Nassif played an integral role in launching theWestern Growers Center for Innovation & Technology in Salinas
that it will come to fruition and he plans to work on the issue for Western Growers even after he leaves his post. Speaking on the third day of October, he was hopeful a bill, with bipartisan support, would be passed by the House of Representatives by the end of October. “We will know by the end of the month but I’m hopeful. We are working with representatives on both sides of the aisle and we may get it done.” He says bi-partisan support is critical as the bill would have no chance in the Senate unless it can garner 20-30 Republican votes in the House. Nassif has been at this crossroads before. In fact, he calls the effort in 2013 that saw the Senate pass an immigration reform bill with bi-partisan support one of the most rewarding moments during his Western Growers career. He has long been credited with spearheading that effort and being the difference-maker in getting the Senate bill passed. Unfortunately, it was killed in the House by a group of inflexible legislators. Nassif knows it is a Herculean task to pass immigration reform, especially with the divided political nation that currently exists. Compromise is the key. Whatever bill emerges is not going to be perfect but to Nassif it can be good enough. He said that for agriculture that means there has to be provisions for a legal workforce as well as a path to legal residency for the millions of workers who are established in this country, have raised their families here and
are doing the nation’s work in agriculture and in other industries. A bill that doesn’t address that is not good enough for the Western Growers leader who has devoted countless hours over the past two decades to this issue. The Spinach Outbreak When looking at the highlights of his Western Growers career, Nassif points to another effort that had a very negative connotation. In 2006, the E.coli outbreak in spinach led to a financial bloodbath for spinach growers and a gigantic black eye for the industry. “It was my first experience with a major contamination issue and we jumped right in and were determined we would solve it ourselves without State
legislative assistance. Jasper Hempel, who was the first person I had hired, was very instrumental in helping to establish the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement in California and another one in Arizona.” It took time, but the spinach industry came back and contamination issues have been few and far between since then. And Nassif said that effort has been used as a national model in establishing food safety regulations for the industry. Science & Technology An additional business direction for Western Growers came earlier this decade when it launched the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology. The center is a place for ideas to incubate
Nassif attends the signing of the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement in October 2019
22 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2019
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