Working in partnership with the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center, we are adding two further optional days for international delegates only to visit and meet major growers across the Central Valley.
Immediately following the Salinas Summit on 20-21 June, we’re organising a 2-day field trip, focusing on the area around Reedley in Fresno County. Known as the ‘World’s Fruit Basket’, the region is renowned for its fruit and vegetable cultivation: Stone fruit, citrus, grapes (table & wine) are just some of the staples. Last week, Dennis and I visited Harold McClarty, owner of HMC Farms just outside Reedley. Some of key fruits grown by HMC include peaches, nectarines, plums, plumcots and table grapes.
It’s an impressive unit. HMC is one of the largest adopters of solar power in the industry, with enough solar panels to generate more than 3 megawatts of renewable solar energy. The farm has donated more than 10 million pounds of fruit to the California Association of Food Banks through an ongoing relationship with the Farm to Family program. And as part of the HMC Farms commitment to using sustainable farming practices, they use pheromones instead of pesticides whenever there is an alternative available.
Harold, together with other leading growers in the region are planning to join the international delegation during the visit to talk about both their challenges and some of the opportunities that these are generating. Whilst the core theme of the Summit is biologicals, expect some frank discussions around water and automation. These are two other key focus areas for growers in Central Valley.
We are putting the final touches together for this two-day ‘field visit’. It will take in a visit to Reedley College, a community college of 7,000 students, which has a strong ag focus. With significant funding from the grower community, it has developed a number of different training programmes looking to upskill the future agricultural workforce. It’s a template that I suspect could be followed in other ag geographies.
We’ll be updating details of this additional programme on the Summit portal shortly. If you would like further information, please register your interest today at www.salinas-summit.com