Oli (our MD & NextGen Fruit Group Chair), alongside a very capable committee, returned last week from running NextGen Fruit Group’s conference trip to California. The group of 53 visited 14 generous and informative hosts over 8 days covering 900 miles from LA to San Francisco.
Visits included vertical farming in Compton, substrate production of cane fruit in the Oxnard District and RAC’s farming operation, including their nematode production, the World's largest organic Strawberry producer with Driscoll's, state of the art facilities at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), genetics work with Bloom Fresh, Family Tree Farm’s viewing nectarines, apples, raspberry cots, pistachios, almonds and blueberries, regenerative Ag at scale with Jackson Family Wines among many others.
The week was also topped off by meeting some amazing characters that have been pioneers in our industry, Miles Riter, David Jackson and Tim Butcher, many thanks for generously giving up your time and hosting us.
NextGen is focused on access to learning, information exchange and building lifetime connections in the industry, the committee were very pleased that the trip really delivered on this. The group is facilitated by industry partners support and generosity for which we are very grateful; Haygrove, Oxbury Bank Plc, Haynes Agri, BASF Agricultural Solutions, FarGro, Cocogreen, and Netafim.
Lastly, Oli Commented “having chaired the group for the last 2 years, I would like to thank the committee; Gail, Anna, Mike, Rob, Tom and Alana for their time and hard work in making this great trip happen. We are now excited to be handing over the reins for the next 2 years to Alana who we are confident will do an amazing job!”
#nextgenfruitgroup
#california
#clockhousefarm
