Tomato Day at the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology!
Posted on October 11, 2019 15:17 PM by elyons
Zach Bagley and Rob Neenan were invited to visit and speak with Center residents about challenges the tomato and food processing industries are currently facing. Zach Bagley is the managing director for the California Tomato Research Institute in Woodland, Calif. Rob Neenan is the president and CEO of the California League of Food Processors.
A number of Western Grower members supply a variety of food processors, and the program was a particularly good opportunity for Center residents to hear about a different facet of the processing industry. Rob and Zach began the day’s program with a fireside chat and a ‘question and answer’ opportunity for the startups. Later, Rob articulated some of the concerns and challenges that food processors have, while Zach shared the current challenges facing the tomato industry.
New regulations, labor challenges and increased regulations around groundwater and stormwater were top of mind issues for both organizations; all agricultural parties share common concerns. Rob and Zach also met individually with each of the companies who attended and got a good overview of the WGCIT community and the Center’s work to connect solution providers to our agtech startups.
We were encouraged by the strong turnout from our residents. Representatives from the following WGCIT startups participated in our first visit from the California Tomato Research Institute and California League of Food Processors:
- Full Harvest
- iFoodDecisionSciences
- Resson
- Tailwater Systems
- KipTraq
- HeavyConnect
- Inteligistics
- FieldIn
- Trace Genomics
- Ganaz App
- Acela Biotek
- California Safe Soil
- Concentric Power