…excited to come out to California,” Thompson shared. “The agriculture here is just amazing—trees, vines, cattle, row crops—endless possibilities.” Now living in Kingsburg, a small Central Valley town with a…
Verdant Robotics: Revolutionizing Farming with Precision AI and Automation
…Gabe Sibley, CEO and co-founder of Verdant Robotics, is at the forefront of this revolution. Verdant Robotics leverages machine learning, computer vision, and AI to deliver inputs on crops with…
Todd Snider Takes the Helm at Kern County Farm Bureau, Calls for Smarter Water Policy and Farm Advocacy
…comes from a grocery store,” he said. “When they visit the farm, they realize agriculture isn’t just tractors and dirt — it’s drones, computers, and science.” He also highlighted opportunities…
How Ralston Purina Revolutionized American Agriculture
…Ralston Breakfast Cereals. Both men shared a belief in better nutrition—Danforth for animals, Edgerly for humans. In 1902, they combined their expertise, merging to form the Ralston Purina Company. The…
Early 19th-Century American Farming and Westward Expansion
…farmer could buy inexpensive, fertile land, cultivate and improve it, sell it for a profit, and then move west to repeat the process. This cycle of settlement and migration helped…
Nat DiBuduo: Politics, Water & California Farming
…it with other commodities. “You see the beer commercials. When was the last time you saw a good strong wine commercial, Nick?” Innovation and Accessibility To reach younger consumers, DiBuduo…
Nat DiBuduo, the “Godfather of Grapes,” on the Future of California Wine and Farming
…wine, and younger people don’t know what to buy,” he said. “We need to make wine fun again — get people to tastings, use social media, and tell the story…
Celebrating the Valley’s Bounty: The Whole Vine Festival Returns to Fresno State
…agricultural commodity, but grapes hold a special place. “We are number one in raisins, number one in table grapes, and supply about 60% of the nation’s wine grapes,” Goudreau explained….
David Tangipa: Fighting for California Farmers and Rejecting Proposition 50
…was eventually built. Yet, Tangipa said, the LADWP left that basin empty, under-resourced, and unprepared. When fires struck, electric fleets lacked power, tenders sat idle, and officials scrambled to coordinate…
Mando Perez: Innovation & Leadership in California Ag
…forward in that solution,” Perez explained. Modern agriculture, he added, relies on precise, data-driven decisions. “With our monitoring tools, we provide growers with irrigation summaries, device-level details, water balances, month-to-month…
California’s Water Puzzle: Insights from Avid Water’s Cory Broad
…Citrus Belt from Orange Cove down through Reedley and Terra Bella—you’ll find smaller growers,” Broad said. “Ten-, eighteen-, twenty-acre blocks are common, and that’s pretty normal.” By contrast, the west…
Alexandra Duarte’s Fight for California’s Future
…District Duarte’s district spans a vast area of California, stretching from Truckee down to Indio, and covering 13 counties. It includes Stanislaus, El Dorado, Madera, Merced, and Mariposa counties, among…
Pistachios, Water & Trade: Kreps on Farming’s Future
…lifespan is essentially open-ended. Pest Pressures: Gophers, Squirrels, and Rats As with all crops, pests present persistent challenges. For pistachio growers, gophers, squirrels, and rats can wreak havoc. Abandoned almond…
John Duarte on Central Valley Agriculture: Water, Prop 50, and the Future of Avocados
…for agricultural or urban use. This, he argued, devastates irrigated farmland, suburban neighborhoods, and rural communities alike. Children in the Valley suffer from dust-borne respiratory issues, and yet the policies…