This episode of the Voices of the Valley podcast is brought to you today by the Western Growers Association. Supporting producers that grow the best medicine in the world. Find out more at WGA.com.
What do you do when you can’t afford to make a mistake – but at the same time, you know you can’t get risk to zero? In advance of the AgTechX Food Safety event on Aug. 18 at Reedley College, En Solucion CEO and Founder Alex Athey joins the podcast to discuss the potential of technology to mitigate the risks in food safety. A member of Western Growers’ elite international Food Safety Cohort that will appear at the event, En Solucion is working to employ ozone nanotechnology to replace traditional post-harvest chlorine wash. “You can’t get risk to zero,” he says. “But we’re trying to provide more tools in the the forms you can apply.” A former astronomer who went on to implement technologies in the defense, oil and gas sectors, Alex learned a valuable lesson when he jumped to agtech. “For the first three years, sit in the back of the room and shut up,” he says. “You just have to listen…then you can offer an outside perspective that maybe you don’t see every day.”