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TECH FOREWORD: 6 Major Learnings from Global Harvest Automation Initiative
By Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation The Western Growers Innovation team is making good progress on the Global Harvest Automation Initiative as we continue to target sustainable food security by getting all the crop acres that are planted harvested. Our target is to automate 50 percent of fresh specialty crop harvest in 10 years. ...
Innovation Foreword: Silicon Valley Did Not Kill Agtech—and It’s All Agtech’s Fault
By Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation One of the ongoing questions in agtech is why agtech startups so often struggle to raise venture capital. Through multiple blog posts, podcasts and social media posts, Sarah Nolet, Matthew Pryor and I have produced content that provides two different answers for these struggles. Two of the most ...
Innovation: Announcing the Western Growers HarvestWiki Built by Growers to Help Agtech Startups
By Walt Duflock, WG Vice President of Innovation Western Growers has rolled out the first-ever HarvestWiki—a Wikipedia-like platform to help farmers share information about growing operations, allowing agtech startups to have as much crop-specific information as possible when they design and develop agtech solutions for growers. HarvestWiki is focused on specialty crops—so if you’re a…
Innovation: WG Launching Agtech Worker Program with CDFA Grant
Many rural California economies revolve around agriculture, which produces healthy fruits, nuts, and vegetables, as well as crop revenues and local jobs for both agriculture and service industries that support agriculture. To maintain these rural economies, three major problems need to be addressed—labor, water and food safety. California’s annual crop output produces close to $50…
Innovation: More Talk Between Startups and Growers Needed: Tech Should Do the Listening
By Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation The 2022 Automated Technology Field Day was held in June at the Hartnell East Campus in Salinas, Calif. There was a great crowd with over 150 attendees and a great mix of growers, startups, and equipment dealers were in the audience. It was probably the largest agtech field ...
2023 Salinas Biological Summit
Join us June 20-21, 2023 for the Salinas Biologicals Summit. Co-presented by Western Growers and New Zealand-based agrifood tech consultancy Wharf42, the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit will provide an opportunity for growers to increase their awareness of available biological solutions to address their soil and plant needs, as well as a chance for agricultural businesses to learn about the…
On-Site Registration Available for OGS
The Organic Growers Summit (OGS) will be held tomorrow and Thursday in Monterey, Calif., and all interested attendees can register on-site at the conference. As this year’s primary sponsor, Western Growers (WG) will play a key role in numerous event activities that focus on innovation and scaling growing operations: Wednesday, December 1 A two-part Educational ...
The California Ag Robotics Forum Debuts in Fresno
The world’s most prestigious specialty crop agricultural robotics show is coming to Fresno, Calif., on October 18-22, 2022 – FIRA USA: The California Ag Robotics Forum. Last week, Western Growers along with FIRA, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Fresno State University, GOFAR and Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation announced that they will together ...