News : Blog

A surprising trend is emerging in one of America’s oldest industries: there is a growing number of millennials who are leaving their corporate jobs to become farmers. For only the second time in the last century, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest Census...

Startups aren’t the only companies making advancements in agtech in Salinas—many major growers in the region are investing in innovative programs and technologies that are making their farms smarter, more efficient and more productive. One of these companies is Hahn Family Wines, a Salinas Valley staple that’s been selling wines from its estate vineyards since...

In an agriculture industry that’s heavily dependent on fossil fuels, Salinas-based Taylor Farms is making national headlines for its radical steps toward clean energy. In an effort to shrink its environmental footprint and promote sustainability in agriculture, Taylor Farms recently completed a makeover of its energy ecosystems and is now using wind, solar and co-generation...

Companies from Salinas and the surrounding region are using technology and robotic machines to tackle the labor shortage problem that faces the agriculture industry, the Los Angeles Times reported last week. Reporter Geoffrey Mohan explores how major growers in the Salinas area like Driscoll’s, Tanimura & Antle and Taylor Farms are developing high-tech machines that...

For the third straight year, Salinas will play host to some of the brightest minds in the agtech industry for the 2017 Forbes Agtech Summit. The event will take place in downtown Salinas, California on June 28 and 29. Forbes calls the event “a fully immersive experience into the burgeoning world of agricultural technology,” featuring...

Salinas, California is creating a global model for the integration of artificial intelligence and automation into the world of agriculture, WIRED reported yesterday. As American farms struggle with labor shortages, reporter Matt Simon describes how companies such as Taylor Farms and Hahn Family Wines are using sophisticated robots and sensors not only to make harvesting...

From droughts and worker shortages to food safety, the agriculture industry faces an increasing number of challenges on a daily basis. In Salinas, the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT) is dedicated to solving these challenges and more, by supporting agtech entrepreneurs and facilitating relationships between the technology and agriculture worlds. Western Growers...

Forbes Hosts Third AgTech Summit June 28-29, 2017, Salinas Valley Speakers include Janet Napolitano, President of University of California, Former Secretary of Homeland Security; Steve Forbes, Chairman & Editor-In-Chief of Forbes Media; Mike Teel, Owner & Chief Executive Officer of Raley’s; Bruce Taylor, Chairman & CEO of Taylor Farms; Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., Vice President, Research &...

Through his startup agtech company, Food Origins, Salinas entrepreneur Nathan Dorn is bringing precision data to the specialty crops Americans eat every day.