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Gore: AgTech Roundtable to Tackle Issues Around State Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory regimes are a boon to ag tech developers and a burden to growers and food processors. This unprecedented onslaught of new regulations looms in 2017-18. Agribusiness leaders and state regulatory agency executives will gather Feb. 28 at a special convening of the pro bono AgTech Roundtable in downtown Sacramento to find common ground and collaboration, writes Techwire agricultural and food technology blogger Bob Gore.

Regulatory regimes are a boon to ag tech developers and a burden to growers and food processors. If you are harvesting green in this sector — as an ag tech provider or as a farmer — you know that.

This unprecedented onslaught of new regulations looms in 2017-18.

Agribusiness leaders and state regulatory agency executives will gather Feb. 28 at a special convening of the pro bono AgTech Roundtable in downtown Sacramento to find common ground and collaboration.

If you want to participate in this convening, read on. Oh, and there’s a bonus feature at the end of this blog — three emerging trends you should know.

“There are layers of regulation we didn’t have 15 years ago,” California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross said in her keynote at the West Hills Community College District’s fifth-annual Essential Elements Conference at Harris Ranch in November. “We need to engage our regulators for a system that means something. We need smarter alternatives,” she said.

We all (should) know the onrushing regulations — in water, air quality, energy, inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) and labor.

Ag technology is a key tool for “smarter alternatives.” Ag tech is precision and prescription farming and food production. Ag tech can reduce compliance costs, enhance regulatory collaboration and public transparency — in addition to achieving increased crop yields, sustainability and climate change resilience.

To frame the best possible innovative discussion and accelerated outcomes, the AgTech Roundtable is seeking guidance and wisdom from folks like Rob Neenan, CEO of the California League of Food Processors; Dr. Helene Dillard, dean of UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Studies; Don Cameron, farmer and state Board of Food and Ag member; Paul Wenger, California Farm Bureau Federation president; Hank Giclas, senior vice president of Western Growers; John Aguirre, California Association of Winegrape Growers CEO; Darrin Polhemus, State Water Board deputy director and ag engineer; Brian Leahy, Department of Pesticide Regulation director and pioneering organic farmer; and others.

I my next blog, I will summarize their ideas, as the roundtable convening draws near.

The AgTech Roundtable Organizing Committee (Gabe Youtsey, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources chief innovation officer; Clint Cowden, Farm of the Future director; Robert Tse, USDA California economic development officer; and agronomist Patrick Dosier) will select ag tech voices.

Please email me by Feb. 15 if you’d like to be considered.

Meanwhile, here are a trio of trends you might well ponder:

  1. Cannabis instantly and automatically became California’s No. 1 crop on Jan. 1 when new regulations (there’s that word again) took effect. Reporting and compliance will present a significant opportunity for you, as an estimated 30,000-80,000 growers join the “regulated community” for the State Water Board and CDFA. Here’s an interesting article on this topic.
  1. Gov. Jerry Brown, with help from CDFA, just launched the Healthy Soils Initiative, aimed at helping growers take full advantage of, and preserve, the state’s 200 different types of soil. The research is down and dirty.
  1. Understand how complex ag water management is.
Bob Gore writes the AgTech column for Techwire. Follow him on Twitter at @robertjgore.