I was delighted to join Dennis Donohue and Jeana Calby of Western Growers for the formal launch of Platform10 at the Organic Growers Summit in Monterey, California, last week.
Platform10 is an international, multi-year collaboration that will accelerate promising biopesticide companies, rigorously assess products, enhance grower confidence, and facilitate market development and adoption.
Growers are up against mounting pest and disease challenges due to climate change, reduced efficacy, and diminishing availability of traditional pest control tools. The specialty crop industry in particular requires new crop input technologies due to governmental regulations and consumer demands. Bio-based and novel pest control options to address existing and anticipated gaps in pest management are sorely needed to ensure that our growers are properly equipped with the tools to address these challenges.
In Monterey, we had the opportunity to meet and speak to a number of growers. The response we got to the purpose of Platform10 was overwhelmingly positive. It clearly meets a very defined need. Wharf42 looks forward to helping develop this program through 2024 as we take the lead in building Platform10’s Global Partner Network to be launched at the 2024 Salinas Biological Summit in June.
It’s an awesome initiative and an awesome opportunity!