Though it’s just an hour south of California’s Silicon Valley, the Salinas Valley — better known for churning out lettuce and tomatoes than the world’s newest tech devices — might as well be a world away. In Silicon Valley, companies like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Google reign supreme. In Salinas, the biggest names are those of fruit and vegetable producers — Dole Foods, Chiquita, Driscoll Berries, Taylor Farms.
But the distance between the two places could soon seem a little smaller, thanks in part to a new effort on the part of the agriculture industry to attract technology companies to the Salinas Valley. Last month, the Western Growers Association — a trade association representing local and regional produce growers from California, Arizona, and Colorado — opened the Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas, CA. The space — which has room for 34 startups to work, take classes, and meet with farmers — hopes to serve as a midway point between the innovative ideas of tech companies and the technical know-how of industry experts.
“Demand for food is increasing dramatically across the world because of increased population,” Tom Nassif, CEO of the Western Growers Association, told ThinkProgress. “You also have diminishing natural and human resources, and you’ve got to increase your production by 70 percent in 40 years to feed the world’s population. How do you do that?”
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