Voices of the Valley

California Safe Soil Vice President of Strategic Sales Capp Culver speaks about the start-up company’s breakthrough technology that recycles organics from supermarkets into a proprietary liquid fertilizer called Harvest to Harvest (H2H), and a solid livestock feed, called Hog Heaven. He shares how California Safe Soil uses heat, mechanical action and enzymes in a three hour patented process that e...

In this episode, we explore credit risk profiling and monitoring for agricultural economies. Ruchit Garg, the founder & CEO of Harvesting, shares how you can make lending decisions faster, transparent and more reliable using his agtech startup’s award winning digital platform – which is built on top of powerful machine learning & satellite based technologies. Harvesting leverages its team’s global...

Martha Montoya, president of AgTools, joins us for episode 20 of Voices of the Valley to speak about her agtech company’s revolutionary solution that serves as a key component to address major communication gaps between farmers and food retailers. She explains how at its core, AgTools’ technology takes immense amounts of data and simplifies it down to key factors to improve decision making for far...

A first for Voices of the Valley, host Dennis Donohue is joined by two guests to speak about MagGrow, a magnetic spraying system that helps farmers grow more by using less. MagGrow Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer David Moore and West Coast Sales Executive Cesar Martin share how their spraying technology system reduces drift by up to 70% and delivers superior coverage by enabling you to spray...

In this episode of Voices of Valley, agtech start-up company UNIBEST International shares how it has been providing farmers and agribusinesses with soil monitoring products and data that are tailored to their own unique needs – whether that be to optimize crop management, understand environmental contamination or grow a healthier plant – for the past four years. Increased governmental regulation c...

In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Zest Labs VP of Marketing Kevin Payne explains how agtech company Zest Labs is working to modernize fresh food distribution by delivering proactive shelf-life management solutions that have been proven to reduce field-to-shelf food waste by 50% or more. Reduced waste means better margins for retailers and growers, and consistent delivered freshness for cons...

Aidan Mouat is CEO and co-founder of Hazel Technologies, an agtech start-up company who invented packaging inserts (or sachets!) that extend shelf life. With Hazel's drop-in solution, the shelf-life of fresh produce can be extended by as much as three times by preventing fungus and decay. During this episode of Voices of the Valley, Mouat speaks about how this startup combats the growing global fo...

In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Anita Garcia speaks about her journey as a computer science student to an intern at several agtech start-up companies to, now, a Computer Science Education Coordinator at CSU Monterey Bay. She shares how she used her college education to assist start-up companies in development new technologies to advance ag. She also reflects on her career journey and delv...

In this episode of Voices in the Valley, we hear about AgVoice, the world's first voice and data management start-up company that allows ag professionals the freedom to work hands-free while on-the-go. AgVoice CEO Bruce Rasa shares the journey of how AgVoice came to be and how it can revolutionize the industry. AgVoice is a mobile voice-interaction service designed for food and agriculture profess...

There is a severe ag labor shortage and it’s only going to get worse. Changing demographics and stringent regulatory barriers are causing the flow of workers crossing the border to dramatically slow down. These are the workers that help us harvest our crops—the workers that are crucial in providing the nutritious fruits and vegetables that feed our families. Answering the call to help solve agricu...

In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Diane Wetherington, CEO of iFoodDecisionSciences, speaks to Dennis Donohue about their startup journey. iFoods shares a little about how this agtech start-up company provides food safety and process control data management software solutions for growers, shippers, packers, processors and distributors.

Ever been confused on exactly what blockchain is? Or how it can help agriculture? Raja Ramachandran is the CEO of Ripe.io, and in this edition of Voices of the Valley, he explains exactly when blockchain can be useful and how to harness its power. Raja goes into how Ripe.io leverages blockchain technology to create a digital bridge that engenders transparency, trust and honesty for food producers,...

Brian Curtis is CEO and founder of Concentric Power Inc. Concentric Power has developed a pre-engineered, prefabricated, modular power plant design that can be installed at food processing facilities for fresh produce. Most recently, this agtech startups built a cogeneration plant for Taylor Farms that helps the ag giant generate onsite electric power for low temperature refrigeration, producing a...

Colin Brown is Founding Director of TracMap, an agtech company that offers a complete precision guidance system for ground applications to improve how crops receive pesticides. He will touch on how his company’s Spray and Harvest Management System can help growers reduce costs and improve yields across a wide range of specialty crops. With their technology, growers easily select which blocks or ro...

Abby Taylor-Silva is Vice President, Policy and Communications at Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Abby speaks about the latest updates in groundwater and water technology. She also touches on the types of technology she has seen being develop to improve water quality and soil health.

Nathan Dorn is the founder and CEO of Food Origins. Food Origins is a data-driven start-up company that works with growers to assess the impact of potential innovations. In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Nathan explains how his innovative technology will significantly improve the efficiency of the $20B hand harvested fruit industry with the single click of a precision data collection system...

Patrick Zelaya is the founder and CEO of Heavy Connect. HeavyConnect, one of the first residents of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, prides itself on creating diversity in the workforce by offering youth opportunities and careers in technology. The startup builds mobile workflow platforms that automate and simplify many of the tasks that consume a farming manager’s day. In t...

Drew Ketelsen is Ranch Operations Manager of HMC Farms. In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Drew highlights the water issues farmers in the Central Valley face and what types of innovations and technology available to help ease those woes. As a stone fruit grower, Drew speaks about the changes HMC Farms is making to their orchards and groves to allow for the possibility of automation. © 2018...

Robert McBride is Co-Founder of Boost Biomes and a biotechnology veteran. In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Robert describes how Boost Biomes' proprietary DNA sequencing-based discovery platform uses high-throughput next-generation sequencing, selective enrichment and advanced informatics to identify microbial products with important commercial roles. He goes into detail about Boost Biomes'...

Colby Pereira is currently the Chair of the Monterey County Farm Bureau and Manager at Costa Farms. In this episode of Voices of the Valley, Colby shares with Dennis the most important aspects of technology that gets farmers to “buy into” a certain piece of software or hardware. Colby also speaks about some of the innovations that her farm had already started implementing on the farm and how it ha...

Kevin France is the CEO of SWIIM® System. In this episode of Voices of the Valleys, Dennis and Kevin speak about SWIIM’s easy-to-use technology that enable farmers, ranchers, municipalities, businesses and conservation groups to plan, manage and track their crop-water budget. They delve into SWIIM’s turn-key solution that allows it to act as its client’s on-farm water accountant, allowing agricult...

Sean Duncan is the Supply Chain Manager at Duncan Family Farms, based in Arizona. In this inaugural episode of Voices of the Valley, Dennis and Duncan discuss how to adapt technology to different growing regions around the nation. They also discuss what Duncan Family Farms looks for in new technologies and provide tips on how agtech startups can start partnerships with farms of all sizes.