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Chamber Hosts Event on Monterey County Businesses That Are Now Advancing Technological Innovation in Agriculture
On Friday, June 6, your Chamber’s Quarterly Business Insights Breakfast featured a panel discussion on “Ag Tech: What Do Opportunities Look Like and Can Monterey County Be a Leader?” Moderated by Monterey County Farm Bureau Executive Director Norm Groot, the panel included Ryan Mazzuca with local agricultural equipment manufacturer Stout Industrial Technology, Inc.; University of California (UC) Agriculture and Natural Resources Chief Innovation Officer Gabe Youtsey; Western Growers Vice President of Innovation Walt Duflock; and Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez.
Monterey County is one of the top producing agricultural regions in the world, and it is also a world leader in ag-tech—the use of technology to make crop production more efficient and improve safety for workers and food security for consumers. Labor shortages, lack of water supply, disasters such as fires and floods, and onerous state regulations continually pressure the California agricultural industry to remain competitive.
Current ag-tech advancements that promise a worthwhile return on investment (ROI) include instantaneous electronic transmission of field conditions (such as soil moisture and crop production); robotics for soil preparation, weeding, and in some cases picking crops; precision irrigation to reduce water use; precision fertilizer and pesticide applications; artificial intelligence (AI) designed to measure and anticipate production needs, and “biologicals" (plant protection products derived from living organisms or their natural byproducts.) Two recent high-profile ag-tech concepts that received significant research capital but have production and marketplace challenges are vertical farming and alternative proteins.
Strong, enduring partnerships between businesses, government, finance, and academia are key to keeping Monterey County as a world leader in ag-tech. A major drawback of ag-tech is that new technology can be introduced with a lot of hype and promotion but in practice end up unsuitable for field conditions, thus wasting the investments of venture capitalists. Cooperation between ag-tech and the ag industry from the conception of an idea through research and development to field trials increases the chances that money and time spent on the idea results in something farms are willing to incorporate into practice.
Action Items for You as a Chamber Member
There are geographical regions that compete against Monterey County for ag-tech dominance, including the California cities of Davis and Fresno, the Research Triangle of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill), and countries such as Spain, Australia, and South Africa that have growing regions with a similar Mediterranean climate. There are other places spending government money to establish a local ag-tech research and development sector.
As a Monterey County business, what can you do to keep our local ag-tech industry competitive?
- Be positive for agriculture and gently challenge your neighbors and colleagues when they criticize agricultural practices. The Salinas Valley is feeding the world and helping to end the misery of famine that has plagued all of human history. Agriculture as a tough business that requires numerous management and technical abilities and takes place outside in the environment. People with derogatory attitudes about agriculture often change their thinking when they learn about the people who work in it and technology employed to produce crops.
- Encourage young people living in Monterey County to consider ag-tech as a career. It’s a career path based on mastery of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) that leads to good-paying middle class jobs, which in turn allow our children and grandchildren to stay in Monterey County. There are programs in elementary schools, high schools, community colleges (particularly Hartnell College), and California State University, Monterey Bay that promote and prepare people for this specialized arena of technology.
- Volunteer for these educational programs that encourage young people living in Monterey County to consider ag-tech as a career.
- When appropriate, support local government grants and loans that help provide seed money for ag-tech research and development. Small public investments in Monterey County ag-tech businesses may result in substantial tax revenue and job creation in the future.
If you want to learn more about ag-tech or get involved in the world of ag-tech, contact Monica Lal at 831.648.5350 or at monica@montereychamber.com.
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