California lettuce, leafy greens producers take on tech

With the overwhelming majority of lettuce and leafy greens consumed in the U.S. grown in California — which, according to the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, produces about 70% of the volume — the Golden State is central to any discussion of national greens production and consumption.

Increasingly, California is also an epicenter for high-tech farming.

Known as the “Salad Bowl of the World,” Salinas, Calif., is home to a bounty of fresh produce, including the greens grown by Braga Fresh, where the challenges of farming — from drought to pests to labor shortages to rising production costs — are met with technology and innovation to create what Eric Morgan calls “smarter farming.”

“At Braga Fresh, smarter farming means embracing and adopting new technology if it benefits our consumer, our community, the environment and our staff,” the vice president of environmental science and resources said. “We are constantly evaluating emerging technologies and have been applying beneficial insects by drone for the last four years.”

Weed control is another area where Braga Fresh is looking to technology. The company is scheduled to receive delivery of a Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder implement later this summer. On its website, Carbon Robotics says its LaserWeeder can operate day or night in most weather conditions to “instantly identify, target and eliminate weeds using thermal energy.”

At Braga Fresh, smarter farming also means working to stay ahead of environmental goals.

Nitrate pollution in groundwater is a widespread water quality problem in many areas of California, but particularly in the Tulare Lake Basin and Salinas Valley areas, according to the California State Water Resources Control Board.

“Our efforts at testing our farm soils for nitrate have helped us meet compliance milestones set for 2035,” Morgan said. “To maintain our place in this market, smarter farming is the only path forward.

To the south, at Beachside Produce in Guadalupe, Calif., technology is helping to temper the rising costs of doing business.

“Our growers’ biggest challenges are input costs,” said Evan Pybas, Beachside Produce commodity manager for lettuce and leafy greens. “Costs continue to rise at the farming level, whether it be fertilizer, packaging, ground rent [and/or] labor. And now, we are seeing fuel costs surge. Everything is more expensive to produce and there is no room for error on the growing side, so it’s really challenging our grower community to become more precise at what they do — and that’s produce quality food for our consumers.

“Over the past few years, we’ve implemented some new technology — that technology being mechanical weeding,” Pybas continued. “It has helped reduce labor costs and herbicide costs, but that’s only a small part of the big picture in terms of costs, but it does help. Innovations like this are being implemented and improved in our industry all the time and we will continue to monitor those improvements to help the farm where it makes sense.”