2017 Salinas Valley Ag Tech Summit one for the books

The 4th Annual Salinas Valley Ag Technology Summit drew hundreds of participants to the Hartnell College Alisal Campus on Wednesday. Participants and vendors were introduced to some of the latest innovations that make farming more efficient.

Between showcasing new products to seminars and workshops, one particular theme dominated the discussion – automation.

“Tremendous attendance and interest to the segment that deals with robotics, whether it deals with thinning, planting or harvesting, growers are asking for any sort of assistance when it comes to replacing labor in the fields,” said event organizer Steve McShane.

McShane, the owner of McShane’s Nursery, said growers are seeing sky-rocketing costs because labor can be expensive and regulatory burdens are forcing farmers to be more efficient.

During one of the panels, there was discussion about federal immigration officers and the threat to undocumented workers. McShane said several spoke out, saying both growers and field workers knew their rights. People said if the feds were to come after the undocumented, they would target the criminals, not those in the fields.

Hartnell students also attended the event, many recognizing they will inherit today’s problems in the future.

“It is interesting to see that there’s no a solution that can fit for every issue and there’s a lot of variables that come into play,” said Hartnell student Alicia Del Real.

One man is cultivating young minds even before they get to college. Instead of using technology, Jon Parr is using tried and true methods. Aquaponics is a way to grow both fish and produce in an environment where they help each other.

“Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture, which is raising fish, and hydroponics, which is raising plants in a soilless medium,” Parr said. “So when you put those two things together waste products become organic fertilizer to hydroponic plant production. And the plants, in turn, clean the water that’s returned to the fish. So it’s a closed loop ecosystem that grows both fish and plants.”

Parr has helped create an 1,800 square foot lab at San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton, hoping to reintroduce students to their food.

“In the tech world we live in, and the engineering and video games and so on, there’s been a disconnect with working with your hands and soil and understanding natural ecologies, so much so that forgotten that fruits produce seeds that produce plants again,” Parr said.

Hartnell College is hoping to produce more top notch students who want to become the future of the industry.

“We need a lot of educated young people to handle those jobs because a lot of the laborers, their ages are getting higher and higher so we need more people to get educated to run these industries,” said Jesus Mariscal, Jr.