JULY — SEPTEMBER 2026
KAREN A LIFETIME OF SERVICE TO CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE ROSS
Features
KAREN ROSS A LIFETIME OF SERVICE TO CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE 16
THE PATH TO $5 BILLION IN AUTOMATION REVENUE 21
WESTERN GROWER & SHIPPER Published Since 1929 Volume XCVII | Number 3
PROVING VALUE THE NEXT CHAPTER OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION 26
To enhance the competitiveness and profitability of Western Growers members
BEYOND THE WAY WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT 30
Dave Puglia President and CEO Western Growers dpuglia@wga.com
“THE PORT THAT FARMERS BUILT” 33
Editor Michelle Rivera 949.885.4778 | mrivera@wga.com
JORDAN ENERGY & FOOD ENTERPRISES HARVESTING THE POWER OF THE SUN 36 PRECISION TAKES FLIGHT 39
Contributors Cierra Allen callen@wga.com Ann Donahue
adonahue@wga.com Michael Escañuelas hello@mescanuelas.com Emily Gengler egengler@wga.com Taylor Lauson tlauson@wga.com Cory Lunde clunde@wga.com Emily Lyons
Inside This Issue
4 President’s Notes 6 Law of the Land 8 Advocacy | California 10 Science 12 Innovation 14 Health and Wellness 40 Director Profile 42 WG Member Welcome and Anniversaries
44 WG Leadership Program 45 WGCIT Resident Profile 46 WG News You Can Use 48 Connections 50 Contact Us 51 Updates from the WGCIT 54 Farm Dogs and Barn Cats of Western Growers
elyons@wga.com Brittany Thomas bthomas@wga.com Joel Young jyoung@wga.com Circulation 949.885.2248 | communications@wga.com Advertising Sales Dana Davis 302.750.4662 | dana@tygermarketing.com
Western Grower & Shipper ISSN 0043-3799, Copyright © 2026 by the Western Grower & Shipper is published quarterly by Western Grower & Shipper Publishing Company, a division of Western Growers Service Corp., 6501 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 100, Irvine California 92618. Business and Editorial Offices: 6501 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 100, Irvine California 92618. Accounting and Circulation Offices: Western Grower & Shipper, 6501 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 100, Irvine California 92618. Call (949) 863-1000 to subscribe. Subscription is $25 per year. Foreign subscription is $50 per year. Single copies of issues, $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.
TOGETHER.
WGA.COM
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FIFTH TIME A CHARM FOR AG LABOR REFORM IN CONGRESS? By Dave Puglia, President and CEO
Here we go again. We are once again beginning a race all too familiar, with persistent hope that this time we will cross the finish line: A bill signing ceremony in the White House. We have a pretty good start this time around. At the end of June, I was pleased to join industry colleagues from around the country for a press conference in Washington where House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) introduced HR 9535, the “Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA).” The legislation’s genesis is an interesting part of this story. In 2023, Thompson created a bipartisan House Agriculture Committee working group on ag labor. After months of hearings and research, it issued recommendations to address agriculture's labor crisis. Thompson used those recommendations to develop the legislation with industry representatives and bipartisan House support, despite the Agriculture Committee having no jurisdiction over labor policy. That rests with the House Judiciary Committee. SAWA builds on elements of the twice-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act and updates it to reflect the realities we now confront. Specifically, SAWA codifies positive changes to the H-2A visa program recently made by the Trump Labor Department. Chief among them is a new Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology that has lowered wage rates and helped many smaller farming operations remain viable. How critical has this been? Look to California, where the AEWR rose nearly 34 percent during the Biden administration, far outpacing abnormally high inflation. In several other respects, SAWA streamlines the H-2A program and makes practical changes that give employers greater flexibility, ease of use and greater certainty that the bureaucracy will deliver. A key question is how the legislation would affect experienced agricultural employees not legally present in the U.S. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA) allowed these valued employees to obtain renewable five-year agriculture work visas, with qualifying conditions (e.g., no felonies, payment of fines, etc.). SAWA instead proposes to allow these workers to convert to H-2A visa holders, if they pass a background check and meet other conditions. This provision will draw attention from Thompson’s fellow Republicans, starting with those on the House Judiciary Committee, which will be the first stop for this bill. Hard-liners may insist that these workers be forced to “touch back” to their countries of origin before applying for a visa. This was demanded by many Republicans in a previous ag labor reform effort, compelling WG (hat tip to Tom Nassif) to work to defeat it. As every farmer
knows, forcing these valued employees to leave the U.S. for a country that is not home will gut our workforce with no means of recovery. Thompson and the nearly 50 members of the House (mostly fellow Republicans) who joined as original co-authors of SAWA appreciate this. But the Judiciary Committee’s Republican members include at least nine who are also members of, or aligned with, the House Freedom Caucus, including Chairman Jim Jordan (R- OH). It will take some work to persuade enough of them to advance this legislation, while likely also needing some of the committee’s Democrat members to join. Assuming that needle can be threaded, Thompson and allies will need to push hard to get a House floor vote, and then, the Senate…which is where the FMWA languished twice without so much as a hearing. In the last 20 years, our industry has had at least four legislative reform efforts come close to the finish line. The now faded “AgJOBS” legislation of 2006-07 created elements for the next four attempts. Next was the “Gang of Eight” bill, passed by a two-thirds vote in the Senate in 2013, only to be ignored by the House. The two FWMA bills followed, as noted above, both ignored by the Senate. Is the fifth time a charm? Maybe. Things have changed a lot since even the last FWMA bill passed. Farmers in more regions of the country have turned to H-2A out of necessity, creating a lot of new advocates for reform. Also of note, the dairy industry is fully engaged because SAWA would give them access to H-2A visas for the first time. My predecessor, Tom Nassif, often appealed to those in the Congress who could step forward as statesmen, suppressing partisan inclinations and leading towards sound public policy solutions. G.T. Thompson has stepped forward. Our imperative—indeed, all of American agriculture’s—is to insist that Congress act to protect American farmers and food production, especially as the issue gets hot in social media and talk radio. There is a wild card to all this: President Trump. Several times he has made comments that directionally align with what Thompson’s legislation would do. Having secured the border, he is in a uniquely powerful position to pull off a “Nixon Goes to China” moment. Were he to publicly and strongly support the Thompson effort, the likelihood of this Congress moving this bill to his desk increases substantially. The President knows where we stand, and how critical this moment is. He often calls America’s farmers his strongest base of support and proudly proclaims his love of them. There is no greater opportunity for him to reciprocate the affection than in leading a durable resolution to our chronic labor crisis and securing American farming and food production.
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AB 2646 California’s Latest Attempt to Price Agriculture Out of California By Jason Resnick, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
AB 2646, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, has, as of this writing, cleared the Assembly on a 58-16 vote and has now been taken up by the Senate. The bill would establish a new California minimum hourly wage of $19.75 for “approved agricultural employees” and “corresponding employees” beginning Jan. 1, 2027, with annual increases tied to the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. The bill never says “H-2A.” It does not have to. Everyone in agriculture understands what this is about. AB 2646 is aimed squarely at the federal H-2A guestworker program. The bill defines “approved agricultural employees” to include out-of-state agricultural workers permitted to work in California on a temporary or seasonal basis through a state-approved job order or application. It also covers “corresponding employees”—domestic workers performing the same or substantially similar work. In practice, the bill would create a California wage mandate for H-2A workers and the domestic employees tied to those positions. That would be no small change. It also would not occur in a vacuum. H-2A is already one of the most highly regulated labor programs in the country. Agricultural employers using the program must provide free housing, pay inbound and outbound transportation costs and either provide three meals a day or free and convenient cooking facilities. These obligations come on top of federal wage requirements and extensive compliance rules. AB 2646 would add a separate state wage floor on top of that federal structure. The result is easy to predict: higher costs for California farms already squeezed by labor, water, energy, insurance, regulation and unforgiving market conditions. Sacramento often talks as if these costs can simply be absorbed. They cannot. They are passed on to consumers, borne by growers operating on razor-thin or negative margins, or avoided entirely when production moves elsewhere. That last consequence deserves more attention than it usually receives in the Capitol. California agriculture does not compete in a closed market. Buyers have options. When the state makes it more expensive to grow food here, buyers do not always pay a premium for California-grown products. Often, they source from somewhere else. AB 2646 would accelerate that trend, weakening domestic production while doing nothing to raise labor standards in the countries that replace it.
The bill also invites litigation. If AB 2646 reaches the governor’s desk and becomes law, it is likely to face a serious federal preemption challenge. The H-2A program is governed by a comprehensive federal statutory and regulatory scheme designed to determine the terms under which temporary foreign agricultural workers may be employed without adversely affecting U.S. workers. A state law that effectively recalibrates H-2A wage obligations raises substantial Supremacy Clause concerns. The bill’s drafters may have avoided naming H-2A, but courts look to substance, not obfuscatory labels. Western Growers and other agricultural organizations are likely to litigate that question if AB 2646 becomes law. We would be right to do so. California policymakers say they want a stable domestic food supply, stronger rural communities and fair treatment for farmworkers. AB 2646 undermines all three. It imposes an artificial wage mandate on top of an already expensive federal guestworker program, raises costs for producers and consumers and further erodes the competitiveness of California agriculture. At some point, the state must decide whether it wants food grown here—or merely wants to regulate the farms that remain until they no longer can. "[AB 2646] imposes an artificial wage mandate on top of an already expensive federal guestworker program, raises costs for producers and consumers and further erodes the competitiveness of California agriculture."
6 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com July – September 2026
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YOUR WORKFORCE.
CONFUSION ABOUNDS AROUND SB 54 IMPLEMENTATION By Gail Delihant, Senior Director, State Government Affairs
Over the past several months, I’ve spent a lot of time talking with growers, packers, shippers, marketers, distributors, attorneys, CalRecycle staff, the Circular Action Alliance (CAA) and other commodity groups. One thing has become very clear: this program is far more complicated than most people realize, and many of the questions that matter most to agriculture still don’t have clear answers. The first thing to understand is that not every piece of packaging is treated the same under SB 54. For many fresh produce applications, there may be a pathway to obtain a categorical exclusion from CalRecycle. Western Growers has worked extensively with industry experts, food safety professionals, packaging companies and researchers to develop best-practice documents addressing fresh produce packaging, fresh-cut produce packaging and food safety requirements. CalRecycle has indicated that industry’s best practices, guidance documents and commercialization experience can be used as evidence when evaluating exclusions. However, exclusions are determined by CalRecycle, not CAA. If a producer receives an exclusion, that packaging is outside the SB 54 program. The bigger concern now is what happens to packaging that remains in the program. CAA recently released its California Program Plan, a document spanning more than 350 pages. The Plan proposes a program that could impose costs between $9 billion and $17 billion over its first five years. Those costs will ultimately be paid by producers and, eventually, consumers. The Plan acknowledges something that agriculture has been saying for years: recycling infrastructure for flexible films and other difficult-to-recycle packaging largely does not exist today. Yet producers will still be expected to pay fees while that infrastructure is being developed. The areas causing the most concern for agriculture are secondary and transportation packaging. Key examples of this are pallet stretch wrap, shrink wrap, plastic strapping, pallet stabilization materials, mesh bags and other packaging used to safely move produce through the supply chain. These materials may not qualify for the same food safety arguments used for some primary packaging, but they remain essential to preventing product loss, maintaining transportation safety and protecting product quality. CAA’s Plan repeatedly assumes producers can reduce packaging, switch materials or move to reusable systems. The problem is that many of those alternatives either do not exist, have not been proven at commercial scale or cost substantially more than current systems. In fact,
CAA’s own plan acknowledges that reusable systems can take four to six years or longer to develop and may cost two to five times more than existing packaging systems. The fee structure itself is another area growers should be watching closely. Producers may be subject to multiple layers of fees, including base fees, Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund fees, reuse investment fees, malus fees and future eco-modulation fees. Some flexible-film categories used throughout agriculture fall into the highest-cost categories identified by CAA. There is also continuing confusion regarding who the “producer” is. In agriculture, products often move through growers, cooperatives, marketers, distributors, retailers and food service channels before reaching consumers. Western Growers continues to push for clarity because duplicate reporting and duplicate fee payments remain real concerns. Another issue we are closely watching is CAA’s overall role in this program. While CalRecycle retains enforcement authority under the law, CAA’s plan includes audits, reporting requirements, documentation requests, interest charges, financial penalties and contract termination provisions. We have asked for greater transparency regarding what authority comes from the statute and what authority comes from participation agreements that producers are being asked to sign. Over the coming months, Western Growers will continue working with CalRecycle, CAA, lawmakers and our members to push for practical implementation. The fresh produce industry is unique. Packaging decisions are often driven by food safety, shelf life, transportation integrity and product quality—not simply recyclability. Any successful implementation of SB 54 must recognize that reality. As always, we will continue providing updates, guidance documents, templates and resources as new information becomes available. "Over the coming months, Western Growers will continue working with CalRecycle, CAA, lawmakers and our members to push for practical implementation."
8 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com July – September 2026
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APPARENTLY, IT WAS THE LEGAL RISK ALL ALONG By Joelle Mosso, Associate Vice President, Science Programs
simple, clear answers), but because science is iterative and responsive to new information, variability and change. Variability and complexity often struggle to find a place in predictable legal defense frameworks. So, the question becomes: how do we align concerns about legal defense should something go wrong while still encouraging the best science, clear data to characterize a producer’s food safety system and enough information to predict and prevent a food safety event without that same information being used against a company? There is a need for an aligned system (science → regulatory → legal structure) that accepts dynamic food safety risk management, recognizes that food safety risks will never be zero and establishes reasonable standards of management expectation across all stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem. If this shift is not prioritized, food safety will likely remain trapped in a circuitous loop where professionals talk about public health improvements without addressing a root cause of why they cannot be fully achieved. It is time to acknowledge that the food system encompasses more than just science—it is also shaped by a legal and enforcement structure that demands certainty, even though nature itself does not operate that way. In the end, food safety solutions have never been about science alone. Legal and policy structures have always shaped how science is applied, how data are interpreted, and how responsibility is assigned. To achieve sustained improvements in public health outcomes, those structures must evolve alongside the science itself. Defensibility in food safety should not be defined by static compliance rules, perfect audit scores and clean microbiological data devoid of evidence reflecting the biological reality of the risks and deviations expected within a well-designed food safety system. Where do we start? It’s time to revisit regulatory and legal expectations and align their demands for certainty with more realistic and innovative data that better describes food safety compliance. Frameworks must evolve to view the collection of information that truly captures the food safety system—the good, the bad and the ugly—and what a company did to address it as compliant. This is far more critical than building a system that favors those who curate a perfect binder of compliance while capturing little to none of the biological reality and risk that exists. Using Listeria control in facilities as an example of a framework in need of change, the presence of Listeria species in a company’s environmental monitoring
Too often, the work of food safety and public health becomes complicated by the legal liability associated with worrying about what data is collected, what to do once non-compliant data is generated and how to ensure the company (and oneself) is not accused of negligence because of its collection and response to data. It is remarkably counterproductive to limit best-in-class science, real-world data collection and research aimed at improving public health outcomes because of the fear that these efforts could be used against a company in a court of law. Yet that’s the logic and fear that play out every day in food safety. Too often, food safety leaders hear from business leaders, “Don’t test what you don’t want to know about,” “All these data will just make it easier for lawyers to find fault should something go wrong,” etc. The potential for creating legal liability with food safety data very often becomes a lingering and threatening topic for most in the industry—not because it’s wrong to collect the data per se, but because, at its core, a food safety system is often weighted toward protecting against legal liability rather than ensuring the scientific validity and variability needed to address the inherent risks associated with food production. The legal system demands certainty. Who is responsible? Did the producer meet the appropriate regulatory standard? Did they know about the risks? Are the audit trails complete? These are absolutes: compliant or not, met the rule or not, negligent or reasonable behavior. They make sense and are efficient, clear and enforceable. Contrastingly, well-designed food safety systems are not so absolute—such systems anticipate and respond to change. Pathogens can be present without something or someone having failed. Weather can move microbes long distances without regard for legal, regulatory or business boundaries. Wildlife moves through farms, creeks and adjacent fields at all hours of the day, quietly and without anyone observing their path. Food safety systems should be dynamic, situational and responsive to uncontrollable elements that do not fit within absolute legal requirements. These are not simple concepts to fit neatly into a legal defense or food safety binder. Research (and real-life experience) continues to show that simple, singular solutions and “fixes” are unlikely to resolve all production risks. There will likely never be a single corrective action applicable in all situations, no singular setback distance from an animal operation or adjacent land feature nor one sampling plan that operates perfectly for an intended crop. Not because the industry doesn’t want one (we all love
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program (EMP) is often documented during food safety audits and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspections as indicating a pattern of inadequate cleaning and sanitation. FDA guidance suggests that findings should occasionally be expected since Listeria is a common organism in the environment, but that such findings should also be remediated without ongoing and repeated occurrences. This is where the realities of production begin to challenge the good intentions of this regulatory guidance. Listeria testing in the industry is routinely conducted as presence/absence testing for all Listeria species, rather than strain typing to determine which isolate(s) are present. If routinely adopted, typing and sequencing techniques would provide the scientific information needed to determine whether repeated positives over time involve the same strain—which more directly addresses whether the organism may have established a harborage point in the plant and avoided control through cleaning and sanitation. However, this type of data is less commonly generated in industry. Why? It comes with additional costs and risks. This testing is not required by regulation or guidance, more information does not change the positive result found or the corrective actions that must be completed, and if additional learnings are generated, the data may also become a more threatening dataset that could be used against an organization in the event of an issue. The incentive to more fully characterize the positive result simply is not there. The legal and business risk overwhelms the operational and scientific benefits. Due to perceived legal risk surrounding the collection of robust Listeria data, there is an understandable fear of creating data that could be misinterpreted. The unintended consequence is that the system creates pressure favoring data gaps—datasets without positives and/or datasets collected vaguely enough to make inappropriate conclusions harder to draw. Compliance needs to evolve. It should not favor missing signals of risk that are known to occur, but instead favor signals of prevention based on a broader dataset—one that captures the effort and actions an operator takes to characterize and control risk. For example,
Joelle Mosso
does the operator know whether it is the same strain over time? Are they evaluating typing information, vectoring, and patterns of control rather than simply overall positivity rates? Are they proactively identifying short- and long-term solutions through increased sampling, sanitation improvements, new chemicals or materials, improved hygienic design, or implementing real-time monitoring of buildup (ATP/bioburden) during production? The failure of compliance under this framework is the absence of data and information around the controls. It is the absence of ever finding positives, the lack of strain-tracking investigations and data points, weak monitoring efforts and the collection of messy or nonexistent datasets that obscure the complete picture of prevention and control. The framework must evolve to capture the effort, intention and reality of what it means to manage a non- zero risk—rewarding operators whose overall efforts, data and programs align with the good, bad and ugly realities in which we operate, rather than simply rewarding the idealized compliance narrative of what we want systems to look like. As long as the bias toward rewarding the appearance of compliance over evidence of well-managed food safety risk remains, we will continue to mistake a fully documented system for a safe one.
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11 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com July – September 2026
GROWTH AND CHANGE AFTER 10 YEARS WITH WGCIT By Emily Lyons, Program Manager
uniquely bridges agriculture and technology. Walt is a partner in a fifth-generation family farming operation in Monterey County and also brings three decades of experience from Silicon Valley tech startups, including leadership roles in sales and marketing. His experience helped build THRIVE into the leading AgriFoodTech accelerator, and his vision continues to shape the work we do today. Alongside Walt and myself, Ben Palone serves as Director of Commercialization and leads our global harvest automation initiative. Ben has also published case studies that highlight the success of several of our agtech startups, helping tell the story of innovation in action. For more than half of my time at Western Growers, I also had the privilege of working alongside my dad, Dennis Donohue. He first joined Western Growers as an agtech consultant and later became the full-time director of the WGCIT. Earlier this year, he retired from Western Growers after being elected to serve a second tenure as mayor of Salinas. He previously served as mayor from 2006 to 2012, and with Salinas now home to roughly 175,000 residents, the role requires even more of his time and attention. Being able to share part of my professional journey with him is something I will always value. Over the course of these 10 years, I have had the pleasure of working with hundreds of agtech startups, many of them international. I have witnessed both the challenges and the triumphs that come with building a company, and it has been a true honor to support their journeys. Looking back, I am deeply grateful for the experiences, the people and the opportunities that have shaped this decade. I am excited to see what the next chapter will bring for Western Growers, the WGCIT and the broader agtech community we serve. "Today, we are home to more than 30 agtech startups working on a wide range of solutions to address the challenges facing our grower members."
Saturday, May 23, 2026, marked my 10-year anniversary at Western Growers. Reaching this milestone has given me the chance to reflect on how much has changed over the past decade—both for me personally and for the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) in Salinas, Calif. Over the last 10 years, the WGCIT experienced remarkable growth. At one point, we hosted as many as 65 agtech startups at one time. Like many innovation ecosystems, we also felt the impact of broader market conditions, including a slowdown during the 2020 pandemic and another dip in 2024 and 2025 as investment funding tightened. Today, we are home to more than 30 agtech startups working on a wide range of solutions to address the challenges facing our grower members. Four of our founding agtech startups are still members of the WGCIT: Inteligistics, PAGO, HeavyConnect and GeoVisual Analytics. These long-term relationships show the value of the WGCIT and have allowed us to participate in their successes. It is also worth noting that these four startups are based elsewhere, but they knew they would benefit from an office in “The Salad Bowl of the World” to participate in the specialty crop farming marketplace. I am especially excited about the startups now working with Reservoir Farms and Plug and Play. Through these partnerships, their agtech companies have access to the WGCIT, which continues to strengthen its role as a hub for innovation and collaboration. One of the things I love most about my work is that no two days are the same. Working with agtech startups means every day brings new ideas, new challenges and new opportunities to learn. One of my favorite things about working at Western Growers has been the opportunity to grow within my role. I started in office support, and over time my responsibilities have expanded in ways I could not have anticipated. Today, I work closely with our marketing and membership teams, support accounting-related responsibilities alongside accounts receivable, write articles about startups for the Western Grower & Shipper (magazine), submit updates on emerging technologies and help coordinate professional delegation tours and events. Most recently, I even had the opportunity to attend the gubernatorial debate in Fresno on behalf of Western Growers. My team has grown and evolved as well. I now report to Walt Duflock, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Western Growers, whose background
12 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com July – September 2026
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THE FUTURE OF OUR HEALTH By Beth Sims, Manager, Health and Wellness, Pinnacle Claims Management, Inc.
This quarter’s theme, AgTech and Innovation, is really exciting when you think about how much things are changing, from the way food is grown to how it gets to our plates. And from a wellness perspective, it actually connects right back to something personal for all of us: your energy, your health and how you feel day-to-day. Because here’s the truth: the future of what we eat is the future of your health. Think about it. Every bite you take is information. It tells your body how to function, how to repair and even how to fight off illness. There’s a phrase you may have heard before: food is medicine. And while it’s not about replacing your doctor or prescriptions, it is about recognizing that what you eat every day has a powerful, cumulative effect on your health and longevity. The right foods don’t just fill you up, they help your body heal, restore and thrive in ways that often go unnoticed in the moment, but can make a profound difference over time. When you begin to look at food through this lens, something shifts. Meals become more than just a quick break in your day; they become an act of care. A way of showing up for yourself. A way of investing in not just how you feel today, but how you want to feel years from now. Whole, nutrient-dense foods, like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats play a powerful role in reducing inflammation in the body. And that matters more than we often realize. Chronic inflammation is linked to many long-term health conditions, but the good news is that daily choices can help counteract it. Something as simple as adding more
colorful foods to your plate can support your body in ways that protect your long-term health and longevity. Food is also one of your most immediate sources of energy. It can either lift you up or slow you down. Balanced meals that include protein, fiber and healthy fats help keep your blood sugar steady, which means fewer crashes and more sustained energy throughout your day. That steady energy doesn’t just help you get through your to-do list; it helps you be more present in your life, whether that’s at work, with your family or in moments you want to fully enjoy. What’s beautiful about all of this is how connected it is. When you nourish your body well, you often sleep better. When you sleep better, you have more energy. When you have more energy, you’re more likely to move, connect and engage in ways that support your overall wellness. It becomes a cycle, one that builds on itself over time and supports not just a longer life, but a fuller one. And that’s really what health is all about. It’s about feeling good in your day-to-day life, having energy, feeling strong and being able to enjoy what you’re doing. It’s having the focus to be present in the moment and the ability to keep showing up for the people and experiences that matter most to you. The good news is, this doesn’t require perfection. It doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your habits. It starts small. One better choice at a time. One more home-cooked meal. One more glass of water. One moment of pause to ask, “What does my body need right now?” And remember, one of the most powerful ways to care for yourself is also one of the simplest: how you choose to nourish yourself today. That is something truly worth investing in, for your energy, your well-being and your longevity.
"[Health is] about feeling good in your day-to-day life, having energy, feeling strong and being able to enjoy what you're doing."
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COVER STORY KAREN ROSS A Lifetime of Service to California Agriculture
Written by Ann Donahue, Director of Marketing and Communications, with reporting by Emily Gengler, Assistant to the President and CEO
While living in Washington, D.C., Karen Ross’ husband, Barry, received an offer of a dream job in California. Her response: “Great. Do they have agriculture in California?” Years later, Ross is now retiring from her 16-year tenure as the state’s Secretary of Agriculture. Across multiple administrations and the relentless tides of shifting policies and state priorities, she has been the steadfast head of one of the largest industries in one of the world’s most dynamic economies. “Who would have thought that a Nebraska farm girl would rise to lead the nation’s largest agricultural state, achieving national and international recognition along the way?” said Don Cameron, President of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and Vice President and General Manager at Terranova Ranch. Ross, for her part, credits her resilience on consistency. “Like a bad penny, I keep showing up,” Ross laughed. As she leaves office, Ross takes a moment to reflect on her successes, her impact–and the path forward for agriculture in the state. “We’ve moved the needle,” she said. “We’ve certainly moved it. Have we moved it enough? No.” … With roots and, as Cameron, alluded to, present-day ownership of several hundred acres of western Nebraska farm country, Ross began her California agricultural career as Vice President at Agricultural Council and then as President of California Association of Winegrape Growers. In 2009, she worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as Chief of Staff for Secretary Tom Vilsack. She was appointed Secretary of CDFA by California Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 and was re-appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019. She said her time at USDA—a “mini-government that touches all aspects of rural America”—impressed upon her a very serious lesson in leadership, discipline and embedded expertise, as well as the importance of continuity of government. Ross observed how nonpartisan senior level executives were constantly training for emergencies because “you want to create relationships and know how to respond when in the midst of a disaster.” That training would prove to be vital. As Secretary in California, she would steer the state’s agricultural industry through multiple droughts, wildfires, floods, public safety issues, unprecedented industry issues and COVID-19. “For the past 16 years, Karen has guided California through invasive pest outbreaks, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in both poultry and dairy, quarantines for Huanglongbing disease and a host of other threats to the state’s farms, all in the
name of keeping our agricultural systems safe and productive,” Cameron said. But the peaks of crises come amid a day-to-day job as Secretary that is challenging in and of itself. She has been affectionately referred to by some in the industry as a “double agent”—someone who has to walk the paths of rural interests in a state largely attuned to the beliefs of urban voters. To put it bluntly: farmers don’t trust Sacramento. And Sacramento seemingly doesn’t trust ag. It’s a dynamic that could be poisonous, but Ross viewed it as a necessary challenge in a state as diverse as California. “I think it feels to growers that people are there in Sacramento with an intention to do harm to ag,” she said. “And it’s not necessarily the intention. Sacramento, I think, still has a tendency to view ag as ‘Big Ag’ and that big is bad in agriculture, even if it’s not in other sectors of the economy. What Sacramento doesn’t
Ross on a CDFA-supported delegation tour in Brazil.
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understand is the huge diversity of California agriculture—that it’s dominated by families and multi-generation families—and then there’s always going to be a misunderstanding of how we use our pest management tools, our water use and farm labor standards.” Ross managed to build and maintain bridges between both of these worlds, seeking commonalities and platforming initiatives and programs that possess multiple benefits, for both urban and rural communities. “I do value transparency,” she said. “I value integrity. People don’t have to agree with me, but I want to be honest and as forthright as possible. I try to reconcile that this is a big, urbanized state. And
the balancing is getting more challenging than ever before on really complex issues. So how do I reconcile? Well, I go home and have wine and ask myself, ‘Should you still be in this position?’ I do have to ask myself that. And ‘What else could I have done? Could anybody else have made it?’” Those in the industry are happy to answer Ross’ question for her. “Secretary Ross has been a steadfast advocate for California agriculture through its challenges with optimism and without complaint,” said Stuart Woolf, President and CEO of Woolf Farming and Processing. “While I’ve sometimes vented my frustrations as a California farmer, I know we couldn’t have had a better
Ross attending a Western Growers Women event in Palm Springs, Calif.
champion. Karen knows that a strong agricultural sector in the state benefits consumers, communities and workers. She treated the State’s 70,000-plus farms and land as her own. Her faith in farmers’ resilience has influenced our long-term planning at Woolf Farming where we have chosen to invest in a future that is far different to the one envisioned by the generation before us. Personally, she’s smart and engaging, warm and accessible to all those around her. She finds it easy to genuinely connect with people—a rare quality for many of her stature. Karen Ross is a great leader and a great friend.” … The building of bridges, the seeking of commonalities between competing interests, the dance between urban and rural has created some real-world programs that Ross counts as her biggest wins. California’s Farm to School program, launched in 2020 by Ross and California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is one of them. The initiative connects California farmers with local schools, improving student nutrition, expanding agricultural knowledge and know-how, strengthening food systems and creating new (and stable) markets for producers. Since its inception, California has invested more than $100 million in the effort, making it the largest state investment in farm-to-school initiatives in the nation.
In addition, Ross is also known for her leadership in Climate Smart Agriculture, which she said was inspired by the work of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, who promoted the building blocks at USDA. As Secretary, she convened growers and ranchers and built out Climate Smart Ag programs that aligned with Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) so as to streamline growers’ ability to qualify for incentive dollars, especially in the areas of irrigation, soil health and methane reduction practices. In agtech, Ross engineered the support of the administration toward farmers early on. Under her leadership, California seeded a $30 million investment in the Central Valley AgTech Initiative that helped leverage a subsequent $68 million federal Build Back Better Regional Challenge award, while broader state-supported AgTech Network and Alliance efforts have grown to more than $80 million in investments. This is the kind of bridge that Ross is most proud of building— one that not just closes perceived divides—like between tech and agriculture—but one that extends throughout a number of sectors in the state. For Ross, agtech is part and parcel of workforce development; workforce development is part and parcel with youth leadership and building professional skillset. For those who have seen Ross out in the field, her dynamism when working with students and young people interested in ag is undeniable.
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“It’s always a good day when I’m with young ones,” she said. “I’m so impressed with the enthusiasm and the energy of FFA students, who join as much for leadership development—which is critical for our future—and fall in love with ag.” “I remember when we had Secretary Ross out to one of our fields, looking at agtech with high school age FFA students,” said Jack Vessey, President of Vessey and Co. “The way she interacted with them—asking questions, really listening to them—I’ll always remember that. She’s a good person. I highly respect everything she’s done and I’m honored whenever I get to see her. Not just because of the office she represents, but because of the kind of person she is.” Outside of California, Ross has helped ensure that at the national level the state also leads on agriculture policy. She has chaired the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture’s Food Systems, Nutrition and Community Committee since 2018 and is a highly respected leader among her fellow state agriculture commissioners, secretaries and directors. Ross has shaped and directed national conversations and policy on these issues. “For me, it should be access for all—that it’s good for communities; it’s good for the economy; it’s good for people’s health; and it prevents the chronic diseases that can be avoided with good nutrition,” she said. “It just wraps up a ton of my passions all into one thing.”
In fact, the nutrition component of her job as Secretary is the one in which she feels we haven’t moved the needle enough. “[We still have work to do] on nutrient-dense nutrition and health outcomes that could be improved by more consumption, which we’ve known forever,” she said. “I’ve been through how many campaigns in the state—seven a day, three a day, five a day —and we’re still not there yet, and it’s not for lack of effort. So, I would love to move it more, but it’s so much better than it was. At least we have a Specialty Crop Block Grant Program; we have a Specialty Crop Research Initiative; we’re on the radar screen. At least we have a Specialty Crop Title. Is it the fair share for the value we’re bringing to rural America, to the national economy and to the health outcomes of people here and around the world? No, not enough. But hugely important progress has been made.” Through some of the hardest years, and in one of the hardest roles, Ross remained famously optimistic. She will retire with her spirit—an ‘attitude of gratitude,’ as her father counseled her daily as she was growing up. She may have not known about California ag when she first moved to the state—but once she dedicated her career to it, she fell in love. “I know how fortunate I am to have had this opportunity,” she said. “Did I know there were jobs like this when I was growing up? Even as a young adult? I had no clue. And it wasn’t until my first dinner at my first week at Ag Council, we were meeting with the Secretary of Ag. I’m like, ‘What’s the big deal? What’s the Secretary?’ So, I am so profoundly thankful. That’s all I could say.”
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FEATURE STORY THE PATH TO $5 BILLION IN AUTOMATION REVENUE By Walt Duflock, Senior Vice President, Innovation
The most important number in specialty crop agtech is $5 billion in automation revenue in a single year. I’ve written before about the importance of automation becoming a category with more than $1 billion in annual sales. That metric is significant from a segment perspective because, across many technology categories, there is precedent for that level of revenue generating meaningful follow-on segments. In automation, the opportunities include: (1) systems integration, which helps agricultural operators incorporate robots into their farming operations; (2) data and analytics, which take data from multiple robots and turn it into a recommendation engine for agronomic decision-making on future rotations; and (3) the manufacturing and service ecosystem, where at a certain scale it becomes worthwhile for manufacturers to build equipment close to their customers, regardless of where headquarters are located. In enterprise data centers, as various forms of storage reached $1 billion in revenue, the supporting infrastructure around systems integration and data and analytics tools often grew to 25 percent to 50 percent of the size of the underlying category. I then started analyzing what automation revenue projections could look like over the next five to 10 years and beyond. As I examined the amount of venture capital already invested, the amount and trajectory of current revenue from known players in the sector, and likely trends in venture capital and revenue growth, two things became apparent. First, based only on known players and expected growth trajectories, agtech automation is poised to grow from
approximately $310 million to $325 million in 2025 to $1 billion by 2030. That represents a 26 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Growth during the past several years has been at least 25 percent to 30 percent, with some years showing larger spikes. Second, if you look at expected agrifoodtech venture capital funding over the next five years and the anticipated percentage allocated to automation, a path to $2.5 billion within the next decade appears not only possible but increasingly probable. How does the $1 billion materialize? Over the past 10 years, automation has attracted between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion in investment, generating the momentum needed to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2030. Much of that growth will come from non-harvest automation, including weeding robots from Carbon Robotics (Laserweeders) and Stout (mechanical weeders); spraying robots from GUSS, Ecorobotix and Verdant; thinning robots from Niqo (it is also worth noting that some weeding robots can eventually perform thinning tasks, and vice versa); harvest-assist platforms such as Burro; and autonomous mobility platforms, such as Bonsai/Farm- ng and Agtonomy. These companies can drive most of the growth needed to reach $1 billion without new market entrants. Any new entrants—and some are expected—would accelerate the growth rate and bring the $1 billion milestone into reach sooner. That creates a clear path for automation to achieve $1 billion category status within five years.
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