Best Big Grower of Fruits & Vegetables
Tanimura & Antle
1 Harris Road, Spreckels (831) 455-2255, taproduce.com
Incumbents have an advantage, and so does Tanimura & Antle, thanks to an innovative spirit that goes back to the company’s origins, investment in its workforce and always looking forward. One way T&A tries to distinguish itself is by sustainability. The company has spent the past few years reducing its packaging, energy use and solid waste levels. In addition to conventionally grown crops, its portfolio of produce includes lots of organics, such as romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. From the Salinas Valley to Yuma, Arizona, Tanimura & Antle grows a good portion of the fresh vegetables and leafy greens that Americans consume every year.
Best Organic Grower
Earthbound Farm
150 Main St. Salinas (800) 690-3200, earthboundfarm.com
The iconic brand that helped turn organic produce into an American mainstay had a big year. Founded in 1984 in Carmel Valley, Earthbound Farm was sold multiple times over the last decade, ending up in the hands of the French multinational corporation Danone and reached $400 million in sales in 2018. Last year, Danone sold the grower of organic produce and maker of organic snacks and salad kits to a local company, Salinas-based Taylor Farms, bringing the brand back under local ownership. Happy days are here again.
Best Ag Industry Leader
Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms
150 Main St., Salinas (877) 323-7374, taylorfarms.com
Twenty-five years ago, Bruce Taylor, newly unemployed and with four kids at home in Salinas, got together with a couple of investors and bought an almost derelict salad line processing plant in Florida and started selling shredded lettuce to McDonald’s. While the rest of the bagged lettuce industry was focused on grocery store sales, he went after the foodservice industry. The way he tells it, McDonald’s had 13,000 restaurants and they could either hire 13,000 teenagers and train them to cut the lettuce exactly the same way every day, or they could pay a set price and get excellent-quality shredded lettuce delivered fresh on time from Taylor Farms. Taylor Farms has continued to respond to market opportunities – not just pesky elections – like bringing organics pioneer Earthbound Farm back under local ownership last year (see above). Today it has 5,000 employees, gross sales of $4.5 billion and serves fresh fruit and vegetables to over 100 million customers a week.
Best Woman in Ag
Abby Taylor-Silva
For the past 20 years, this dynamo, ag-economics graduate (UC Davis – go Aggies!) has been involved in multiple facets of how this region feeds a nation. First there was the California Strawberry Commission, where she worked in communications. Then there was Ag Against Hunger, where she ran the whole show. Now there’s the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, where she’s VP of Policy and Communications and has a command of some seriously wonky California water policy. But the best story ever comes from her friend, Kristina Chavez Wyatt: Every year, they take each other to concerts for their respective birthdays. Two years ago, it was Fleetwood Mac and, boom! An E. coli outbreak hit romaine growers. During the show, Taylor-Silva was on her phone, multitasking with the FDA and the industry. This year, it was Ray LaMontaigne and boom! Another E. coli outbreak, and she’s multitasking during the show again. “We decided to move our dates to summer concerts,” Chavez Wyatt says. “Everyone knows she is responsive and go-to.”
Best Local Ag Educator
Hartnell College
411 Central Ave., Salinas 1752 E. Alisal St., Salinas 117 N. Second St. King City (831) 755-6700, hartnell.edu
Hartnell could focus on literary criticism and art appreciation. And the school does. But electability means connecting to real world issues on a local level And at Hartnell, that means developing practical skills that make graduates employable in Monterey County’s number-one industry. At the request of the industry, looking for well-trained employees, Hartnell built its state-of-the-art Alisal campus in 2006, and followed in 2014 with a technical training building. Areas of study include ag business, food safety, welding technology and ag tech – real career paths that require real educators. As to educators, Hartnell relies not only on faculty, but on more than 200 experts in the industry who teach the real-life skills they practice in their professional environment every day. And thanks to voter-approved Measure T, $167 million worth of expanded resources are coming to King City and Soledad, right in the heart of the ag Industry.
Best Ag NonProfit
Rancho Cielo
710 Old Stage Road, Salinas (831) 444-3533, ranchocieloyc.org
Incumbents are notoriously hard to unseat, but after multiple consecutive years of electoral victory for the Food Bank for Monterey County in this position, someone else has finally ascended to the office of Best Ag Nonprofit, and that is Rancho Cielo Youth Campus. It’s a well-deserved honor that reflects the opening last year of Rancho Cielo’s new vocational training program for ag industry skills, like refrigeration technology. At-risk and alienated youth in Monterey County now have a better chance of entering a stable life course and earning a decent living.
Best Agriculture Business Association
Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association
536 Pearl St., Monterey (831) 375-9400, montereywines.org
You may think MCVGA Executive Director Kim Stemler and her staff have a fine time surrounded by all that wine. Overseeing the county’s growing number of wineries and winegrape acreage requires a lot of effort, however. These guys are like a campaign staff – making phone calls, getting the word out and pounding the streets. Monterey County labels are competing against wines from all over California and the world. There are issues to grapple with, from the market for grapes to demand for labor during harvest to legislation that impacts agriculture, transportation and even access to global markets. They’re so good at the job they could get Concord grapes elected.
Best Ag Equipment Supplier
Pacific Ag Rentals
4 Harris Road, Salinas (831) 754-8815, pacificagrentals.com
Most of us would likely spend even less time browsing through search engine results for agricultural rental equipment than perusing the list of donors to a given political campaign. But just like a crowded field of potential candidates in a primary debate, the cream always rises to the top. And that’s exactly what happened here, as according to both management and customers, this farmer-owned co-op tractor rental company’s selection, delivery, and post-sale customer service wins out.
Best Ag Innovation in 2019
Farmworker Housing
The region’s elected officials know: Monterey County’s $4.2 billion agriculture industry can’t operate without employees, and there are no employees without housing. The industry paved the way (Tanimura & Antle and the Nunes Company built projects, now Scheid Vineyards is looking to build 500 units in Greenfield), and freshman California Assemblymember Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, made farmworker housing a top priority by introducing the Farmworker Housing Act of 2019. It was signed into law in October by Gov. Gavin Newsom and streamlines the process for ag employers to build more housing near farmland. More good news came in January, when the Monterey County Planning Commission voted unanimously to add 112 beds to the existing 200-bed El Toro Rancho housing community. Expect more positive votes in favor of adding housing for the region’s hardest-working employees.
Best Farmers Market Vendor
Swank Farms
4751 Pacheco Pass Highway, Hollister (831) 637-4704, swankfarms.com
Borders? What borders? Swank Farms may be out of county lines, but what’s an invisible line in the metaphorical sand to vegetable lovers of Monterey County? Though they’re renowned for their pumpkin patch, Swank Farms is beloved by locals for their variety of just-picked seasonal produce and products (the finest example being the varieties of their heirloom tomato salsas). Even an empty campaign promise to renegotiate a county-level trade deal (NAFTA, anyone?) couldn’t drive locals away from their beloved farm stand.
Best Specialty Crop
Artichokes
If you went by the vague and misleading idea of electability, the artichoke would not stand a chance. It’s got a prickly exterior, lacks the refined sheen of some of its peers, and generally does not conform to the mainstream of edible crops. It’s an independent thistle, after all, and belongs to neither the Fruit Party nor the Vegetable Party. But if you throw convention out the window and just vote for what’s fun, delicious and beneficial for Castroville’s image on the world stage, there’s no better specialty crop.
Best Cash Crop
Cannabis
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, it was considered taboo to inhale. To admit to as much on the campaign trail would’ve been political suicide. But things have changed, and cannabis use is no longer stigmatized the way it once was. California legalized pot in 2018, and investors and consumers rejoiced over the business opportunities and groovy concerts they would soon enjoy. While the rollout of regulations has been a bit bumpy, the government gave the people what they wanted: legalized cannabis and with it, a cash crop that’s always in demand.
Best Grape Varietal
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is thin-skinned and temperamental. It prefers to be in prime locations, near the coast but sheltered by walls of mountains. Plant it in the wrong place without supportive constituents, and the grape will refuse to cooperate. Its fickle nature means that it can turn on even the most accomplished winemaker if a growing season doesn’t meet the vine’s demands. But get the terroir right and Pinot Noir rewards you with light-bodied, intricate wine. And Monterey County has everything the grape requires. That’s why it polls so well here.