We are excited to share that Matt Hoffman is joining the WG Innovation team as Senior Director of Innovation. We welcome Matt to the team, and I wanted to share some of his background and why we think he is the perfect fit for this role. The role sits at the intersection of agriculture chemistry inputs and innovations to help growers use less chemistry while still getting comparable results in terms of pest and pathogen management and overall economics. It is a critical role for Western Growers because the pressure to reduce chemical applications is coming from multiple directions at the same time – DC, Sacramento, and retail buyers are all asking growers to do more with less, and in some cases no, chemistry. Startups and investors have recognized this reality and have put billions of dollars into play trying to build solutions.

Matt will sit between the 2,000+ WG grower members and the 2,000+ startups who are building solutions across multiple segments and build programs and partnerships that help validate the technology, put a lot of math into the grower side of the analysis once the solutions are integrated into growers operations, and help growers understand which innovations are ready for trial or purchase now, which ones are making progress, and which ones are getting started but likely need some more time before growers need to spend much time with them.

Matt is taking over the chair previously held by our friend and former colleague Dennis Donohue, who now has his hands full as the Mayor of Salinas. Dennis did a fantastic job of creating the biological space and raising its profile with great partners like Wharf 42 and Pam Marrone and many others. Matt will take a wider lens on as he attacks the same challenge. So yes, Matt will be working with bio-controls (the pesticide alternative portion of the biologicals space). But he will also be working with genetics that can come with resistance built in, regenerative ag practices that can help support soil health as a way to inoculate against the same types of challenges, UV light as a new and emerging pest control alternative, and yes improvements like precision sprayers that help growers use less chemistry and get similar results.

All of these solutions can help. All of them are legitimate innovations in an area that needs them desperately. And all of them need to go through more testing than you think with a deeper dive around grower economics than you think. In short, everything that Ben has built around automation can and needs to be leveraged if chemistry is to be reduced. It’s also worth noting that automation tests are easier than this segment. Run the robot across the field – see what happened – measure result is the normal set of steps for automation trials. That becomes a massive series of tests across different growing conditions in different soil types with different water qualities and make sure you can prove not just correlation or causation or else you better not try and take credit for that result because growers will know or they will find out and they will tell their friends.

This is where Matt’s experience should be mentioned – growing up on a farm, serving as the Grower Programs Director for the Lodi Winegrape Commission, spending 10 years building programs at Driscoll’s to help startups work with growers more effectively, and spending a year at Reservoir Farms helping startups maximize the Reservoir resources all combine to put Matt in a place where he knows what to do better than most because he’s already been doing it for much of the past 15+ years. He has already worked with genetics at Driscoll’s, with startups like TRIC Robotics (a UV light leader – and their CEO is a big fan of Matt’s work already), on sustainability initiatives including regenerative ag practices, and with biological innovations on key pest and pathogen challenges. In short, everything Matt built over 10 years at Driscoll’s is now in play for all of the Western Growers members and we have Ben’s playbook to borrow from. That in a nutshell is why we are so excited to welcome Matt to the team and are confident he will hit the ground running on behalf of all the growers and all the startups in these segments.