With their help, Concentric Power developed an intelligent “Microgrid Controller” that is able to integrate and optimize several power sources to take a facility off-grid for extended periods of time. Taylor Farms’ Gonzales processing facility had existing wind and solar components, but they functioned independently of each other. The goal of the microgrid and cogen project that Concentric Power built was to integrate these existing distributed energy resources (DERs) and add firm power to form a microgrid system that could effectively take the facility off grid. At its True Leaf Farms processing facility, Church Brothers was looking for energy resilience, independence, and cost benefits. The answer was to build an onsite microgrid that consolidated existing services to take advantage of primary, firm power. The project also included provisions for growth as demand increases over time. Concentric Power recently broke ground on a new facility at Tasteful Selections in the Bakersfield to again help solve the firm’s energy needs. The two companies collaborated to identify the need and work together to solve the problem with the aid of advanced energy technology. iFoodDecisionSciences, which recently acquired HarvestMark, also acquired an ongoing relationship with Divine Flavor, a grower-owned distribution company based in Nogales, Arizona, with many ranches in Mexico. iFoodDecisionSciences develops data management software solutions for
Taylor Farms was an early adopter of technology developed by Concentric Power.
supply chain players. It has digitized food safety processes and combined the results with traceability efforts making reporting of food safety a practice-based rather than an audit-based activity, according to Minos Athanassiadis, who handles marketing for that company. Working with grower-shippers, the company developed case level traceability and Athanassiadis said with this acquisition, iFoods is now the market leader in that space. They are now trying to go one-step further and bring traceability down to the consumer level with a QR code on each clamshell. Athanassiadis said that iFoods is working to develop software that can link QR scans
from the consumer container with the case code data already available. Through data analysis, the firm is working on connecting the location of the QR scan to the case code and transfer the food safety traceability data that is on the case to the clamshell scan. Michael DuPuis, public relations manager for Divine Flavor, said traceability along the entire supply chain from food to fork is a goal of the company. He said the case labeling work that Divine Flavor initially did with HarvestMark “is a cool project” that has paid dividends. He added that taking the traceability piece down to the consumer level is a goal of the company that could be in reach with the new-found popularity of QR codes. “The use of QR codes skyrocketed during the pandemic,” he said, alluding to the many uses such as by restaurants to eliminate paper menus. Consumers have become very familiar with scanning a QR menu to reveal data. “If you can take that same principle down to the last mile in a produce shipment that would be great.” Theoretically, a consumer could scan a QR code on a clamshell of grapes and be presented with a host of information identifying the source of that product on a very granular level. It is through collaboration between tech specialists and subject matter experts in the produce industry that companies in the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology are tackling and solving some of the industry’s thorniest concerns.
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JULY | AUGUST 2021
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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