“Success is not losing the ability to farm fresh vegetables in California. Right now, there’s a huge vacuum to Mexico and that’s because of labor. It’s too expensive, too complicated and there are too many regulations,” said Ruiz. “I just want to keep growing broccoli here, and to do that I had to completely reconfigure how I farmed the broccoli. We changed the genetics [of the broccoli] to fit us and the machine, and then we created our automatic harvesting machine.” Speakers from across the globe also joined the conference both in person and via Zoom to share the initiatives their respective organizations are implementing to advance harvest automation, and also spoke on their shared partnership with WG to advance the GHAI. Among them was the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission who announced a $200,000 commitment to help WG’s effort to accelerate harvest automation across the fresh produce industry. The full spectrum of GHAI supporters/ stakeholders include: Agri-Tech E, Agritech New Zealand, Augean Robotics, Bosch, Bayer, California Strawberry Commission, Church Brothers, Driscoll’s, Farmwise, Finistere, FFR Robotics, FME Netherlands, GreenVenus, Grimmway Farms, John Deere, Microsoft, Oxbo International Corporation, RDO,
Western Growers President/CEO Dave Puglia speaks about the importance of agtech and innovation in overcoming the increasing mandates, expectations and costs of farming in California.
launch either in-person or via livestream, with more than 700 post-event livestream replays. To view a recording of the livestream, visit wga.com.
Robotics Plus, Trimble, Turlock Fruit, UC Riverside, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and Yamaha. More than 100 people attended the GHAI
Attendees at the event launch in Tulare, Calif., gather around the Burro, a self-driving wheelbarrow developed by Augean Robotics.
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Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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