Thomas Nunes V (known in the industry as “T5”) visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) to address agtech startups for our first ‘Lunch & Learn’ of the year.

Thomas Nunes V (known in the industry as “T5”) visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) to address agtech startups for our first ‘Lunch & Learn’ of the year. He spoke about his connection to farming and family, joking about finally “using his Ivy League education.” T5 played football while studying at Cornell University. He was especially close to his grandfather (T3), who also played football in college. After graduating, T5 returned home to work in the family business. He worked his way up through the business, starting in field crews in the desert. He credits his experience in every department of the company for his strengths as the current president of the Nunes Company.
T5 also discussed his family’s deep understanding of branding in the marketplace. Foxy Produce is famous for featuring actress Brooke Shields in their early advertisements. Shields recently participated in a social media movement revisiting the historic campaign with the Nunes family, including T5’s sister, Mindy Amaral.

T5 talked about the success of Foxy Organics, attributing it to their ability to ride the economic wave around 2008 as consumer behavior was shifting. They also diversify their farming locations to ensure steady production, such as acquiring higher elevation ground in Nevada for the summer months.

When evaluating new agricultural technologies, Foxy Produce does not look at technology in isolation. An agtech success story at the Nunes Company this year was that their winter farms in Yuma, Arizona were 95% automatically thinned for the first time. They have always been open to automatic weeding and thinning solutions, but this year, the labor market necessitated the use of automatic thinners. T5 acknowledged that the agricultural market in California is very competitive, but with many challenges facing the industry, farmers will need to work together to adopt new solutions and counter regulations.

T5 also advised the agtech entrepreneurs that the people they need to talk to at Foxy are the busiest, so they must be consistent with their communications and make it easy for them to try new solutions. Regarding data and analytics, he emphasized that technologists must understand that nothing will be the same from year to year: weather, regulation, labor, water, natural disasters, etc.

This luncheon was a fantastic way to kick off 2025 with WGCIT agtech startups and included a record number of participants.