was under-resourced, both by lack of money and people. He said NOP has only a $9 million budget and 35 employees to oversee the 39,000 organic operations around the United States. Last year, they conducted 4,000 investigations, including one that uncovered thousands of tons of grain crops coming into the United States from Eastern Europe falsely labeled as organic product. McEvoy said the USDA organic seal is extremely important and its integrity must be protected. The workshops covered a variety of topics with the session on cannabis drawing the largest crowd. Because it is still illegal nationally, cannabis doesn’t qualify to use the USDA’s organic seal, though legitimate growers must use organic methods in their production. No crop protection tools—synthetic or natural—have a cannabis use on the label so a zero residue level of all products
volume of crops that would come from 93 acres. Other sessions were devoted to sustainable packaging, funding issues facing research in the organic ag sector, soil health and precision agriculture. WG Executive Vice President Matt McInerney said it was an excellent show from a Western Growers perspective. Many of the organization’s members have added organic acreage and were in attendance. In addition, “Tech Alley” was populated with firms working with Western Growers and its members to use technology to solve some of the industry’s most vexing problems. Technology has made great inroads in many industries and Western Growers is on the leading edge of facilitating technology development in agriculture. He said the firms participating in the show were very pleased with the quality of show attendees.
is required. The panelists noted that regulations are still being written for the legal production of cannabis and so much change will occur in the coming years. Currently, the crop is regulated by county. Thus Kern County doesn’t allow cultivation, Monterey County requires all cannabis crops to be grown in greenhouses and Humboldt County allows for outdoor crops. WG Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning, Science & Technology Hank Giclas moderated a workshop on “Clean and Renewable Technology” featuring three firms that are part of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology in Salinas. He said clean ag technology has the promise of offering a positive ROI utilizing such 21 st century concepts as getting credits for environmentally-sustainable inputs. He defined clean technology as any product that does not negatively impact the environment. Solar and wind energy are in this category, which was the focus of the remarks by session panelist Aaron Enz of Alta Energy. His company works companies through the process of interfacing with the 3,000 utility companies around the country. Alta Energy analyzes the energy needs of a company and makes recommendations with regard to their clean energy use, determining what makes sense for each operation. He noted that it is possible to participate in the clean energy world with off-site solar and wind installations. To get energy credit, the installation does not necessarily have to be on your property. He also said that the use of batteries—the same kind that fuel cell phones— will become more prevalent as a power source in the years to come. Robert McBride of Boost Biomes discussed his firm’s work to harness the power of microbes and microbiomes to protect crops and attack other farming challenges. This technology resonates well with producers of organic crops. The third speaker was Sean Lyle of PowerGrow, a company that has patented a high-tech glass greenhouse configuration. The facility results in zero waste using waste as an energy source. He said a five-acre installation can produce the same
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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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