Posts By: Stephanie Metzinger
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Students Learn It’s Not All “Cows and Plows” During Newly Launched Careers in Ag Program
16 students. 2 universities. 10 ag companies. 1 unifying program. Last month, Western Growers officially kicked off its Careers in Ag Program where young scholars from UC Davis and Cal Poly Pomona toured farming operations throughout Monterey County to learn about the various career opportunities agriculture has to offer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ...
Inteligistics Advances Food Safety with Innovative Temperature Measuring Technology
Rao Mandava was born into a farming family in India and grew up learning how to harvest rice, tobacco and various vegetables from his father. After years of exploring different careers and countries, Mandava came back to his original farming roots through Inteligistics. Inteligistics was launched by Mandava more than 10 years ago to provide ...
WGCIT: Influencing the future of Ag Startups in Center Already Cultivating AgTech Solutions
Since opening its doors last winter in Salinas, Western Growers’ Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) has quickly created a reputation of agtech excellence throughout the local community, state and nation. The Center is home to 21 start-up companies that are already developing groundbreaking innovations and achieving impressive results. With the $30,000 Wells Fargo grant ...
EFFICIENT WATER USE SWIIM: A Solution for Water-Starved States
SWIIM’s story begins seven years ago when an entrepreneur, scientist, engineer and businessman came together and conceptualized the idea for a technological solution that would help manage water use more efficiently. “When we started in late 2009, the concept of ‘AgTech’ didn’t really exist yet so when we were pitching our idea, people thought we ...
WG Careers in Ag Program Connects Community Colleges Students to Ag Workforce
Enthusiasm and excitement radiated from 14 community college students as they toured agricultural operations throughout the Central Valley, learning about the jobs they had only heard about in textbooks. On September 23, 2016, Western Growers officially expanded its Careers in Ag program to serve California community colleges. The program, which has only been in commission ...
Convention Bolsters Commitment to Common Cause
As leis laid strewn about the hotel rooms, conference rooms were being cleared out and members said their goodbyes, one thing remained certain after Western Growers 91st Annual Meeting in Kaua‘i: the collective commitment to protecting the future of Arizona, California and Colorado family farmers remains as strong as ever. During this year’s Annual Meeting, ...
WG 91st Annual Meeting: AgTech Startups Bring “A” Game to Innovation Arena in Hawaii
What do an autonomous de-weeder, soil health tests and a robotic harvester all have in common? They were among the innovative technologies “pitched” during Innovation Arena II at Western Growers 91st Annual Meeting in Kaua‘i. Six start-up companies—all developing innovative solutions to agriculture’s most pressing challenges—brought their “A” game to the second annual…
CAREERS IN AG: Southwest Tour Opens Students’ Eyes
On December 13, 2016, Travis Taylor, a managerial economics major at UC Davis, stumbled upon exactly what career he wants to pursue when he graduates college: a director of harvest equipment at a company like Taylor Farms. Travis Taylor was one of 26 students from UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona and University of Arizona who ...
FROM MINE WASTE TO SOIL GOLD: Firm Delivers High-Yielding Fertilizer
The discovery of gold nuggets in California in the late 1840s is arguably one of the most significant events that shaped American history. Now, Plant Nutrition Technologies, Inc. is looking to bring the Gold Rush back to America…through farming. Plant Nutrition Technologies has developed an ecologically-sound process that converts mine waste into bio-mineral fertilizers, which ...
FROM CRADLE TO CAREER: Launching Programs to Invest in Tomorrow’s Ag Workforce
There are 60,000 new job openings in agriculture each year in the United States, but there are only 35,000 graduates available to fill them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Together with our members, Western Growers (WG) is trying to fill the workforce gap by investing in the ag leaders of the future, today. ...
AG TECHNOLOGY: Firm Turns Energy Efficiency into Cost Savings
When Chris Terrell, a strategic energy manager, walked through farm fields and processing plants six years ago, he started to notice a trend: farmers were spending an exorbitant amount of money on electricity consumption. At the time, he worked for EnerNOC, Inc., a global cleantech company in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and ...
Western Growers Center for Innovation Opening Doors to Workforce Diversity
Earlier this year, Uber made headlines…not for its ride-services mobile app, but for its lack of diversity. The transportation network company released its first diversity report in March, revealing that women are underrepresented at the firm, in particular when it comes to jobs related to technology. While women make up 36 percent of Uber’s overall ...
Tailwater Systems: Nitrate Remediation…in Your Backyard
Problems with nitrates in your wastewater or well water? Tailwater Systems has you covered. The agtech start-up company designs, builds and operates high-performance bioreactors for removing nitrates and other contaminants from field drainage and drinking water wells. The systems are compact and can be placed anywhere—in a field, next to a greenhouse or near a ...
AgTech Mashup: Startups Collaborate on New Ideas to Advance Industry
It’s 3 p.m. and Jeffrey Orrey, CEO of GeoVisual Analytics, is pulling up a computer screen full of red, yellow and blue pictures to analyze the imagery collected from the fields earlier that morning. “We routinely monitor the fields using airplanes, drones and mobile phones to help farmers reduce production uncertainties and increase profits,” said ...
An Agtech Return on Investment
On any given day, the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) is buzzing with energy from entrepreneurs who are all collaborating on innovative ideas and technologies to help solve agriculture’s biggest challenges. You’ll see the young engineers of HeavyConnect working side by side in the collaborative cubicles, coding new software that will eliminate ...
Forbes AgTech Summit: WGCIT Scholarships & Labor-Saving Tech Featured
For the past three years, the Forbes AgTech Summit has been an impressive showcase of the latest and greatest in agtech innovation from around the globe. This year, the jam-packed event went from impressive to spectacular. More than 600 people gathered in the heart of downtown Salinas, California on June 27–28, 2017, to hear from ...
Annual Meeting Award of Honor: David Gill Triumphs Over Adversity to Become Distinguished Ag Pioneer
A large “BOOM” echoes through the remote Salinas foothills in late October 1998. In the distance, there is a downed helicopter with a lone pilot, David Gill, crawling out of the wreckage. His body is nearly broken, but his spirit is more determined than ever. Knowing that he is badly injured, Gill has to find ...
Western Growers’ 92nd Annual Meeting: Satirist P.J. O’Rourke to Opine on Politics
P.J. O’Rourke, who is known for his razor-sharp insights on national and world affairs, is considered one of America’s premier satirists on the conservative end of the political spectrum. His comments on the inner workings of Washington bureaucracy and the shifting political and economic landscape have been known to leave readers and audiences, alike, in ...
PowerGrow Turning Fallowed Land into Financial Success
Not many companies—let alone a startup!—can tout that they have the ability to help farmers grow eight to 12 times more produce per acre, while using 95 percent less water. PowerGrow, one of 45 start-up companies housed in the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, builds patented, renewable energy-powered, high-tech glass commercial greenhouses that ...
Using Social Media to Predict and Influence Behavior
The number of people using social media around the world officially passed the three billion mark just last month. With one million new social media users every day, it makes good business sense to leverage platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to gain insight into your target market, as well as influence public ...