MARCH | APRIL 2019 WESTERN GROWER SHIPPER As Boomers Retire, Latchkey Kids Become New Face of Farming THE FUTURE OF FARMING
WESTERN GROWER SHIPPER MARCH/APRIL 2019 WGA.COM
6 As Boomers Retire, Latchkey Kids Become New Face of Farming 12 Declining Bee Populations Ignite Swarm of Tech Innovation to Save Global Ag 16 New Members in Congress Offer Opportunities for Arizona Agriculture 20 Shipping Trends to Watch in 2019 30 GROWER’S SECRET Good For Business, Good for the Earth 31 WG Industry Relations Manager Taking SJV by Storm 32 Technology Driving Innovation at RDO
WESTERN GROWER & SHIPPER Published Since 1929
Volume XC Number 2
To enhance the competitiveness and profitability of Western Growers members
Thomas A. Nassif President Western Growers tnassif@wga.com Editor Tim Linden Champ Publishing 925.258.0892 tlinden@wga.com Contributors Cory Lunde 949.885.2264 clunde@wga.com Chardae Heim 949.885.2279 cheim@wga.com Production Diane Mendez 949.885.2372 dmendez@wga.com Circulation Marketing 949.885.2248 marketing@wga.com Advertising Sales Dana Davis Champ Publishing 302.750.4662 danadavis@epix.net Stephanie Metzinger 949.885.2256 smetzinger@wga.com
DEPARTMENTS 4 President’s Notes 8 Director Profile 10 Member Profile 18 CA Government Affairs 24
Western Growers Assurance Trust
26 Agriculture & the Law 28 Science & Technology 34 Insurance Corner 36 Western Growers Connections 37 Contact Us 38 Financial Services
Western Grower & Shipper ISSN 0043-3799, Copyright © 2019 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. Single copies ofYearbook issue $4. 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.
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WESTERN GROWERS OFFICERS – 2019
RON RATTO, Chairman RYAN TALLEY, Senior Vice Chair ALBERT KECK, Vice Chair CAROL CHANDLER, Treasurer VICTOR SMITH, Executive Secretary THOMAS A. NASSIF, President DIRECTORS – 2019 GEORGE J. ADAM Innovative Produce, Santa Maria, California KEVIN S. ANDREW Vanguard International, Bakersfield, California ROBERT K. BARKLEY Barkley Ag Enterprises LLP,Yuma, Arizona STEPHEN J. BARNARD Mission Produce, Inc., Oxnard, California BARDIN E. BENGARD Bengard Ranch, Salinas, California GEORGE BOSKOVICH III Boskovich Farms, Oxnard, California NEILL CALLIS Turlock Fruit Company,Turlock, California DON CAMERON Terranova Ranch, Helm, California EDWIN A. CAMP D. M. Camp & Sons, Bakersfield, California CAROL CHANDLER Chandler Farms LP, Selma, California LAWRENCEW. COX Coastline Family Farms, Salinas, California STEPHEN F. DANNA Danna Farms, Inc.,Yuba City, California JOHN C. D’ARRIGO D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of California, Salinas, California THOMAS DEARDORFF II Deardorff Family Farms, Oxnard, California FRANZW. DE KLOTZ Richard Bagdasarian Inc., Mecca, California SAMUEL D. DUDA Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Inc., Salinas, California CATHERINE A. FANUCCHI Tri-Fanucchi Farms Inc., Bakersfield, California DAVID L. GILL Rio Farms, King City, California BRANDON A. GRIMM Grimmway Farms, Arvin, California JOHN JACKSON Beachside Produce, LLC, Nipomo, California A. G. KAWAMURA Orange County Produce, LLC, Irvine, California ALBERT KECK Hadley Date Gardens,Thermal, California FRED P. LOBUE, JR. LoBue Bros., Inc., Lindsay, California FRANK MACONACHY Ramsay Highlander, Inc., Gonzales, California JOHN S. MANFRE Frank Capurro and Son, Moss Landing, California STEPHEN MARTORI III Martori Farms, Scottsdale, Arizona HAROLD MCCLARTY HMC Farms, Kingsburg, California TOMMULHOLLAND Mulholland Citrus, Orange Cove, California ALEXANDERT. MULLER Pasquinelli Produce Co.,Yuma, Arizona DOMINIC J. MUZZI Muzzi Family Farms, LLC, Moss Landing, California MARK NICKERSON PrimeTime International, Coachella, California THOMAS M. NUNES The Nunes Company, Inc., Salinas, California STEPHEN F. PATRICIO Westside Produce, Firebaugh, California RON RATTO Ratto Bros. Inc., Modesto, California CRAIG A. READE Bonipak Produce, Inc., Santa Maria, California JOSEPH A. RODRIGUEZ The Growers Company, Inc., Somerton, Arizona WILL ROUSSEAU Rousseau Farming Company,Tolleson, Arizona VICTOR SMITH JV Smith Companies,Yuma, Arizona KELLY STRICKLAND Five Crowns, Inc., Brawley, California RYANTALLEY Talley Farms, Arroyo Grande, California BRUCE C.TAYLOR Taylor Farms California, Salinas, California STUARTWOOLF Woolf Farming & Processing, Fresno, California ROBYRACEBURU Wonderful Orchards, Shafter, California
TOM NASSIF | PRESIDENT AND CEO, WESTERN GROWERS PRESIDENT’S NOTES
What To Expect From A Divided Congress If the recent, record-setting partial government shutdown is any indication, it may prove difficult to achieve much in the way of policy substance during the 116 th Congress. Despite President Donald Trump’s call for an end to the “political stalemate” in his State of the Union, there is likely little chance of that happening in advance of the 2020 elections.
President Trump faces a divided Congress— in which the House and Senate are controlled by different parties—a phenomenon that occurs less frequently than one might think. In the 230 years since George Washington first took the oath of office, Congress has been divided just 44 of those years. Historically, a divided Congress has produced a unique brand of conflict. A brief examination of several past examples may foreshadow the strategy of the House Democrats over the next two years. Twice before, in 1890 and 1910, Democratic majorities in the House were effective in blocking the Republican agenda and producing presidential victories for their party in the ensuing elections. Benjamin Harrison was ousted by Grover Cleveland in 1892 and Woodrow Wilson upended William Howard Taft in 1912. Based on this obstructionist model, the House Democrats have very little incentive to grant President Trump any significant legislative victories prior to the 2020 elections. If Democrats can successfully neutralize President Trump’s agenda, they stand a greater likelihood of retaking the White House (and possibly the Senate) in 2021. For this reason, House Democrats are unlikely to accept any legislative proposals that contain less than their full policy objectives. But beyond seeking to thwart President Trump at his every turn, House Democrats may also employ another strategy used by the Republican Party when they wrested control
of the House in 1858. With the presidency of James Buchanan already under intense public scrutiny, House Republicans immediately began investigating alleged wrongdoings of Buchanan and his administration, which included bribery and patronage. While House Republicans were not able to uncover enough evidence to impeach Buchanan, they inflicted enough damage to pave the way for Abraham Lincoln’s victory in 1860. Likewise, while the House Democrats of today may not have the power to push their agenda past the Republican-held Senate, they certainly possess the authority to investigate President Trump, and may do everything they can to undermine his bid for reelection in 2020. In what is shaping up to be a contentious political environment over the next two years, the question becomes: will there be any windows of opportunity to achieve legislative success on issues of importance to agriculture and Western Growers members? The short answer is… possibly. The truth is, Democrats and the President have similar motivation to work together (at least in some areas)—they need to get reelected. Contrary to public perception, Democrats won the House not on a wave of leftists in the mold of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, but because they took a number of purple districts, like those in the rural Central Valley of California. It is here, in these mixed rural and suburban districts, where Democrats need to see some bipartisan success to maintain control of their seats. So let’s identify three policy areas where we
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might see some compromise in the 2019-2020 legislative session. First, and most obvious, is infrastructure. President Trump notably ran hard on infrastructure during his 2016 campaign, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised to deliver a “transformational investment in America’s infrastructure,” and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has committed itself to producing a $500 billion package for highways and transit, plus additional funding for airports and water projects. All of this points to fertile grounds for consensus, which could be good news for farmers. In addition to critical help on the transportation front, we may be able to use this opportunity to secure funding for much-needed water infrastructure in the West. Secondly, and one less expedient for Democrats, is trade. Both on the election trail and while in office, President Trump has aggressively pushed his trade agenda. Undoubtedly, his tariff showdown with China will soon come to a head, and Congress
still needs to grapple with ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Success on either front would grant President Trump a significant political victory and momentum heading into the 2020 elections. Here, Democrats may try to thread the needle between outright concession and full obstruction, the latter of which could lead to long-term devastating impacts on industries like agriculture (and the loss of those all- important purple districts). In light of these dynamics, it seems that some progress on trade will have to be achieved, even if the President gets most of the credit. Finally, and perhaps the widest gap to close, is immigration. With President Trump’s emphasis on border security and interior enforcement, and the Democrats’ focus on a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, it is difficult to imagine a solution to the present impasse. While Democrats may stand to gain more by denying President Trump a political win, there may, in fact, be a
narrow opportunity to cut a “grand bargain” on immigration reform, and we will be ready to push our solution for agriculture should that situation arise. Ag immigration legislation will have to begin in the House and lean to the left. Hopefully, it will be taken up in the Senate with a version leaning right. Conferences are where the differences are negotiated with a goal of bipartisan legislative reform that the President can and will support. If history is any guide, we are likely in for a period of political dysfunction, and we don’t have to look very far back in the rearview mirror. Recall the gridlock that mired D.C. when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats held the Senate and White House from 2011 through 2014. During those two Congresses, fewer laws were enacted than at any other time in modern history. While Democrats may now follow suit and operate in resistance mode, we will be engaged wherever common ground on our issues can be found.
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As Boomers Retire, Latchkey Kids Become New Face of Farming
By Stephanie Metzinger W hile the time-honored to the next holds strong, the scene on today’s farm is much different than what may have been familiar in the past. These days, you are just as likely to see a young farmer swiping quickly through multiple screens on a smartphone as seated on a tractor or plowing a field. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average age of farmers has grown from 50.5 years to 58.3 years in the past 30 years. As the age of farmers and ranchers increases, so does the number of mouths to feed. Our global population is expected to exceed 9.6 billion people by 2050, and farmers will be tasked with producing 70 percent more food by then. With farmers reaching retirement age and leaving their farms, how will we meet the global demand for food? Three words: The. Next. Generation. Generation X Cultivated to Take Over There is a reason why 99 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are family owned and operated. Farmers take pride in cultivating the next generation, bringing their children to play and work on the farm at a young age. They pass on the lessons they have learned over the years to keep the farm sustainable and profitable, while teaching them how to care for Mother Earth and her land. Caught between the vast waves of boomers and millennials, members of Generation X have come of age and are next in line to carry the torch of feeding the world. Gen Xers, those born between 1965 and 1980, are now applying their tradition of passing the family farm from one generation
“latchkey kids” traits, such as uber- independence, to enhance the workplace. The Nunes Company, one of the nation’s largest grower-shippers of conventional and organic fresh produce, recently elected Tom M. Nunes to serve as its president. At 42 years old, Nunes—known as “T5”—will be the fourth generation to run the company. “I grew up around the business and around a lot of family and great mentors that have been involved with the business for the past four decades,” said Nunes (T5). “When my dad and grandfather offered me a position with the family business, it was a no-brainer.” During the summer of 1999, he moved to Yuma and began his career at the family farm. Nunes worked his way up through the company, gaining experience in all aspects of the organization including harvesting, production, cooling, shipping, sales and marketing. He eventually took the reins as vice president of operations where he not only built upon longstanding partnerships with industry stewards such
as BlazerWilkinson and Peri & Sons Farms, but is in the midst of creating new ones. “Tom has always been a huge supporter of our Center, bringing the perfect blend of pragmatism and optimism when it comes to technology on the farm,” said Dennis Donohue, director of Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology. “He’s always willing to give his time to support our agtech startups and understands the value of establishing relationships with them to, together, develop tools that fill real-world needs for food producers.” Millennials Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Farm Generation Y (those who turn 23 to 38 in 2019) are also playing a significant role in the sustainability of farming and agriculture by bringing technology to the field as a solution for feeding a growing population. This generation, also known as millennials, is said to be incredibly sophisticated and tech-savvy as they have been exposed to all types of digital
Domenick Buck and Victoria Kovacevich participate in the View from the Farm: The Next Generation panel at Western Growers’ AgTechx event in Delano this past September.
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has a team of young employees solely dedicated to researching new and emerging technologies for the farm and developing integration strategies for scaling proven solutions. In fact, the company has already implemented and deployed numerous innovations coming out of the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology, including WaterBit’s automated irrigation solution and HarvestPort’s
at Western Growers’ AgTechx event in Delano this past September. “Being at the beginning stage of this industry is exciting. I’m looking forward to see what the future holds and to continue working with tech startups to try to come up with solutions to our challenges,” Kovacevich remarked.
Tom "T5" Nunes
equipment sharing marketplace. Sun World Innovations, a division of Sun World International, is also looking to the millennial generation to identify new agricultural technologies that can potentially be trialed and adopted on Sun World farms. Victoria Kovacevich joined the Sun World Innovations team after graduating from Cornell University in 2017. As an agriculture technology analyst, she is responsible for identifying, validating and assessing new ag technologies relevant to Sun World’s farming pursuits and those of its licensees. “Labor and automation, especially with specialty crops, are struggles that need to be addressed. Bringing technology companies together with growers to form relationships and collaborate on creative solutions is really the way that anything is going to advance and is the way that everyone will be successful in the end,” said Kovacevich during the V iew from the Farm: The Next Generation panel
engagement since early childhood. Domenick Buck—a fourth-generation farmer—currently serves as assistant ranch manager for Anthony Vineyards, managing his family farm’s table grape operations in the Bakersfield area. At 30, he is always on the lookout for new technologies that can be game-changers for table grape production. “Table grapes are an extremely labor intensive commodity,” said Buck. “Our company estimates, from the time that we start pruning until the end of harvest, it’s roughly 700 man hours per acre to farm. Due to increasing labor costs, we have to find ways to be proactive and focus on mechanization and automation that can supplement the human element of harvesting.” He notes that the way table grapes are harvested today is “archaic,” in that those picking the grapes walk half a row (could be up to 300 feet in difficult terrain), fill their picking bins on top of a wheel barrow and walk them to the end of the row. “I estimate 15 percent of their day is just walking up and down the rows. We need to find a technological solution that is both practical and affordable. This will allow the labor force to focus solely on harvesting, which would be extremely beneficial in productivity and cost savings,” he said. Understanding how technology can play a role in battling regulatory hurdles and crippling labor shortages, companies are now creating positions dedicated to sourcing promising inventions. Bowles Farming Company, one of the early adopters of agricultural technology,
Domenick (Dom) Buck (right)
Bowles Farming Co.'s tech team deploys WaterBit’s automated irrigation solution
Tom Nunes – T4 and T5
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CALIFORNIA DIRECTOR PROFILE
Neill Callis Sales & General Management Turlock Fruit Company Turlock, CA
Director Since 2019 | Member Since 1944
From NASA to the Farm
By Tim Linden N ew Western Growers Board Member Neill Callis isn’t a rocket scientist, but he rubbed shoulders with plenty of them during a 17-year career at NASA prior to joining Turlock Fruit Company a half a dozen years ago. Callis’ story begins on the East Coast, where he was raised, educated and began his career at the Universities Space Research Association, a longtime National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractor. He grew up in Roanoke, VA, where his dad enjoyed a 27-year career with the Kroger Company in store operations. Both of his parents hailed from North Carolina, which is where the family spent many summer vacations and where Neill went off to college. He graduated from Elon University in 1997 with a degree in political science and an interest in working on Capitol Hill in some capacity. But the young man exhibited some economic savvy and decided to join NASA as a systems engineer, which had a brighter future than becoming an overworked and underpaid congressional staffer. “I worked in Washington D.C. for six years before I had the opportunity to transfer to the Bay Area in 2003,” he said. That proved to be another fortuitous decision as it was at NASA’s Universities Ames Research Center in Mountain View (about an hour south of San Francisco) where Neill met Hilary Smith, granddaughter of Don Smith, daughter of Steve Smith…and great granddaughter of the legendary Cantaloupe Smith, who started Turlock Fruit a century ago in 1918. “Hilary and I worked together on the SOFIA Mission for 10 years,” Neill said, explaining that the mission uses an airborne telescope mounted on a Boeing 747 to take pictures of the outer reaches of the universe. “Three to five times a week, the telescope uses infrared technology, 44,000 feet in the air to study the origins of the universe. It does phenomenal science,” he said, noting that SOFIA is an acronym for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
Callis reiterated that he was not a scientist but rather a project manager and a systems engineer that processed the data and worked on the design of the project. Hilary also worked in the operations end of the effort becoming a project manager in her own right. And most importantly, Hilary and Neill clicked personally. They were married in 2006 and welcomed their first child into the world, Daniel, in 2011. Since then, in 2014, daughter Elin joined the family pod. But it was Daniel’s birth that had Hilary and Neill considering options for a different life. Living in San Francisco was great for a young couple, but with a family to think about and traffic congestion becoming more of a problem, the two of them started to explore other potential work sites around the country. “We were looking
for an exit,” said Neill. “Out of the blue, my father-in-law (Steve Smith) asked me if I’d consider joining the family farming operation. And so I did consider it. I am a methodical thinker. I analyzed the opportunity from every angle.” In 2012, just as the Jensen Farms’ Listeria outbreak put cantaloupes in a tailspin, Neill began what he calls “an internship” at
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the sales office of Turlock Fruit Co. His analysis convinced him that the move looked good on paper. The internship was the last step to make sure he melded well with the other team members and the day-to-day activity was to his liking. The Jensen debacle aside, he determined it would be a good move for both him and his family. At that point, and still today, the management team consisted of Don, Steve and Steve’s son Alec, a graduate of Yale, who loves the production side of the business. Neill’s forte is in helping run the business side of the entity, with a strong emphasis in packing, cooling, shipping and sales. He said Turlock Fruit is of such a size that it’s too large to run itself but it’s small enough that Neill has a diversified job description. During the cantaloupe season, he’s on the sales desk in the morning and coordinates production in the packing plant in the afternoons. During the spring asparagus season, which was just getting underway at the time of this interview, Neill serves as general manager of the asparagus packing operation. He also noted that the company is currently centralizing operations at its Firebaugh plant and he is heavily involved in that. As a Western Growers board member, Callis is part of a group of five relatively new members that have graduated from the Western Growers Future Volunteer Leaders Program over the last several years. He said the group does represent a generational shift that is occurring in the industry but to his observation it is a seamless shift as far as the Western Growers Board is concerned. He said each board member has accepted him with open arms and his thoughts and viewpoints appear to be accepted as well as any others. He follows a long line of the family tree that has served Western Growers, with each of the preceding generations serving multiple stints on the board. In fact, Don Smith still holds the record as the youngest chairman of the board in the history of the association. “Steve encouraged me to apply for the Future Volunteer Leaders Program, which I participated in from 2014 to 2016 as part of Class 3,” Neill said. “I loved every minute of it. It was inside baseball.” When he had a chance to join the board, Neill calls it a “no brainer. As long as I can remember, Steve was talking about Western Growers and what a great organization it is.”
As this conversation was taking place, it appeared as if the government shutdown would end soon (and it did the next day). “I am hoping we can get something done on immigration reform now,” he said. “Sometimes it takes an unpopular actor to get something going and it’s possible our current situation can be the catalyst for change.” Toward the future, Callis is optimistic that four-generation- old Turlock Fruit will be able to sustain the fifth generation. But he admits, changes are inevitable. “We are getting ready to start our California asparagus deal. California used to have 40,000 acres and now it only has 2,000 and 500 of them are ours. I am a realist and there are very specific factors not in our favor.” On the other hand, he said Turlock Fruit first and foremost is a melon grower and shipper and “from the end of June to the end of September, there is no better place in the world to grow melons than right out here. We have the best melons there are and I think you can continue to be a seasonal shipper when you have that advantage.” Along with the other members of the fourth generation of the Smith family, Callis is poised to lead the company down the road, but he noted that both the second and third generations are still going strong. Don Smith appears to have no interest in slowing down and Neill said Steve is cut from much the same cloth with the same commitment to the company and the industry that his father has exhibited in his 80+ years. As far as his own family is concerned, Neill said the move to the Central Valley has been a good one. The kids are growing up in a more rural environment and wife Hilary has traded in her NASA hat for that of an entrepreneur. She has launched two different endeavors—“Hey! Turlock,” a social media effort to chronicle everything happening in the community, and she also self-publishes knitting designs on the internet, some of which have done quite well and gone viral.
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CALIFORNIA MEMBER PROFILE
Bob & Nathan Bender Tasteful Selections Bakersfield, CA
Member since 2010
Father/Son Team Innovate Potato Category
By Tim Linden I n the 1990s, Bob Bender was a chip potato grower in Nebraska for a major manufacturer. He and his teenage son, Nathan, would often bring home the baby size potatoes that didn’t make grade because of their size. “It was only the large ones that you could make into potato chips,” said Nathan. “We would bring them home and cook them on the grill or prepare them in some other
way. Friends and family loved them.” The Benders remember thinking that there was “something there” that could be exploited but how to turn that item into a business proposition wasn’t even idle chatter. Life went on. Nathan finished high school and went on to the University of Nebraska majoring in agricultural business. Bob continued growing chip potatoes for CSS Farms, opened up a California operation for the chip-growing company and eventually moved to the Golden State in 2004 to run that growing operation. Nathan spent
summers in California helping out and they still enjoyed eating those small baby potatoes that fell through the chain during the harvesting operation. Their company website reveals that they would bring them home by the bucketful. They still hadn’t monetized the idea of growing baby potatoes but Nathan said trips to Europe revealed that there
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was at least a limited market for smaller potatoes as European retailers carried them. And in fact, there were limited supplies of odd-sized small potatoes being sold in Canada and U.S. markets as well. In 2007, Nathan had graduated from college and was living in San Diego working for Sprint, the communications firm. Bob still farmed in Bakersfield, but he and CSS Farms had exited the chip potato business for that operation. “We were growing other crops always looking for a niche,” said Bob. “We were growing peppers, carrots, black-eyed peas, garlic.” A Canadian company contracted CSS Farms to grow baby potatoes in the spring and ship them to our northern neighbor so the company could have year-round production. The light went back on for the Benders. “We grew them for that company for two years and saw real potential for the baby potato category,” said Bob. By this time he had enticed Nathan to come back to the farming operation. The farm was owned by CSS Farms, and still is, with Bob as a partner, but the California operation was run as a family farm. “I don’t think Nathan would have come back if we were still doing chip potatoes,” Bob recalls. “But the opportunity to do something new and different was enticing. We both saw the potential.” Nathan added: “This struck home for us,” as it conjured up those days a decade earlier when they were serving these baby potatoes during their Nebraska barbecue outings. After growing for the Canadian firm for two years, the CSS partners decided to cut out the middleman and grow and market their own baby potatoes. In January of 2010, Tasteful Selections was launched and soon thereafter the first fields were planted. “In July and August we had our first crop. We operated out of a rented cold storage facility and packed our first bags of baby potatoes” under their own brand. Since then the company has had meteoric growth. Tasteful Selections differentiated itself by adding special care for these creamer-style potatoes. It began with uniform sizing and they now have six sizes, ranging from truly baby potatoes to the largest size, which is a bit smaller than two inches in diameter. The company packages four colors—red, white, purple and yellow as both regular and fingerling potatoes and both in conventional and organic packs. Tasteful Selections harvests baby potatoes 320 days a year in eight different districts covering 14,000 acres of land.
From the small, rented packing shed it occupied in 2010, it has grown exponentially, with double-digit growth each year, including a 30 percent increase in 2018. “We built a new facility in 2015 and we have expanded every year since,” Bob said. “We are going to double the size of the facility in 2019 and we expect to double our volume in the next three years.” In 2010, Nathan said the creamer potato category—which is the official name— represented only 1-2 percent of sales. He said sales are now above 15 percent of the total U.S. potato category and are expected to grow to at least 25 percent by 2025. Bob said the firm continues to experiment with new potato varieties and new packaging options for the consumer. This past year, the firm introduced a couple of microwavable retail options. Of course, success breeds imitators and while Tasteful Selections innovated the category, there are many copycats out there. “We have a 10-year head start,” Nathan said. “Growing baby potatoes is a challenge. It’s a lot more expensive and there is far less yield per acre.” But he said the biggest challenge is delivering the quality the consumer wants.
“A lot of people are growing these potatoes but they don’t realize what the consumer wants in terms of quality and taste.” And Bob said it is also challenging to make it a year-round operation with sufficient supplies for every week of the year, which is what retail customers want. The company aims for consistent, year-round supply but Bob said there are periods when sales spike, such as during the end-of-the-year holiday season. Bob Bender serves as president and CEO while Nathan Bender is chief operating officer. It is a privately-held company with several partners including the Benders, CSS Farms and RPE, Inc., (Bancroft, WI), which markets the baby potatoes grown and packaged by Tasteful Selections. The company joined Western Growers when it opened its doors but Bob Bender said that being from the Midwest he was not fully aware of the association’s scope of services until the last several years. “We are getting more and more involved and that’s our plan. Nathan has gotten involved in the last couple of years and we have utilized more Western Growers services in the last couple of years. It’s a very good organization,” he said.
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Declining Bee Populations Ignite Swarm of Tech Innovation to Save Global Ag
By Stephanie Metzinger C ruising through California’s San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys in late February, you will see orchards lined with almond tree buds that have burst into lush pink and white blooms in preparation for pollination. Honey bees buzz from tree to tree foraging for nectar, while pollinating the sea of almond blossoms along the way. Come September, almonds are vigorously shaken off of the trees by farm machines that, coincidentally, are colored like the black and yellow of bees. In 2018 alone, California produced 2.45 billion pounds of almonds. This is a 7.9 percent increase from the previous year’s crop, a testament to farmers who fiercely battled the freezing weather during almond bloom and carefully managed their crop to harvest. However, there is one hero in the story that may have been overlooked: bees. Approximately 1.6 million colonies of honey bees are placed in California’s almond orchards at the beginning of the bloom period to pollinate the crop. Beyond almonds, close to 100 crops also rely to some degree on bee pollination services. In fact, one in every three bites a person eats is from a bee-pollinated nut or flower. DECIMATION OF BEE COLONIES CONTINUE Unfortunately, our overlooked heroes are facing a dilemma. They are dying.
Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees, and noted unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies. It got even worse in 2006 when commercial beekeepers watched as the rates of dead bees almost tripled due to a condition called colony collapse disorder. “When beekeepers brought large numbers of colonies to California for almonds, the bees looked good, the mite levels were under control but yet they lost the colonies. They would go back weeks later and they would find the queen and a double handful of bees,” said Dr. Steve Sheppard of Washington State University, during a WG Lunch & Learn webinar about colony collapse disorder. For much of the past 10 years, beekeepers, primarily in the United States and Europe, have been reporting annual hive losses of 30 percent or higher—a figure that is substantially more than what is considered normal or sustainable. The decline of colony numbers over time has been attributed to several challenges. This includes habitat fragmentation, parasites, limited genetic diversity, viruses, migratory stresses, bacteria, lack of forage diversity and quantity, poor bee nutrition, exposure to pesticides and climate change. THE RISE OF ROBOT BEES… KIND OF A world without bees may still seem far-fetched, but the
continuous and steady decline of these pollinators is compelling researchers, technologists and farmers to come up with a solution sooner rather than later. Researchers across the world are taking matters into their own hands and inventing robotic pollinators. For example, Eijiro Miyako, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, has designed an insect-sized drone capable of artificial pollination. This prototype is coated with a patch of horse hair bristles and an ionic liquid gel so it can collect and transfer pollen from one plant to another.
ApisMonitor installation in County Cork in Ireland. Photo Credit Jonathan Fleury
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Additionally, researchers at Harvard University developed RoboBees, autonomous flying microrobots that are equipped with smart sensors and control electronics that can interpret and respond to their environment, mimicking the function of the eyes and antennae of bees. Corporations are also joining the cause. Just last March, retail giant Walmart filed a patent for autonomous robotic bees, or pollination drones, that could potentially pollinate crops just like real bees. Though artificial pollination is possible, it is a tedious and time- consuming process. Not to mention it can be incredibly costly. AGTECH STARTUPS LAUNCHING TECH TO SAVE BEES Many technologists and researchers are, instead, turning to innovation that protects our natural pollinators rather than developing new autonomous pollination technology. ApisProtect—an Irish company that recently opened its first U.S. office at the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (the Center) in Salinas,
Calif.—uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to help beekeepers manage colonies more effectively. “The key value that ApisProtect provides is the processed data—a high level overview of each apiary with a breakdown of which hives are doing well, which ones are likely to experience problems and which hives are currently in need of immediate attention,” said Fiona Edwards Murphy Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of ApisProtect. “This is what allows the beekeepers quickly understand their hives and rapidly respond.” ApisProtect places the power of advanced sensors and machine learning technology into the hive to deliver a 24/7 early warning system so beekeepers can give at-risk hives immediate attention and improve bee health. With this technology, beekeepers no longer need to rely solely on periodic, manual hive checks that can allow disease, pests and other issues to deteriorate hive health beyond rescue. They are now able to immediately obtain important information when the hive is difficult to inspect (i.e., during the night, poor weather conditions, hive is at a far
distance) and be positioned to make more effective decisions. “The issue with periodic checks is that beekeepers want to monitor hives with the minimum amount of disturbance to the colony. Unfortunately, this can lead to problems with hives being missed before they are too late to resolve. You can have two hives next to each other and one will be fine, while the other has severe problems. Our technology will help beekeepers use their time more efficiently and focus on managing the health of the hives at the right time,” added Dr Edwards Murphy. The agtech startup is taking bee health one step further by partnering with the National Agricultural Genotyping Center (NAGC) to analyze hive health in the United States, testing for pathogens including: Acute Bee Paralysis Virus, Black Queen Cell Virus, Deformed Wing Virus, Slow Bee Paralysis Virus and American Foulbrood Bacteria. ApisProtect has installed their ApisMonitor units in 200 hives worldwide and are now monitoring the health of ten million honey bees across 100,000 acres. “The economic impact we are looking
The Bee Corp CEO Ellie Symes inspects a beehive frame.
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nation to provide pollination services to farmers throughout the year, those hives sometimes get stolen. In fact, more than 1,700 hives were stolen in California alone during the 2016 almond pollination season. The Bee Corp’s QGPS Hive Theft Tracking System provides beekeepers with an instant alert when unauthorized hive movement is detected. The technology has the ability to automatically notify local authorities to dispatch a patrol to the location of the hive, and later, generate a report that can be used to prosecute the thieves. The Bee Corp most recently turned its attention to questions surrounding pollination and introduced Verifli , the world's first digital bee grading solution. Powered by infrared technology, Verifli allows growers to grade bees 25 times faster than manual inspections; easily measure hive strength without disrupting bees; evaluate pollination reports on their phone; and translate data to ensure accurate pricing based on hive strength. “Our company is revolutionizing this important input by using infrared technology to inspect the strength of the beehive. In the next five to 10 years this will help growers optimize pollination by ensuring the health and effectiveness of beehives used in crop production,” said Symes. To support startups that are taking a proactive approach to save natural pollinators, the Center is helping move their technology forward through groundbreaking events. In early April, the Center will host an “All About Bees” AgTechx event where innovators, growers and researchers will come together to discuss what immediate steps need to occur to preserve honey bees. This includes changes across farming operations, possible innovations yet to be developed and bringing current bee-related technologies from development to market.
for will provide cost savings for pollination services, improve honey production and reduce colony loss for beekeepers worldwide,” said AndrewWood, chair and co-founder of ApisProtect. In addition to IoT, encrypted GPS data is now being used to keep pollinators safe at home. The Bee Corp, one of the newest startups housed in the Center, launched a security system for beekeepers. “We started The Bee Corp to leverage data analytics and sensing technology to help commercial growers and beekeepers ensure effective pollination,” said Ellie Symes, CEO of The Bee Corp. “Bee health is important, as beehives need to be strong enough to pollinate one-third of the food grown in the United States.” When commercial beekeepers migrate their hives around the
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New Members in Congress Offer Opportunities for Arizona Agriculture
By Dennis Nuxoll, Jonathan Sarager and Stephanie Metzinger W hen Washington, D.C., greeted the 116 th Congress in January, it welcomed a new slate of Arizona Capitol Hill delegates, who represent a shift in the state’s political landscape. Ann Kirkpatrick and Greg Stanton were added to Arizona’s nine-member contingent in the U.S. House of Representatives, flipping the 5-4 majority from Republican to now Democrat. This is the first time there has been a majority Democratic Arizona House delegation in half a century. Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally are making the jump to the Senate as the two newest seat holders for the state. Arizona previously has never had a female senator; now it will have two. While this cadre of lawmakers potentially signals a new
political era for Arizona, it may also put the state in a better position to represent those in agriculture. Here are the four Congressional freshman to watch this term. U.S. Senator Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) McSally replaced U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, who was appointed to the Senate in September 2018, filling the seat of the late John McCain. She sits on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as the Armed Services Committee. Additionally, she sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she may play a significant role in decisions relating to water and environmental issues that affect Western Growers (WG) members. This includes potential regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act to make the 1973 law more effective in achieving its intent while remaining workable for all affected stakeholders. “Farmers and ranchers play a huge role in Arizona’s economy,” said Senator McSally. “As our U.S. senator, I will continue advocating for farm country and work to protect the long, vibrant legacy it holds in our great state.” U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Balancing out the Senate is Sinema. Sinema defeated McSally in the November 6 general election to replace Republican Jeff Flake, who retired. She is the first Democrat to win a Senate election in Arizona in 30 years. “Supporting Arizona farmers and ranchers is crucial for our state’s economy, and we’ll continue making sure Washington dysfunction doesn’t stand in the way of their success,” said Senator Sinema. “We are working across the aisle in the Senate to secure our state’s water future and protect our producers from harmful tariffs.” She currently is on the following committee assignments: Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Veterans’ Affairs; and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Sinema has been an advocate of implementing commonsense solutions to fix the broken immigration system. Though her focus lies on border security and protecting DREAMers, she has been vocal about Washington’s failure to act on immigration and its effect on Arizona’s economy and communities. Both Sinema and McSally met with the WG Board of Directors last May in D.C. to speak about key issues such as trade and the need for immigration reform. U.S. Representative Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.-02) Kirkpatrick is a new face in the 116 th Congress, but she
Senator Sinema with Vic Smith
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previously represented Arizona’s 1st District from 2009 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2017. She lost her Senate bid to then- incumbent Republican John McCain in the 2016 election. Running again in the 2018 election, she won her race and now serves as the U.S. Representative for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. Kirkpatrick serves on the Committee on Appropriations, and more importantly for WG members, the House Agriculture Committee. She will be part of the collective team that helps shape the future of farm policy in the United States. This includes finding innovative ways to address the needs of the industry as they relate to issues such as renewable energy, nutrition, crop insurance, conservation, international trade, futures market regulation, and agricultural research and development. U.S. Representative Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.-09) When Sinema launched her Senate bid, Stanton ran for her open House seat and defeated Republican Steve Ferrara. Prior to his congressional career, he served as mayor of Phoenix for six years. Stanton now represents Arizona’s 9th District,
which includes parts of Phoenix and surrounding suburbs. Serving on the Judiciary House Committee and Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, Stanton will have a hand in aspects of our national infrastructure as well as civil justice, immigration and administrative law.
Senator McSally addressing theWestern Growers board
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2019: The Opening of a New Chapter in California
The California Legislature returned to Sacramento in January to begin the first year of the 2019-2020 legislative session. Most notably, its arrival coincided with the inauguration of Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor Newsom’s inauguration marks the completion of Governor Jerry Brown’s historic political career and signals the opening of a new chapter in California executive leadership. Political observers have enjoyed trying to compare the
adults. The proposal would expand full-scope coverage under Medi-Cal to undocumented adults aged 19-25. This would be a substantial change in Medi-Cal eligibility. The budget anticipates that this revision would cover about 138,000 undocumented adults in just the first year alone. The governor has also called for an increase in Covered California subsidies for individuals that have incomes between 250 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level in order to increase their access to coverage. While not universal coverage; this proposal begins a conversation in that direction. The subsidies would be funded by revenue from a yet-to-be authorized state individual mandate. This tax would be paid by those who fail to obtain comprehensive healthcare coverage. There will undoubtedly be significant conversation around healthcare this year. The proposed 2019-2020 state budget specifically recognizes the devastation that California has faced from wildfires. Additional funding is proposed for new air tankers, new fire engines, and replacing the state’s aging firefighting helicopters. A request is also being made for $214 million for increased fire prevention and fuel reduction projects. The budget also recognizes the lost property tax revenues by local governments and proposes to backfill those property tax losses over a specified time period. Parental leave is another issue that has been widely discussed by the governor and many legislators. It comes as no surprise that the budget proposes to expand the Paid Family Leave program to six months. The details of this program and how best to implement it are to be determined by a separate task force. The above-mentioned topics represent a high-level snapshot of some of the policy themes that Governor Newsom has included in his proposed 2019-2020 state budget. In addition, legislators will no doubt introduce thousands of bills this year on a myriad of topics. Western Growers staff will be monitoring and engaging on many of these items to ensure continued profitability and sustainability for our members and their employees. Fasten your seatbelt!
two governors and how they manage people, determine and evaluate policy, and engage with the media. These comparisons are fascinating and are likely to continue into the first months of 2019. Meanwhile, Governor Newsom has been busy putting together his new administration. January was a month of making numerous political appointments to agencies and hiring new staff in the governor’s office. It was also the first opportunity for Governor Newsom to provide Californians with his policy priorities in the shape of his proposed 2019-2020 state budget. The following is a brief overview of some of the key policy proposals that Newsom has outlined for the year ahead. The need to build new and affordable housing has been identified as a policy priority by the governor and by many legislators. The state’s housing stock is not keeping up with demand and home rental prices are outpacing the median incomes of many Californians. Local jurisdictions are often placing needless hurdles in front of their required housing elements and making it nearly impossible to construct more housing. Western Growers is also working to find pathways to alleviate the housing crisis; especially as it impacts farmworker housing. We need additional farmworker housing now and we believe that reducing the barriers to getting that housing constructed will have the added benefit of relieving pressure on other housing needs. We were pleased to see that the governor has identified and publicly reinforced the need for all Californians to have safe and affordable drinking water. His administration is supportive of all of the concepts that were a part of SB 623 (Monning) from last year. SB 623 was strongly supported by Western Growers. We continue to work diligently with all stakeholders on this topic and remain hopeful that this issue will be positively resolved this year. Governor Newsom has placed great emphasis on healthcare in his budget. In addition to several proposals meant to reduce the cost of prescriptions, the budget includes $260 million for a proposed expansion of Medi-Cal to additional undocumented
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