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By Stephanie Metzinger

Carefully hauling ladders from tree to tree, ninja-like workers skillfully scale up and down the tallest of palm trees to cut down bagged bundles with a machete-sized curved knife. These laddermen, called Palmeros, are the magic behind the harvest of the illustrious honey-flavored Medjool and Deglet Noor dates.

By Tim Linden

It has long been told that Western Growers began its life as the Western Growers Protective Association on March 9, 1926, to represent the interests of shippers of western produce before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

By Stephanie Metzinger

“The story here from a startup perspective is that it’s not about ag or robotics. It’s about getting our MVP (most valuable product) out to customers as early as possible so you can really define where that product needs to go,” said Bear Flag Robotics CEO and Co-Founder Igino Cafiero in a recent episode of the newly-revamped Voices of the Valley podcast.

Voices of the Valley, which is hosted by Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), returns for its fifth season with a whole new look and direction.

By Tim Linden

Longtime Western Growers Board Member Vic Smith of JV Smith Companies will be honored with the Organic Grower of the Year award at the Organic Grower Summit on Thursday, December 2 in Monterey, Calif.

Newspapers once reigned as king as the primary source of information for consumers, but with the introduction of social media in the late-‘90s, the communications landscape has rapidly transformed. According to a study by Backlinko, social networking platforms nearly tripled their total user base in the last decade—from 970 million in 2010 to 4.48 billion users in July 2021.

​The end of another active Legislative bill-signing session has Gov. Gavin Newsom once again enacting several significant new employment related laws impacting California employers. Below is a summary of many of the laws affecting employers in the state. All are effective January 1, 2022, unless otherwise noted.

By Matthew Allen, Vice President, State Government Affairs
By Tracey Chow, Federal Government Affairs Specialist

The Story

Problems at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland are stacking up, and the transportation and logistics bottleneck continues to get worse.

Context please.

The Southern California ports account for 40 percent of all shipping containers entering the United States. As of late October 2021, it was reported that a record-breaking 100 ships were waiting to dock and unload. In pre-pandemic times, the average number of vessels idling would be less than 20.

What’s happening?

Since late 2020, U.S. agricultural exporters have faced extreme challenges getting products out to overseas markets, including record-breaking congestion and delays at ports, inaccurate or late notice of arrival/departure and cargo loading times, excessive financial penalties and other fees, and skyrocketing freight rate costs.

By Ann Donahue

Numbers on a spreadsheet are just that—numbers. Devoid of its bigger context, collecting data can seem like a mind-numbing process without end, aggregating points of information that never develop into a plan of action. This is where artificial intelligence can help integrate domain expertise to mine the data for you—and get you the answer that you are looking for or at least a simple report to make a decision.

Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems.