California Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross says challenges the state faces – such as an influx of foreign pests and the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza across dairies – offer areas of unique technological opportunity.
"The complexity of what we're dealing with demands innovation," she said on the first day of the 2024 FIRA USA conference. She expressed gratitude to the universities investing resources in agtech.
She noted industry leaders are getting creative with waste byproducts, saying state and federal investments are extending to dairy digesters and water use efficiency.
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She also highlighted the workforce curriculum development at community colleges across the state and recommended the 2025 FIRA host a day for farmworkers to check out new agtech.
Derek Kirk, an economic policy adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, echoed Ross and said that agriculture is one of the few state sectors that is successfully evolving to bring all industry participants, namely farmworkers, into the fold of innovation.
