by Peter Wren-Hilton | Jan 24, 2023 | Uncategorized
As Dennis Donohue & I continue our 2023 Salinas Biological Summit grower tour, it’s great to spend some time in the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center in Salinas. It’s Wharf42’s ‘soft AgriFoodTech landing pad’ in the US. And with long-time friend, Dennis being the Center’s Director, it’s a bit of a no-brainer!
Based in the Taylor Building at 150 Main Street, Salinas, the Center is also the preferred landing pad for many of the world’s most exciting early stage AgriFoodTech companies. You can view some of the awesome start-up tenants at Innovators | Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (wginnovation.com).
18 months ago, the Center established a Global Advisory Board and I’m a proud member. Its purpose is to analyse grower challenges and then identify global solutions that might be able to address them. There is a of course a flip side to this purpose.; the Global Advisory Board is able to identify international challenges and apply a global lens to them. The 2023 Salinas Biological Summit is a great example of this. This is not just a California challenge. Or a California opportunity.
As we work our way across the State, it’s hard to under-estimate the size of this particular specialty crop market and the opportunity it offers early stage international AgriFoodTech start-ups to scale.
The price of failure however can be fatal. Opportunity v Risk.
To support its international tenants and assist de-risk ‘the risk’, the Center is developing a Grower Trial Network. This will provide access to WG grower properties to enable global Center tenants to test their AgriFoodTech solutions. What works in the Waikato, the Adelaide Hills or the UK Fens, doesn’t necessarily work in Central or Salinas Valley. Trial your tech first. Develop a case study. Your local grower will become your best friend and greatest reference source.
Over the coming weeks, the Center will be putting the plans in place to help launch the Network. We’ll share details across this site.
It’s great to be back at 150 Main Street. It’s been too long.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Jan 22, 2023 | 2023 Salinas Biological Summit
Welcome to 2023! And as we kick off the New Year, a major ‘Save the Date’.
At last October’s 2035 Oceania Summit, reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and supporting farmers & growers adapt to a changing climate were the two key themes. Building more sustainable agricultural practice lay at the heart of the Summit. You can view every recorded Summit session today at https://www.2035.vision/summit-videos/
The scale of this massive challenge makes it necessary to ‘chunk up the elephant’. One major global trend that has secured Wharf42’s focus has seen producers and regulators begin to move away from the application of chemical pesticides, towards an increased use of biologicals. These improve soil and plant health and assist support pest management programs designed to reduce plant disease and stress. This leads to better crop yields and increases environmental sustainability.
Want to make a difference? This is your opportunity!
At June’s 2023 Salinas Biological Summit, we’ll be hosting some of the biggest names in global biological research, investment and commercialisation. With our Summit partners, Western Growers, we’ll be hosting two days of keynote plenary presentations, in-depth panel discussions and grower-focused breakout sessions. An on-site exhibition will provide the platform for established agribusinesses, agritech start-ups and researchers to demonstrate their solutions in the biological space.
With borders now once again open for international travel, the opportunity to meet in-person has never been more important. The ability for delegates from around the world to network and engage will be a key driver of, and focus for, the Summit program.
To support international delegates attending the Summit benefit from their time in North America’s ‘Salad Bowl’, there will be the additional opportunity to join organised ‘field visits’ to some of California’s most productive specialty crop regions; including Salinas Valley and Central Valley. Meeting growers ‘on farm’ will provide the opportunity to share knowledge and learn best practice from others. From previous similar agrifood tech missions to the region, it’s just amazing who you can meet on the bus!
We’ll be publishing details of the Summit’s draft program, highlighting some of our keynote speakers and provide information about how you can join and participate in the Summit, in early February.
If you want to learn more today, please register your interest at www.salinas-summit.com
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Oct 27, 2022 | evokeAG
I’m delighted to share the link to the evokeAG 2023 Program which actually went live 5 minutes ago. Keen to ensure that kiwis get some of the first dabs at the content!
As a member of the evokeAG steering committee, I can only applaud the team for pulling together a programme which features almost 100 speakers over 2 days. As the stardust finally settles on this month’s 2035 Oceania Summit, I know just how much effort goes into building a high-profile, compelling programme. The team at AgriFutures has certainly delivered.
From Outer Space and back Down to Earth, evokeAG will ignite agrifood tech innovation with its star-studded line-up.
Across two-days, some of the best and brightest change agents and thought leaders in agrifood tech will push the boundaries of what’s possible, and deep dive into the issues, trends and opportunities that will shape farming and our food system, now and into the future.
evokeAG 2023 is a timely and important opportunity to come together to address important topics and drive critical conversations.
Make sure you are part of the conversation. View the Program and purchase your tickets via www.evokeag.com/program
For New Zealand researchers and agritech businesses looking to attend next February’s event, Callaghan Innovation, NZTE & the Agritech ITP team are putting together a kiwi delegation programme which will include field visits around the conference. If you have not experienced the amazing agrifood ecosystem that exists in South Australia, this is one event you will not want to miss!
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Oct 12, 2022 | 2035 Oceania Summit
The 2035 Oceania Summit finally concluded yesterday after two days of highly stimulating presentations and great delegate engagement. It’s been an awesome experience to put on what we hope will become a staple event, not just in New Zealand, but around the world. Supporting farmers and growers address climate change by reducing their GHG emissions and adapting to a changing climate has never been more important.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing videos of every plenary presentation and panel discussion to the Summit website. Today however, we want to focus on just one significant upcoming follow-up opportunity. We call it ‘What’s Next?”
A highlight of Day 2 of the Summit was the formal signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) between New Zealand & California, committing both to greater collaboration around the development of ‘Smart Agriculture’ opportunities. I was delighted to join NZ Minister of Agriculture Hon Damien O’Connor and California Food and Agriculture Department Secretary, Karen Ross, at the formal signing ceremony at Auckland’s Aotea Centre.
Shortly after, I was joined by Damien & Karen on the main stage for the Summit’s final session, ‘What’s Next?’ We were joined remotely by Dennis Donohue, Director, Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center, in California.
We discussed the opportunity that the LOI offered. It’s not a channel that is exactly new to me or to Wharf42. We have been working with Dennis and the team at WG since 2016. It’s an opportunity a long time coming.
It’s appropriate then that we were able to share the news that on June 22-23, 2023, Wharf42 and the 2035 Summit team will be supporting a brand new ‘Growers Summit’ in Salinas, North California, in association with Western Growers. The Summit is supported by Secretary Ross and the CDFA. The purpose of the Summit is to focus on the use of biological inputs to land and crops. For New Zealand researchers and agritech businesses operating in this domain, the Salinas Summit will provide a unique channel to a significant commercial opportunity. We’ll be publishing extensive details via both the Wharf42 and the 2035 Summit websites in the run-up to next year’s event.
Today, I’m joining Secretary Ross and the California delegation on a day’s field trip to meet growers in South Auckland. Having spent two days talking about it, today we will finally experience it.
To all the Summit’s sponsors, speakers, moderators and of course our delegates, a huge thank you. The past two days have been a blast!
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Sep 10, 2022 | Western Growers
I was honoured recently to be invited by Western Growers to join the online tribute to the late Hank Giclas, former Director of Innovation at WG.
I first met Hank back in 2015 when I first began to focus on the emerging new investment asset class, called agritech. I was based at the time in Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley, and traveled to the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center in Salinas, Northern California. It was the beginning of a long-standing relationship that continues today.
I met Hank during one of those early visits and together with Center Director, Dennis Donohoe, we began to discuss how the Center and New Zealand’s emerging agritech sector could potentially collaborate. In 2018, when Jacqui and I finally established Agritech New Zealand, Hank flew from the US to join us in Tauranga for the launch. I remember well our visit to the Plant & Food Research facility at Te Puke where we spent time on a kiwifruit orchard. Hank was a tall man and had to constantly keep his head low to avoid banging into the canopy. We went onto the PFR building and tasted some of Zespri / PFR’s experimental kiwifruit cultivars. For Hank, it was an important moment. He got to understand the valuable connection that exists between research and industry in New Zealand. It was a lesson he took back to the States.
Hank stepped down from his role at WG at the beginning of the pandemic. Whilst we did not meet again because of closed borders, my memories of Hank are of a gentle man who had a fierce interest in the future of his industry and a solid understanding of the growers who worked in it. He is already sadly missed.
I’m honoured to share the online tribute below:
