JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2023
ROBOTS ON THE FARM How Farmworkers Have Safer, Better-Paying Jobs Thanks to Tech
Drew Ketelsen Vice President, HMC Farms
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WESTERN GROWER & SHIPPER Published Since 1929 Volume XCIV | Number 1
To enhance the competitiveness and profitability of Western Growers members
Dave Puglia President & CEO Western Growers davep@wga.com
FEATURES
16 ROBOTS ON THE FARM: How
Farmworkers Have Safer, Better-Paying Jobs Thanks to Tech 22 How California Let Arizona Take the Driver’s Seat When It Comes to Using Autonomous Farm Vehicles 24 Upon His Retirement, the Western Growers Family of Companies Celebrates David Zanze’s 38 Years of Service
Editor Ann Donahue 949.302.7600 | adonahue@wga.com
Contributors Cory Lunde 949.885.2264 | clunde@wga.com Michelle Rivera 949.885.4778 | mrivera@wga.com Kara Timmins 949.885.4786 | kmtimmins@wga.com
Circulation Marketing 949.885.2248 | marketing@wga.com
Advertising Sales Dana Davis 302.750.4662 | dana@tygermarketing.com
ARTICLES 14 WG WOMEN PROFILE
29 WGCIT SPONSOR
Marisol Moreno, Controller at Allied Potato
Nutrien Ag Solutions 38 Farm Dogs and Barn Cats of Western Growers
TOGETHER.
WGA.COM
28 WGCIT RESIDENT Carbon Robotics
Western Grower & Shipper ISSN 0043-3799, Copyright © 2023 by the Western Grower & Shipper is published bi-monthly by Western Grower & Shipper Publishing Company, a division of Western Growers Service Corp., 15525 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine California 92618. Business and Editorial Offices: 15525 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine California 92618. Accounting and Circulation Offices: Western Grower & Shipper, 15525 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine California 92618. Call (949) 863-1000 to subscribe. Subscription is $18 per year. Foreign subscription is $36 per year. Single copies of recent issues, $1.50. Single copies of issues more than three months old, $2. Periodicals postage is paid in Irvine, California and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Western Grower & Shipper, PO Box 2130, Newport Beach, California 92658.
DEPARTMENTS
13 Director Profile 20 WG Member Welcome & Anniversaries 30 Updates from the WGCIT 33 WG News You Can Use 35 Contact Us 36 Connections 37 Inside Western Growers
4 President’s Notes 6 Agriculture & the Law 7 Advocacy | California 8 Science 10 Western Growers Assurance Trust 11 Innovation 12 California Member Profile
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The water supply crisis is devastating California’s farms. It’s time for a crisis-level response. By Dave Puglia, President and CEO, Western Growers Editor’s note: This opinion piece was first published Dec. 1 in The Bakersfield Californian. Reprinted with permission. For decades, California has been paralyzed, prevented from securing an adequate water supply by endless debate, red tape and litigation over where, how, and even if the state should create more water supply infrastructure. In the last few years some major farming regions have received almost no water from state and federal projects built specifically to provide water for food production—yet calls to further choke off water to these and other farming regions have grown even louder. As farms are starved of water, California sacrifices critical food production, jobs in agriculture and the economic health of entire regions of California.
It doesn’t have to be this way, and this shouldn’t be our destiny. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent call for a direction, California’s Water Supply Strategy: Adapting to a Hotter, Drier Future, projects—for the most part—an overdue end to the decades of futzing and fighting that have transformed the state from water secure to water crisis. With the strong warning that some aspects of Newsom’s strategy could be counterproductive—particularly upending the state’s water rights laws—it is now time for follow through. California policymakers, starting with the Legislature and Newsom’s own regulatory agencies, must change course and make big investments— some of which the Governor explicitly called for— to protect California’s position as the backbone of America’s food production while ensuring the water security of residents and businesses in every region. California’s agriculture industry—the most productive in the country and the world—is feeling the pressure more than any industry in the state. According to a UC Merced study, the drought from 2020-2022 cost California’s agriculture sector about $2 billion and nearly 19,420 full- and part-time jobs.
farming, cutbacks in food production are already occurring and will get progressively worse. Up and down the state, farm fields are being left unplanted, susceptible to wind-blown erosion and loss of soil health. Californians are confronting yet another dry year as 2023 approaches, defined by emergency conservation orders, wildfires and rolling blackouts. California’s existing water system, which has not seen significant improvements since 1968, is not equipped to handle climate change, a population of 40 million and extreme drought. According to a UC Merced study, the drought from 2020-2022 cost California’s agriculture sector about $2 billion and nearly 19,420 full- and part-time jobs. The California Farm Water Coalition warns of another 23,000 jobs lost and at least $3.21 billion in economic losses related to water shortages. This is not sustainable. California farmers have developed the most sophisticated and technologically advanced food production systems in the world, creating more healthy foods with the highest commitments to sustainability and efficient use of resources, especially water. But there is a reality that cannot be avoided: Producing the foods we need requires a lot of water. The Governor stated: “We have a renewed sense of urgency to address this issue head on…we can’t do the same thing anymore, and I think all of us recognize that.” As our water supply crisis threatens the state’s farming regions with uncontrolled economic and social harm, Newsom and the Legislature have an opportunity—indeed, an obligation—to act boldly and expeditiously on immediate generational solutions including more storage, improved conveyance, regulatory certainty and new supply. California farmers, businesses and residents all deserve and desperately need definitive action.
An analysis from Yale University calls California “America’s garden,” noting that the State produces two-thirds of all fruits and nuts grown in the U.S. Because of the failure to secure adequate water for
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Industry Pushes to Block Kroger-Albertsons
Planned Merger By Jason Resnick, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Western Growers joined with the California Fresh Fruit Association and Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association to recently submit comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the proposed merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. While the companies’ investors might see a profitable upside, farmers have good reason to be concerned this deal, worth nearly $25 billion, is bad for producers. The two retail giants combined would account for 15.6 percent of the U.S. grocery market share, second only to Walmart at 21 percent. Kroger says the deal would help it better compete against Walmart Inc. on prices. Industry’s comments make the case that the deal, if granted approval by the FTC, will harm suppliers of fresh produce by decreasing competition since the newly combined megastore would have significantly more leverage over the growers and shippers that feed the nation, causing
reduced farm profits and farmworker jobs. Does the Merger Violate Antitrust Laws? The FTC and Justice Department each have jurisdiction to determine if it violates antitrust law, though the FTC has historically scrutinized mergers involving grocery chains and has taken the lead in reviewing this deal. The government’s policy on antitrust mergers & acquisitions review has shifted after decades of a relatively permissive stance to a markedly more interventionist, activist policy, under the Biden administration. On Dec. 6, the FTC asked Kroger for more information on the deal, known as a second request, potentially dragging out the antitrust review process for the merger by months or even years.
demands divestitures and other concessions to promote competition, but such measures can backfire. When Albertsons and Safeway merged in 2014, Haggan, a grocery chain based in the northwest with just 18 locations, acquired 146 former Albertsons and Safeway stores. But less than a year later, the over-extended Haggen went bankrupt, closing many of the stores it purchased and selling other stores through the bankruptcy proceedings at a lower price to supermarket bidders including…you guessed it, Albertsons. The spectacular failure of the Albertsons- Safeway merger is a cautionary tale, with concerned lawmakers referring to it repeatedly in the context of scrutinizing the Kroger-Albertsons deal. Increased Scrutiny At a Senate Judiciary lost employee bargaining power and lost jobs if the deal is approved. Industry groups, labor unions and consumer groups have also weighed in, noting that the merger will increase already rising food prices boosted by high inflation. Western Growers urges the FTC to block Kroger from acquiring Albertsons. A Kroger-Albertsons mega-buyer would imbue the new behemoth with exceptional buying power capable of further squeezing its suppliers. The inevitable result will be further shrinking already skinny farm margins, lost farmworker jobs and earnings, and higher food prices. The merger is bad for just about everyone who is not a Kroger or Albertsons investor. Western Growers’ letter to the FTC can be viewed in the News section on wga.com. hearing in November, nearly a dozen lawmakers grilled Kroger and Albertsons CEOs on the potential impacts of the mega-merger. They raised concerns about food inflation,
The inevitable result will be further shrinking already skinny farm margins, lost farmworker jobs and earnings, and higher food prices.
Kroger and Albertsons are the first- and second- largest supermarket chains in the U.S. Viewing the field of competition through that limited lens would likely compel the FTC to block the deal. However, expanding consideration of the food retail market to include other types of stores that sell groceries, such as Walmart (21 percent market share), Costco (7 percent), online-grocer leader Amazon, among other smaller regional players, could help tip the scales in favor of approving the merger. To preemptively address the antitrust regulators’ concerns that the merger will stifle competition in markets where they have overlapping stores, Kroger and Albertsons announced that it will offload up to 375 Albertsons locations to a separate company controlled by Albertsons shareholders. The FTC
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Education is Key to Successful Advocacy By Matthew Allen, Vice President, State Government Affairs
At the time of this writing, the 2022-2023 two-year legislative session has been called to order in Sacramento. This represents a changing of the guard from one formal legislative season to another and, this year, a sea of change in the number of new legislators who are coming to California’s capitol. In fact, approximately a quarter of the legislature is now made up of new faces. This is both exciting and challenging for those of us who advocate at the Capitol. It’s truly enjoyable to meet the new members and learn about their previous life experiences in addition to their specific policy goals.
We have many issues to cover with Sacramento’s new arrivals. WG’s advocates meet with the new offices to walk through the basics of growing, harvesting and bringing a crop to market. We touch on just about everything: tax policy, land use, water supply and quality, and the list goes on. We do this to educate the Sacramento Capitol community about the uniqueness of California agriculture. This educational process is dynamic and happens throughout the entire legislative process. Legislative bills and agency rulemakings are constantly moving, so we must move quickly to discuss with officials whether the proposed policy will either have a positive or negative impact on the industry. It’s one of the most important aspects of our role and requires that WG staff stay up to speed on how our growers are operating and
opportunities facing our growers. We will also be providing insight about California’s unique process of regulating the sale and use of crop protection tools. California is the only state with a department (CA Department of Pesticide Regulation) that regulates the sale and use requirements of crop protection products. These regulations are above and beyond the federal regulations that have previously deemed these products to be safe and effective for use per the label requirements. Every legislative session has its own unique themes that drive policy goals and the eventual outcome of which bills are passed and ultimately signed into law. The 2023-2024 legislative session will not be an exception. A severe state budget deficit of at least $24 billion is expected for the coming fiscal year. This is a conservative estimate that doesn’t factor in
what they see as future opportunities as well as barriers for their business operations. WG’s advocacy is important. Case in point, only two of the new assemblymembers who posted introductory videos on their official websites mentioned water as one of their three policy goals. This is perhaps unsurprising given that great attention has been given lately to education, healthcare, climate and social justice. However, a stable water supply is a key ingredient essential component of the success or failure of the greater California economy. WG staff will certainly be focused on educating members about the water problems and of the agricultural economy and is an
the impact on the state budget should we enter a recession. Less revenues coming into the state’s coffers means that the usual fighting over the uses of those monies will be even more contentious and complicated. WG staff will be on the lookout for attempts to create new or raise existing fees in order to offset revenue losses. The year ahead will clearly have its challenges. WG staff look forward to those conversations as we fiercely advocate for an amazing industry.
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WG Now Offers Pre-Harvest Testing Technical Support By Afreen Malik, Science Programs Director Pre-harvest testing is a hot topic and technical support is now offered by Western Growers. On Nov. 2, 2022, Western Growers, in collaboration with the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, (CA LGMA) held an in-person workshop on the subject at the Monterey County Farm Bureau in Salinas, Calif. A post-event survey was conducted and 34
The event was the first in a series of workshops we plan to offer on this topic and was free for attendees. It was presented by various subject matter experts, including Felice Arboisiere, Director FSQA Supply Chain North America, Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc.; Joelle Mosso, Associate Chief Scientific Officer, Eurofins; April Englishbey, Global Produce Manager Molecular Diagnostics, Hygiena; Joan Rosen, President, JC Rosen Resources; Greg Komar, Technical Director, CA LGMA, and myself. This was a pilot workshop aimed at providing a basic background on pre-harvest product sampling and testing and addressing some key challenges and questions with pre-harvest testing in the produce industry. The relatively recent focus on pre-harvest product testing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in response to a series of romaine lettuce outbreaks was one impetus behind this workshop. The LGMA guidelines also currently require pre-harvest product testing under specific situations. Both WG and LGMA members have reached out with questions regarding implementing pre-harvest testing programs and how to write internal SOPs that comply with regulatory and buyer requirements. This workshop was the first step in providing relevant information to our members and allowing an opportunity for produce operations to directly engage with local experts on this topic. The target audience for this workshop included food safety professionals overseeing and implementing pre-harvest testing programs (supervisors/ managers/directors).
percent of the attendees responded, offering valuable feedback. Based on this, we’re adjusting the workshop structure, content and delivery and will be offering the next one in Yuma, Ariz. in late January/early February 2023. This time, the workshop will include a hands-on demo of sampling techniques on a farm by a trained sampler. We’re also incorporating some content to address specific questions that were raised during the workshop in Salinas, such as: • Who oversees improving testing methods or conducting research toward improved methodology? • How do labs decide which methods they offer to their clients? • How does industry decide which methods to use? • Industry is being pushed to test as close to harvest as possible. From the lab perspective, what is the best time to test? • What does a method validation entail? How rigorous is it and how well does it reflect real-life conditions? • Should I react to a molecular presumptive positive or go through culture confirmation before deciding whether to harvest a lot or not? • Is it beneficial to give your lab a heads up when conducting extensive testing during a root cause analysis investigation? The speakers did a wonderful job of answering these questions and others and we hope to have a similarly engaging discussion in our next workshop. We also coined a new term for those in the industry during this workshop: super scientist. Come and meet these super scientists at our next pre- harvest product testing workshop in Yuma. It’s a great opportunity to meet and learn from your peers on a subject that’s top of mind. A special note of gratitude to all the speakers and behind-the-scenes staff who made this workshop a success and to the Monterey County Farm Bureau for their hospitality. Eurofins sponsored this event and provided breakfast and snacks. Ocean Mist Farms contributed high-quality spinach, brussels sprouts and broccoli for in-class demos. For additional assistance or questions, please contact Afreen Malik, Science Programs Director, at amalik@wga.com
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Advertorial 2023 Clean Energy Thoughts … From a WGA Innovation Center Pioneer
by Elliot Jaramillo www.ConceptCleanEnergy.com
In August of 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Recovery Act (“IRA”) of 2022. Over the next 10 years, the IRA Act will allocate approximately $369 Billion Dollars to “Energy Security and Climate Change.” A primary goal of this legislation is to increase clean energy production and
reduce carbon emissions roughly 40% by 2030. By any measure, $369,000,000,000 is a substantial amount of money. The unprecedented opportunity for Western Growers ’ members is that, unlike so many other legislative bills, where large government investments have been earmarked for special interests or otherwise accessible to only select (large) corporations, the capital allocated by this IRA legislation is funded primarily in the form of simple to understand and simple to utilize Investment Tax Credits. This means that these IRA funds are fully accessible to any person or company, large or small, willing to make an investment in qualifying clean energy, which includes solar assets. Prior to the passage of this Inflation Recovery Act, Federal tax credits for solar energy were scheduled to be reduced to 22% in 2023, then further step down to just 10% in 2024. Large utility companies, such as PG&E, were banking on this funding reduction in hopes of further slowing down the development of investor owned clean energy. With the passage of the IRA, however, the Federal Government has increased the Investment Tax Credit to 30% for the next 10 years (+) plus a 10% BONUS tax credit for projects that utilize American products and meet certain domestic manufacturing guidelines. This means qualifying solar energy projects can now earn a whopping 40% Federal Tax Credit. To be clear, unlike a tax deduction, this Federal Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) is a direct dollar-for- dollar reduction in project cost. As part of the IRA, the Federal Government has also made it simpler to allocate these valuable tax credits to the entities or individuals within a company or farming operation who may need them most. The new IRA40% Investment Tax Credit provides WGA taxpayers with an unprecedented opportunity to leverage smart, proactive investment and tax planning to drastically reduce Federal liabilities over the next decade.
For our product, this 40% Federal Tax Credit is a game-changer. Over the past six years of being a WGA Innovation Center company, our team has worked closely with leading WGA members to develop an exciting product that is now being rolled out nationally in partnership with Nucor steel, the largest steel company in the USA. The product, PowerShingle ® , solves a major industry challenge, enabling us to build solar installations in the form of highly useful elevated canopies and provide massive amounts of reliable, low-cost clean energy, all without taking any land out of production. Yes… solar energy is a fantastic resource. But today’s solar installations often require large swaths of land to produce meaningful amounts of electricity. PowerShingle ® , on the other hand, can generate 1MW of clean power (enough to run an efficient cooler operation) in as little as 1.5 acres. It can also be scaled to provide power for many off-grid and remote farming operations where traditional grid power would simply be too costly. By combining Nucor’s pre-engineered metal building expertise with PowerShingle’s cutting edge solar technology, we are able to deploy large installations and design solutions to meet your operations and provide multiple benefits of shade, shelter, storage and clean power for virtually any farming operations. PowerShingle ® is proudly 100% manufactured in America and can help WGA members meet Inflation Reduction Act guidelines while providing an elegant, beautiful solution that will enhance virtually any farming operation. ------ Elliot Jaramillo is the CEO of Concept Clean Energy and nearly a decade long WGA member. Elliot loves talking with WGA farmers about energy challenges. For more info, or to reach out to Elliot directly, feel free to call or email him at: (510) 813-0935 / elliot@conceptcleanenergy.com
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Understanding the Drivers of Corporate Health and Wellness By David Zanze, Executive Vice President of Western Growers Assurance Trust A perfect balance of health and wellbeing. Does it exist? To a small few, it does—but for a majority of people, finding that balance can prove extremely challenging. That’s when things can start taking a toll on employees’ mental and physical health, and the negative effects can spill into their work performance and eventually their employers’ bottom lines.
“The Great Resignation” and “work-life balance” are buzzwords we’ve all been seeing lately, and these are reflective of the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that nearly 4.15 million people quit their jobs in August 2022. Employees are prioritizing their mental health, so much so that an estimated 64 percent of full-time employees said they would choose working in a less stressful environment over a 10 percent increase in salary, according to research from the Lincoln Financial Group. More interestingly, nearly two-thirds of employees said they have left a previous job or would like to leave their current job because it’s interfering with their mental health. Here are other concerning statistics: • U.S. workers are some of the most stressed employees in the world (Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022) • 40 percent of workers reported their job as being very stressful (The American Institute of Stress) • 25 percent of workers view their job as being the number one stressor in their lives (The American Institute of Stress) The Impacts of Health and Wellness Employers are recognizing that in order to mitigate the consequences of unhappy and unhealthy employees, they need to support them in a more meaningful way. Wellable Labs released its 2022 Employee Wellness Industry Trends Report and found that 90 percent of employers reported increasing their investment in mental health programs. We also need to take into consideration that the impacts of health and wellness go well beyond employee productivity, retention and morale. Taking care of employees’ mental health can also help lower health care costs for both employers and employees, as stressors can often lead to physical ailments
(weight management issues, diabetes, depression, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, to name a few). In fact, the American Institute of Stress reports that job stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than financial or family problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a systematic review of more than 50 published studies of worksite health programs and found that well-implemented programs can lead to 25 percent savings each on absenteeism, health care costs and workers’ compensation and disability Employers have options to ensure their employees receive the support they need to help manage their health and wellness more effectively and reduce medical costs. At Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT), we partner with Pinnacle Health Management to offer care management programs at no cost to employees diagnosed with a range of chronic care conditions. This program is included with every WGAT health plan purchased. Additionally, employers can obtain our Wellness Program as an add-on, which includes quarterly wellness challenges, wellness toolkits, newsletters on popular health topics and customized reports at the end of all wellness challenges. Our previous wellness challenges included “Ditch the Sugar,” which focused on reducing sugar consumption; “Destination You,” which encouraged participants to complete a set of health challenges over a course of several weeks; and the “Rest and Revive Challenge,” a mental health challenge that promoted positive emotional wellbeing through preventing and managing stress. management claims costs. Investing in Employees If you don’t have the WGAT plan, which includes a care management program and the added option of a Wellness Program, contact us to see how we can help you better manage your health care costs at (800) 333-4942. In addition to serving as executive vice president of Western Growers Assurance Trust, David Zanze is the president of Pinnacle Claims Management, Inc.
64 percent of full-time employees said they would choose working in a less stressful environment over a 10 percent increase in salary
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Looking Ahead at Q1 2023 Weeding, harvest assist and spraying robots are delivering good products with quality economics for growers. By Walt Duflock, Vice President, Innovation Labor remains a top challenge for specialty crops, and it’s getting harder to find. U.S. farmworkers decreased by 70 percent in 70 years, regulatory costs increased 795 percent in 12 years, and U.S. H-2A labor increased from 48,000 in 2005 to 300,000 in 2021—which add transportation and housing costs. Innovation remains the best solution to turn manual tasks like planting, weeding, thinning, harvesting and spraying into automated tasks with mechanization and automation. So what does the market look like in early
Harvest Assist is also beginning to scale. The best use case for this is Burro, which helps table grape crews by increasing their logistics efficiency by moving harvested product back to the truck via use of an autonomous small platform tractor. The efficiency gains are often 15-30 percent and provide growers with a 6-12 month payback depending on usage and acre count. Burro sells $10,000 robots and has over 100 robots in market with plans to manufacture several hundred more in the coming year. Spraying automation solutions are one of the emerging areas approaching quality grower economics. GUSS is one of the early leaders offers GUSS sprayer machines for vineyards and orchards, a smaller Mini GUSS for easier turning in smaller fields and Herbicide GUSS. Also delivering an on-the-ground spraying solution is Robotics Plus, which launched in the U.S. market this quarter. Both appear to offer quality economics for growers. In addition to GUSS and Robotics Plus, Rantizzo offers a drone-based spraying solution with competitive economics to tractor-based spraying options. On the other hand, harvest robots are still in the relatively early stages of product development, testing and roll out. Harvest is proving to be harder to develop than weeding because each crop requires its own robotic solution and the end effectors that pick the fruits and vegetables have to be significantly more gentle with them then weeding robots, which can just destroy weeds. None of the harvest robots have yet gotten to scale, and most have raised $25 million or less (as compared to the weeding robots, which as mentioned above, have been successfully fundraising over the past couple of years.) So that’s the state of play with specialty crop automation—if you’re looking for weeding, harvest assist or spraying solutions, there are good options with good economics available. On the other hand, if you’re looking for harvest robotics, keep an eye out for emerging players but they are likely a few years away from getting to market at scale.
2023? Weeding is the leading robot category for the moment. Carbon Robotics, Stout AgTech and FarmWise are all delivering solutions that provide growers with quality economics. Carbon Robotics has raised $36.8 million and has a one-year order backlog for $1.4 million laser weeding robots that break even at two years or less with 3,000–4,000 acres of production. FarmWise has raised $65 million and is in multiple regions with a weeding- as-a-service option that is price competitive with labor crew economics. Stout AgTech just got a 10 percent investment from CNHI and has sold over 25 mechanical cultivators for around $350,000 each, and its machines can also return a payback to the grower of less than two years. In addition to these, Verdant Robotics just raised $46 million and Naio just raised $33 million, so increasingly the segment is finding capital to help scale out the number of robots in market.
Burro robot in the field
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Terra Linda Farms Member since 1996
The Growth of a Family Business By Michelle Rivera
When Joe Coelho’s grandfather immigrated to America from Portugal in the early 1900s, he had high hopes for the American dream. With only $15 in his pocket and a one-way ticket to California in his hands, he turned that dream into a successful multi-generational farming business. Now in its third generation, his legacy lives on with the help of Joe Coelho, managing partner of Terra Linda Farms, and his brothers, John and Jerry. Coelho’s grandfather started in ag as a farm laborer
their windshield, but my brothers and I are out there every day. I have a deep respect for our workers and appreciate their efforts, and I make sure they’re taken care of. We have a lot of long-term people on our staff.” Terra Linda Farms has been a member of Western Growers for nearly 25 years. Coelho describes Western Growers as a leader in providing cutting- edge information and has given him countless opportunities to meet like-minded organizations and experts in the ag space. Coelho recently attended Western Growers’ 96 th Annual Meeting this year at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, an event he said he looks forward to every year. “The Annual Meeting this year had one of the best lineups of speakers I’ve ever seen. The talks were interesting and riveting, and I enjoyed the event thoroughly, getting the chance to learn and share information with my peers,” he said. To ensure the continued success of his family’s legacy, Coelho said that he and his brothers are working on preparing the next generation of Coelho family farmers, who have so far aided in innovation and technology enhancements with water conservation and harvesting. “The young people coming up in our family are giving us an edge in terms of optimization and working smarter to keep our costs down. We’re improving our irrigation cycles, and we also switched from hand-harvesting our onions to complete machine harvesting, which has saved us about 10 times in costs,” Coelho said. Farming is a lot harder than it ever was, Coelho explained, and it’s more important than ever to work with the next generation so they have a solid understanding of the pitfalls of farming and the challenges facing the agricultural industry. “The farming business is a never-ending story,” Coelho said. “We’re going to keep being mindful of what we’re doing, remain loyal to the people who help drive our business, and support and embrace our new generation of farmers. Their great ideas are going to be our future.”
milking cows in Riverdale, Calif. He eventually purchased a property in Riverdale during the time of the Great Depression for $25 an acre, which would later be known as Coelho Farms. The business continued to expand after the Coelho family purchased more land to establish Linda Vista Farms, a diverse row crop farming operation, and later Terra Linda Farms in the early 1980s. Today, Terra Linda Farms is a diversified farming partnership formed by Coelho and his brothers. The operation farms cotton, wheat, beans, melons, cantaloupes, onions, tomatoes, wine grapes, almonds, pistachios and walnuts. “We were fortunate enough to expand our business with the help of our family. It’s easier to climb the ladder of success when your family builds the ladder,” Coelho said. Following in the path of his family’s legacy is something Coelho envisioned for himself growing up and working daily on the family farm. “I collected books and brochures on tractors as a young kid. I grew up riding in tractors with my dad, helping him with livestock and working in the fields. I’ve done all the dirty jobs—I even picked cotton. My family has never shied away from a hard day’s work.” Coelho’s extensive hands-on experience as a youth has given him a great appreciation for the farmworkers who contribute to making Terra Linda Farms a success. “There are a lot of people who farm from
The founding fathers
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Chad Amaral, D’Arrigo Bros Co of California, Salinas, Calif. Director since 2022 | Member since 1937 | D-11 Monterey County Strengthening the Foundations of Agriculture By Michelle Rivera D’Arrigo California will be celebrating 100 years of business in 2023, and Chad Amaral, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for D’Arrigo and newly elected Western Growers Board Member, has been with the company for 25 of them. Amaral recently attended his first WG board
and what used to be competitors in the past could become partners in the future,” he said. As far as getting elected to the Western Growers board this year, Amaral said one of his major goals is not only contributing to a traditional history, but also coming up with solutions for the future. “When you think about the ag community, you think a lot about tradition and family-owned companies. Moving forward, I think there’s an opportunity to use and understand the history of agriculture and at the same time, evolve into something that allows you to be fluid and flexible so you can remain relevant in the industry.” Amaral considers being a part of the WG board as an opportunity to acquire further insight into areas of the industry he hasn’t been exposed to previously while also gaining a better understanding in aspects that are pivotal to the evolution and advancement of agriculture, such as labor, water and innovation. “The board members are established and reputable individuals within the industry, and I’m looking forward to learning from all of them and hearing about their experiences,” he said. “They’ve created strong foundations in agriculture, and being part of an incoming group, I want to build upon the foundations they’ve created.”
meeting at this year’s 96 th Western Growers Annual Meeting. He described the experience of engaging with today’s agricultural leaders who are driving the association and moving the industry forward as nothing short of inspiring. For Amaral, WG has been integral to the agricultural industry and an important association to D’Arrigo, which has been a member of the association since the 1930s. “In the short time that I’ve been able to interact, the association and board of directors have been extremely welcoming and supportive. My goal is to assist and contribute to the progress Western Growers has and will continue to have in advancing the various aspects of the agricultural industry,” Amaral said. Born and raised in Salinas, Calif., Amaral graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in agricultural business and management. “If you’re from Salinas, you know agriculture is a big part of the community, so once I graduated, I knew it was something I wanted to get into,” he said. It wasn’t too long before he landed a job with D’Arrigo on the sales side, eventually rising up the ranks to become the company’s Vice President of Sales and Business Development. “I started my role closely interacting with our customer base in the segments of wholesale, food service and retail and understanding their needs. As I’ve gained more responsibility, I’ve focused a lot of my efforts on having a better understanding of our business as a whole and looking for ways we can collectively interact and bridge gaps between different departments so we can work more synergistically,” he said. While Amaral describes himself as having a Type A personality and appreciates structure and planning, he also recognizes that the agricultural industry is in the midst of a lot of change. “The world has become a small place in that the buying and supply community is shrinking. I think there’s going to be a need for more collaboration, and I’m looking forward to being a part of conversations that bring those segments of the business closer together and educating both sides. People operating in silos will be a thing of the past,
Chad Amaral
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WG WOMEN PROFILE Marisol Moreno, Controller at Allied Potato By Michelle Rivera
N ot too many people can say that the owner of their company made them a sandwich, but that’s exactly what happened to Marisol Moreno when she discovered her passion for agriculture. At the time, she was working for a table grapes company as a senior accountant and was told she’d need to cover for the owner’s secretary whenever she was out of the office.
“I didn’t realize in the moment how much I’d take away from this,” Marisol said. “I’m not a normal accountant where it’s always about numbers. I want to know specifics, like why are farmers adding certain chemicals to soils, what’s in their yield, and what makes their yield not come to fruition as they expected.” As these questions burned in Marisol’s mind, she’d engage in conversation with the farm’s owner whenever she could. And before long, he was asking her to sit and have lunch with him in the kitchen. “He opened my mind to a lot of things about generational farming, and it was from that point on I knew I would always want to work for a family-owned farming company,” she said. “That’s where the passion lies.” Today, Marisol works as the Controller for Allied Potato in Bakersfield, Calif., where she’s been working for the last three years. She’s the latest WG Women member to complete the course credits to receive her Certificate of Completion. Marisol initially joined the WG Women program because in an industry that is heavily dominated by men, she felt it was important to connect with other strong women with whom she can learn from and receive support. “I feel like this industry can be intimidating for some women, and sometimes even the greatest and strongest women need a little reassurance. Men and women learn things differently and engage a little differently on a social level, so it’s good to bond with women I can relate to for that extra ‘pick me up’ and receive that reassurance that we aren’t contributing less,” she said. “There’s nothing better than having someone—a friend, in the community of agriculture.” Marisol’s favorite part of the program has been the DiSC training on Productive Conflict, which helps individuals determine a course of action when dealing with problems in the workplace and enables them to develop a proactive response plan. “I learned a lot about myself and at the same time, I was able to identify certain things about my employees and their preferred methods of engagement,” she said. “That resonated with me—just because I have my own way of approaching conflict resolution doesn’t mean it works for someone else.” Marisol also enjoyed the Arbinger leadership training and uses what she learned for her annual assessments. In fact, she said the owner of the company now wants to start implementing the tool for himself. “In my career, it’s nice to know that I’m contributing to something that is actually being brought to the table,” she said. When Marisol isn’t dedicating her time to agriculture, she enjoys fly fishing. She’s a member of the Southern Sierra Fly Fishers club headquartered in Kernville, Calif., where she is also a
participant in the club’s annual women’s program. Marisol encourages all women to get involved in the WG Women program to support their personal growth, no matter their roles or career goals. “You’re bound to find someone in the program you can relate to and use as a resource. I always believe in making yourself better, whether it’s improving the way you communicate, the way you deal with conflict and even your skillset. You’re never going to do yourself a disservice by improving on yourself.” Visit https://www.wga.com/services/wg-women to find out more about the program.
Marisol Moreno
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COVER STORY
ROBOTS ON THE FARM: How Farmworkers Have Safer, Better-Paying Jobs Thanks to Tech By Ann Donahue S cience fiction stories about the future generally go one of two ways: A dystopian hell where mean farmworkers will lose jobs? It’s a humane question, one based in the very worthy concern that individuals’
machines? What do you see? What is the future?’ many of them were a bit scared—but the majority of them said these machines are great and all, but they will never replace us,” he said. “We’ve seen this in our data—a lot of farmworkers support technology. They think it is going to help them....In the Central Valley, the farmworkers’ average age is 45 years old. This is a workforce that, five to 10 years from now, is going to need technology to help them with their day-to-day activities.” Hernandez says his organization is striving for a “free, fair, prosperous society” and he believes farmworker education to assist with career development is key. To that end, CFF is working with the Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation (F3) coalition, which in 2022 received a $65.1 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration—the largest grant ever received in the Central Valley—to
robots attack us (“The Terminator”) or a dystopian hell where robots attack us in space (“2001: A Space Odyssey.”) But now it’s time to separate science fiction from fact. As the labor crisis continues in agriculture, with common- sense immigration reform at a standstill and an aging workforce threatening the future supply of skilled labor, technology will be one of the saviors of the industry. In recent agricultural industry events— from FIRA USA, the first American version of the international ag robotics expo that was held in Fresno, to the Alliance for Food and Farming Safe Fruits and Veggies farm tour across the Central Valley, to the Organic Grower Summit held last month in Monterey, Calif.—the excitement about agtech was tempered by one recurring question: Does automation
livelihoods would be eliminated by technology. It’s a variation on the dystopian theme that has populated our pop culture for decades. The answer, thankfully, is no. In fact, in a scenario that might be counter- intuitive for a layperson—automation doesn’t replace workers, but it will actually improve workers’ quality of life by making their specific jobs easier and giving them better paying opportunities down the road. At FIRA, Hernan Hernandez, the Executive Director of the California Farmworker Foundation, gave a presentation on exactly this topic, noting that technology collaboration is the key to farmworker economic mobility as well as a way to improve safety on the job. “When we were asking farmworkers ‘What do you think about these new
Burro, automated robot, with packed boxes of grapes
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BETTER OPTIONS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
Options between a 401(k), a 409A or a hybrid of both all designed specifically for the agriculture industry.
Western Growers Retirement Security Plan. The Right Choice. The Right Partners. www.westerngrowersrsp.com Western Growers Financial Services and the Retirement Security (RSP) Advisory Board continually strive to better serve the needs of the fresh produce industry, which is why we recently selected Northwest Plan Services (NWPS) and Charles Schwab as the new administrator and custodian, respectively, of WG’s 401(k) plan. Our goal is simple: To constantly evolve as a Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) and enhance the appropriate retirement plan options. Our partnership with NWPS and Charles Schwab allows us to add investment options and expand flexibility in the plan’s design. NWPS is the largest Multiple Employer Third Party Administrator in the country with a wealth of experience and tenure among their ownership and employees, and they offer a diverse range of Qualified and Non-Qualified plans with highly competitive fee structures. Charles Schwab, the largest custodian in the retirement industry, brings substantial market expertise, cutting-edge technology, unmatched investment options, and favorable fees and expenses. Together, their unparalleled benefits will allow us to meet your investment needs and ensure the retirement security of your employees.
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accelerate the integration of technology and worker skills. “One thing that I do want to emphasize is the workforce that we have today knows the fields,” he said. “They’ve lived in the fields, they’ve worked in the fields for 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, 50 years. They know exactly what the terrain looks like and how to do the work. The one thing I would want to see is more farmworkers being included in the discussions so we can produce better technology that is safe.” That is exactly what is being done at HMC Farms in Kingsburg, Calif., according to Vice President Drew Ketelsen. “We will always need people— we cannot function without them,” he said. “But technology changes our ever- shifting landscape. Just like in many other industries, some job [categories] are lost and others are gained. There are new positions available in specialized areas in ag because of technology, allowing people the opportunity to pursue careers that didn’t exist five years ago.” The best comparison to make is to think of what happened to switchboard operators as communications technology improved. Do those kinds of jobs exist in this day and age? Rarely. But did the mobile phone open up a whole new world of better-paying jobs in the same sector? Absolutely. Yesterday’s switchboard operator is today’s app designer. Ketelsen’s team now operates everything from flying autonomous robots to optical grading and sorting machines to Burro self-driving wheelbarrows to field moisture probes to help HMC’s operations run
more efficiently. “Ag technology is present in every aspect of our operation, from field preparation to harvest, packing to shipping, and everything in between,” he said. “Agtech doesn’t always look like a scene from the future, it can be as simple as adding a power system to reduce the manual human effort required of an activity—think of using a power drill rather than a screwdriver. Agtech is not about taking jobs away, it’s about making jobs better for employees.” And while the cool factor of ag robots is undeniable, there is a very serious business motivation for Ketelsen’s push for technology at his operations. “If agriculture does not innovate, the job loss will be astronomical. In contrast with slowly losing some jobs to innovation, all jobs will be immediately lost if farm acreage is replaced with non-labor intensive crops, or pulled out of agriculture altogether,” he said. “The concern is about more than jobs, it is also about food security. Two-thirds of all the nation’s fruits and nuts come from California alone. If we cannot find a way to provide healthy and affordable food, everyone will suffer.” For Chris Rotticci, General Manager at Taylor Harvesting LLC, the fight for automation is on two fronts: to ward off the future inevitable collapse of the ag labor system—and to make sure today’s industry workers stay safe. Why use a ladder when workers can harvest from a mechanized raised platform that moves along the orchard row? “Here, our emphasis and goal of automation is to improve our ergonomics,”
Tevel Aerobotics FAR 1 – Nectarines
Tevel Aerobotics Flying Autonomous Robots in HMC Farms orchard
Packing house sorter
Packing House
Pre pruner exiting rows of vines
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