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Tony Bova’s fascination with renewable energy truly sparked when he and his good friend, Jeff Beegle, decided, on a whim, to participate in a startup pitch competition during their undergrad at the University of Toledo. The pair, who met in 2012 while conducting academic research for the State of Ohio, joined a team of students that came up with the idea to form a business that could install a set of buffer strips on farmers’ lands to give them the equipment needed to recapture fertilizer runoff with plants and turn those into biogas that could be used to power their facility.

By Matthew Allen and Gail Delihant

It’s that time once again for the annual summary of new California employment laws. The California Legislature was active as ever in 2019. 2,576 bills were introduced of which 1,042 bills made it to Governor Newsom’s desk. Of those, the Governor signed 870 bills and vetoed 172.

By Ken Cooper

Did you know the injury rate for agricultural workers is more than 40 percent higher than the rate for all workers? This shocking statistic comes straight from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and should be one that both business owners and employees remember. Workplace injuries not only affect workers physically, but they can also have long lasting financial and emotional effects on workers and their families. Additionally, there is the financial impact on your business in the form of lost productivity and higher workers compensation costs.

From the opening gavel of the on-site board meeting to the closing Award of Honor dinner, the 2019 version of the Western Growers Annual Meeting in mid-November had the underlying theme of celebrating the 18 years of service President and CEO Tom Nassif gave to the association.

The United States has the largest economy in the world and has retained this impressive position since 1871. The U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 amounted to $20.58 trillion and is only expected to increase in the coming years, with a GDP forecast to exceed nearly $25 trillion in 2024. For comparison, the GDP of China (which ranks as the second-largest economy in the world) reached only $10.43 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018.