 18 at Reedley College
The Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology is hosting the AgTechX Food Safety initiative, a yearlong program aimed at food safety technology acceleration to improve the toolkit of rapid diagnostics and prevention technologies. The next stop in the event series is on August 18, 2022, where we will feature panels on industry issues, regulatory views ...
Admiral William McRaven to Keynote Western Growers 2022 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas
Admiral William H. McRaven, a retired U.S. Navy Four-Star admiral, will give the keynote on Nov. 4, 2022 at the 96th Western Growers Annual Meeting at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. During his time in the military, McRaven commanded special operations forces at every level, eventually taking charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command. ...
July/August Issue of Western Grower & Shipper Magazine Now Available Online
The July/August issue of Western Grower & Shipper Magazine now can be read online! Among the articles in the current issue: President’s Notes: A Sharper Focus on American Food and Farm Policy WG Women Reaches Membership Milestone The Promise of Agtech Agtech is Already Here Innovation: More Talk Between Startups and Growers Needed: Tech Should ...
Voices of the Valley: Grimmway Farms’ Jeff Morrison on Using Business Acumen to Direct Agtech Investments
Jeff Morrison, the Director of Innovation and New Technology at Grimmway Farms, joins the podcast to discuss how he uses his interest in the business side of agriculture to dictate the choices his company makes on the technology side. For Morrison, solving the puzzle of how best to use agtech to make a return on ...
SISC + THESIS Webinar: Collecting and Reporting Performance Metrics for Fruit, Nut is Scheduled for Aug. 25
Join an Aug. 25, 2022 webinar at 10 a.m. CT as Tier One suppliers get a walkthrough of how the SISC Calculator can be used to work with growers to gather metric results, view aggregate results in a variety of reporting formats, send anonymized results back to growers, and report aggregate results to THESIS. Speakers ...
En Solucion and Seeking the Food Safety Holy Grail
What do you do when you can’t afford to make a mistake – but at the same time, you know you can’t get risk to zero? In advance of the AgTechX Food Safety event on Aug. 18 at Reedley College, En Solucion CEO and Founder Alex Athey joins the podcast to discuss the potential of ...