(SOQUEL, CA. – December 12, 2011) SureHarvest and Cultura Technologies finalized an agreement to enable SureHarvest the rights to market, sell, and implement Cultura Technologies’ ExtendAg labor management and harvest tracking software nationwide. The two entities have integrated SureHarvest’s Farm Management System and ExtendAg applications to better meet the needs of growers, farm managers, and farm labor contractors looking for ways to improve their management practices.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with Cultura Technologies to resell and support their field labor and harvest tracking tools,” said SureHarvest President/CEO Jeff Dlott. “These world-class applications dramatically increase the value of our fully integrated Farm Management System for agribusinesses driving continuous operational improvements through technology. Better management of labor resources as well as better tracking of harvested products is increasingly critical to optimizing yields, improving product quality and enhancing food safety.”

The ExtendAg labor management and harvest tracking apps are designed for companies that deploy large to medium-sized labor crews in the field for various cultural or harvest activities. The system meets the needs of growers, farm managers, and labor contractors who require tools to capture information in the field simply and efficiently for tracking employee productivity and fully automating the payroll process.

“The ExtendAg system has been successfully used by food processors for many years to improve raw product inventory control, manage logistics, optimize processing/packing yields, trace and track to and from the field and plant, and automate grower payments,” stated Cultura Technologies Product Manager Mike Allen. “We extended our offering recently to include the ability to capture key information related to labor and the product originating from the field. Now, integration with SureHarvest’s Farming Management System provides everything in one place for farm managers, allowing them more opportunities to make better decisions with more and better information,” added Allen.

According to Dlott, “SureHarvest Farming Management System provides growers with the tools to institutionalize the practice of ‘measuring to manage’ for implementing best management practices throughout their farming operation. We are proud to announce that our capabilities now extend to labor resource and harvested product optimization.”

The wine community has embraced the concept of sustainability like no other cropping system.  Since the early 1990s winegrowers and winemakers have been committed to moving along the sustainability continuum, from less sustainable to more sustainable.  For the most part, progress has been measured by implementing and tracking practices.  furthermore,  all of the existing sustainability certification programs (such as Lodi rulse for Sustainable Winegrowing, Sustainability in Practice, Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing Program, National Organic Program and Biodynamic Farming) are practice-based.  University and government programs designed to improve environmental and social conditions on and off the farm also are based on implementing what have been labeled best managements practices, or BMPs.

In all cases, the underlying assumption is that the practices being recommended and implemented are improving one's sustainability performance.  Once practices are implemented, however, very little if any follow up measurements are made to find out if, in fact, these practices are having the benefits attributed to them.

During the past few years, sustainability proponents have shown increasing interest in measuring the outcomes of practices as a more direct way to gauge sustainability performance.  Measurements used to quantify this performance are called performance metrics.  Winegrape growers already use some performance metrics, such as yield per acre and cost of production per acre.  Wineries track cases of wine produced, the cost of production per case and numbers of cases sold.  However, while these are important, there are many others that could be used as well.

A change in approach

Measuring performance rather than tracking practices is a change inn approach to determining levels of sustainability.  for example, if we implement practices to improve water-use efficiency, then we should measure water use over time in relation to yield and quality to see if our practices are, in fact, improving water-use efficiency.

The logic in this approach is if we are implementing practices to achieve a desired outcome, then why not measure the outcome directly to gauge success?  In this example, water use per unit of production is the performance metric.  Other performance metrics are energy use per unity of production, nutrient inputs per unit of production and measures of biodiversity, greenhouse gas production and water and air quality.  It is relatively easy to develop metrics and measure outcomes for things such as water use.  Metrics to measure the outcomes of practices in other areas, such

(Soquel, CA - September 6, 2011) Dr. Jeff Dlott has been appointed by California Department of food and Agriculture Secretary Karen ross to serve on the Cannella Environmental Farming Act Science Panel.  Secretary Ross has made a commitment to invigorate the panel, established over a decade ago, and has brought together panel members with deep experience in environmental farming.

The Cannella Environmental Farming Act requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. In addition, the CDFA is required to assist in the compilation of scientific evidence from public and private sources and serve as a depository of this information and provide it to federal, state, and local governments, as needed.

 “I’m honored to be appointed alongside such an intelligent and experienced group of colleagues” stated Dr. Dlott, SureHarvest CEO. “It’s a privilege to serve on the panel to advise and assist Secretary Ross in her commitment to strengthen California agriculture’s positive impacts on the economy and environment.”

 Dr. Dlott will be serving along with Ann Thrupp, Ph.D., Manager of Sustainability and Organic Development, Fetzer & Bonterra Vineyards (Hopland); Don Cameron, Vice President and General Manager, TerraNova Ranch, Inc. (Fresno); Brian Leahy, JD, Resources Agency, Department of Conservation; Mike Tollstrup, CalEPA, Air Resources Board. Ex Officio members will be Daniel Mountjoy, Ph.D., USDA NRCS and Louise Jackson, Ph.D., University of California Cooperative Extension.

 The work of the science panel will underscore CDFA’s commitment to science, to a fair regulatory climate, and to the ongoing documentation of the environmental contributions of farming.

(Davis, CA – July 20, 2011) SureHarvest has been selected as “California’s 2011 

Leaders InAgriculture Innovation” by Grow-California for its cutting-edge approach 

to business, which has a positive impact on California’s agricultural industry and economy.

The award will be presented by California Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross, and USDA

Rural Development State Director, Dr. Glenda Humiston, as a special ceremony during the

inaugural California Agriculture innovation conference on the campus of U.C. Davis on July 21st.

“The SureHarvest team has been working hard to mainstream sustainability as a core business

strategy in California’s agrifood sector by adapting continuous improvement approaches

common in manufacturing to the demanding conditions found on the farm and inside food

processing and winery facilities. California agriculture is a global leader in operational efficiency, 

quality, and most recently sustainability. I’m thrilled SureHarvest’s contributions to California 

agriculture is being recognized through the“Game Changer” award”, announced Jeff Dlott, 

SureHarvest CEO.

The California Agriculture Innovation conference marks the first time that the Silicon Valley 

will be focusing on the Central Valley and beyond for potential investment opportunities 

within the state’s agricultural industry to help ag entrepreneurs grow and develop while 

at the same time creating new companies and jobs which will help rebuild the economy. 

Conference organizers hope that by bringing the venture capital community together with 

the agricultural community, there will be tremendous potential to create an innovative 

technology hub for agriculture in the Central Valley, which will spawn new companies, 

jobs and economic activity.

“SureHarvest is a true game changer in its innovative approach,” said Jon Gregory, president

and CEO of Grow California. He added, “It is a business that has caught the interest of

numerous investors, bankers and economic development organizations who consulted with us

to identify California agricultural companies who were impressed by their focus on innovation.”

A selection committee comprised of investment banks, venture capital funds, academia and

conference sponsors reviewed nominations and determined the winners.

For more information about the California Agriculture Innovation conference and the “Game

Changer of the Year” awards, visit: http://www.grow-california.com/

About SureHarvest: (www.sureharvest.com) Founded in 1999, SureHarvest provides

continuous improvement solutions in the agrifood sector through a farm management software

suite, sustainability best practices and performance metrics software, and professional services

to optimize efficiencies, increase production, improve quality, achieve regulatory and

commercial compliance, support marketing programs, and accomplish environmental

stewardship goals. The company’s products and services are used by leading producers,

processors, wineries, trade associations, certification organizations, and NGO’s throughout the

US.

Modesto almond grower Merlyn Garber hosted the tour on the land where he was raised. About 20 regulators and other guests toured his 30-year-old flood-irrigated almond orchard, juxtaposed against a newly planted block under micro-irrigation, to see how things have changed, thanks in part to decades of research supported by the Almond Board of California

Garber Almond Ranch was an early participant in the Pest Management Alliance (PMA), helping to commercially validate more environmentally friendly practices for insect control. Many of those practices have since become standard for California Almond growers.

Roger Duncan, almond farm advisor and Stanislaus County director for the UC Cooperative Extension office, explained how farm advisors were key in sharing the knowledge gained from the PMA and other research, thus helping almond growers improve productivity and sustainability.

Garber’s pest control adviser, Art Bowman, displayed various tools used in the orchard to monitor and trap pests, as well as track information to determine the best timing of applied pest control products.

An early adopter of shredding almond prunings, Garber demonstrated how his Flory Pow’rTrak shredder has eliminated the need for burning prunings each year.

Lunchtime presentations featured talks from representatives of industry partners, including the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Environmental Stewardship and SureHarvest, as well as UC Davis researcher Patrick Brown, who described a multiyear, industry- and USDA-funded project on almond fertility.

The day concluded with a tour of Salida Hulling and Shelling, where Garber is a cooperative member, to hear the latest on solar installation and new technologies for dust reduction that have been installed at the new facility.

The answer I hear most often is retailers and foodservice companies are responding to consumer demand.  I don’t think this answer alone holds much water.  Sure some consumers make choices of where to shop and eat-out based on a company’s sustainability efforts, but I don’t think enough do so in order to justify the type of investments these companies have made in sustainability initiatives.  Don’t get me wrong, consumer demand is a huge deal as we are talking about millions and millions of shoppers spending close to $500 billion dollars at the top five US retailers in 2010.  The potential lost revenue of missing the consumer demand mark and having shoppers shop somewhere else or buy less is enormous.  I just think there is a more compelling reason why all of the leading food companies, retailers and foodservice companies have embraced sustainability; two words—continuous improvement.

Many of these large companies have continuous improvement programs in place under the guise of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Kaizen and others, and have been on a mission to drive out costs using these proven management approaches. What they may be finding is that sustainability is about measuring and monitoring inputs to manage an optimized output. Simply put, it is just good management to be moving towards greater efficiencies of operations as long as it does not impact the consumer experience negatively. Oh, and the consumer encourages the efforts of these companies to do so as a means of minimizing their overall environmental impact. To use an overused cliché, this sounds like a classic “win win” situation for all parties.

Continuous improvement efforts where performance metrics are identified, measured and managed toward goals are not new.  What is new and compelling is that the union of continuous improvement and a sustainability framework provides a more expansive view of operational performance and focuses the spotlight on key resources such as energy, materials and water.   Such a spotlight fosters innovation and improved operational skills to drive out inefficiencies.  The majority of the leading food, retail and foodservice companies have reported cost savings in the areas of energy and waste management that they attribute to their sustainability efforts.  Reducing costs, improving operational performance, encouraging innovation and in the process, making your company more appealing to some portion of your consumers, are powerful business drivers to deliver value to employees, management, boards, and shareholders.  What is not to like! 

Back on the farm, the question is does a continuous improvement approach using a sustainability lens deliver similar business value under the unique and demanding conditions found in vegetable production?  In our experience, there are opportunities to increasing the efficiency of critical (and increasingly expensive) resources including energy (fuel and electricity), water, fertilizers and other necessary inputs. We’ve seen companies that have management systems (people, processes and technologies) in place, and are executing on continuous improvement initiatives.  There is a second group of companies that are adapting their management system to drive continuous improvement efforts.  We think these two groups are getting down to the business of creating a sustaining competitive advantage to manage costs, steward resources, and increasingly meet customer needs.

Agrifood technology professionals join company to meet growing demand for farming management software

(Soquel, CA – May 9, 2011)  SureHarvest announced today the addition of three talented and experienced professionals to advance the sales of SureHarvest Farming MIS software and services. “I’m very excited that Scott Turner, Melissa McKinsey and Randy Miller are joining our sales team. Collectively, their experience in agrifood and information technology spans more than 6 decades. Their knowledge, insights, and successful track record will enable SureHarvest to meet the increasing demand from growers, farm management companies, wineries and food companies to more effectively capture and analyze farming information to increase efficiencies, meet compliance requirements, and drive continuous improvement initiatives,” announced Jeff Dlott, SureHarvest CEO.

Scott Turner, former General Manager of Operations for John Deere Agri-Services, will be leading the team as an Executive Sales Advisor. “I’m looking forward to contributing to the success of SureHarvest. The company is positioned to succeed because SureHarvest delivers effective solutions for growers who will have to manage their limited resources with greater precision in order to stay competitive,” stated Turner. Scott’s career in agricultural technology started in 1980 when he started a company that was sold to AGRIS, and subsequently, to John Deere.

“To meet the growing demand for information technology among leading agribusiness companies, we hired two new Sales Managers, Melissa McKinsey and Randy Miller. Both have led successful sales efforts in information technologies making them poised to deliver the tools that specialty crop growers need to support their daily farming management decisions,” according to Dlott.

Melissa McKinsey previously worked for PureSense, an irrigation technology company and John Deere Agri-Services as a Sales Manager selling farm accounting and related systems to California agribusiness firms. Melissa will be based out of Modesto and focused on fruit, nut and winegrape growers in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and the North Coast regions.

Randy Miller has over 20 years of sales and business development experience with Silicon Valley technology companies and most recently was the Director of Sales for Aging Vines, a wine distributor. Randy lives in Templeton and will be working with farming companies in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Salinas Valley and Central Coast.

About SureHarvest: (www.sureharvest.com) Since 1999, SureHarvest has provided growers farming a total of over 400,000 acres with software and services to implement sustainability as a business strategy. SureHarvest Farming MIS tracks, analyzes and reports on all farming activities, including scouting, chemical-fertilizer applications, irrigation, yield forecasting, harvest and labor. SureHarvest customers include Booth Ranches, Sundquist Fruit, J. Lohr Vineyards, Beckstoffer Vineyards, Bien Nacido, Constellation Wines U.S., Lange Twins, Adelsheim Vineyard, Mid-Valley Ag Services, and Glades Crop Care.

View a Demo New Customers Latest News Upcoming Events Contact Us Sustainability as a Strategy At SureHarvest, sustainability is best understood and implemented as a strategic approach to how you farm or manage your food company. In this video, Dr. Cliff Ohmart, VP of Professional Services, walks you through the SureHarvest 5Ps of Sustainability applied to a farming operation.   Almond growers proactive on sustainability Motivated by questions from their buyers and pressure from regulators, the Almond Board of California is preparing their members for the future. Over 100 growers have participated in a self-evaluation of their growing practices in order to benchmark current practices and identify priorities for improvement. SureHarvest is designing self-assessment modules in irrigation and nutrient management, air quality, energy and pest management. Read more in this Ag Alert report. SureHarvest customers top the list Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries of the Year of 2010 include several SureHarvest customers who use Farming MIS to make quality-focused vineyard management decisions resulting in top-quality wines. Our congratulations to Adelsheim Vineyard Au Bon Climat – grapes by Bien Nacido Bond Estates– Harlan Family Estates Chateau Ste. Michelle– grapes by Bien Nacido Concha y Toro– grapes by Bien Nacido Duckhorn– grapes by Dutton Ranch and Bien Nacido Hartford – grapes by Dutton Ranch L’Ecole No 41 – grapes by Seven Hills Vineyards Leonetti Cellars– grapes by Seven Hills Vineyards Nickel & Nickel – grapes by Dutton Ranch Pepper Bridge – grapes by Seven Hills Vineyards Qupé – grapes by Bien Nacido Ravenswood– Constellation Wines U. S. Technology at Bien Nacido For Quality, Consistency, Efficiency Honored as the 2010 California State Fair Vineyard of the Year, Bien Nacido is clearly one of the state’s exceptional vineyards. Farming winegrapes, lemons, avocados and blueberries, the Miller family is entering its 5th generation of farming in the Santa Maria region. In 2007, the Miller family tried SureHarvest Farming MIS on 100 acres at Solomon Hills and just recently, expanded SureHarvest to manage the farming data for 1500 acres including all of Bien Nacido Vineyards. “For us, technology is an integral tool to the farming processes at Bien Nacido,” according to Marshall Miller, partner and IT manager. “Having all farming data in one place – pesticide reports, irrigation use, fertility plans – gives managers the ability to talk the same language, increase interaction and synergies between the 3 vineyards and 2 wineries.” In addition, data management provides insight to improve operational efficiencies. The IT plan is to integrate SureHarvest with other systems, including SalesForce, to enable timely reports to their winegrape customers throughout the season. Most importantly, better access to vineyard data gives Bien Nacido the edge in making day-to-day management decisions that ultimately yield premium quality grapes for award winning wineries, like Qupé, Au Bon Climat, Concha y Toro and Chateau Ste. Michelle, recognized as Wine and Spirits Top 100 for 2010. TrueTrac chooses SureHarvest as sustainability partner TrueTrac, a food safety and produce traceability software company based in Salinas, CA, chose SureHarvest as its sustainability partner for serving the data-driven needs in the specialty crop sector. TrueTrac was recently selected as one of two technology companies by Western Growers Association to provide food safety, traceability and sustainability data management solutions for its member growers and shippers. SureHarvest will contribute its sustainability data collection, benchmarking and reporting technology of its Sustainability MIS to the TrueTrac product offering. SureHarvest CEO Jeff Dlott said, “WGA is wise to provide its grower-members with tools that integrate the data demanded by the marketplace of the future and SureHarvest is excited about providing these solutions in partnership with TrueTrac.” SureHarvest recognized as ‘IPM Innovator’ by California DPR SureHarvest was honored recently as an IPM Innovator by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) for its leadership in developing and implementing the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program and supporting sustainability information management technologies. "Our work at SureHarvest, and that of my fellow honorees, is a manifestation of the groundbreaking contributions of Hagen, van de Bosch, Huffaker and Stern who built the scientific foundations of IPM at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside,” stated Dr. Cliff Ohmart, VP of Professional Services for SureHarvest.  Read press release. Dr. Jeff Dlott, DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam and Dr. Cliff Ohmart.   Dlott chosen as guest columnist Given the growing relevancy of sustainability in the agricultural industry, the American Vegetable Grower magazine launched a column entitled “Sustainable Ag” with SureHarvest CEO Jeff Dlott writing as a guest columnist. In his debut column, Jeff articulated the benefits of integrating sustainability as a business strategy to drive day-to-day operations. Noting that, “It would be impossible to find a successful manufacturing company that does not have “measure to manage” baked into their corporate DNA,” Jeff suggests that agriculture too, would benefit from similar performance management approaches. Read Jeff’s column and watch for more to come.   Upcoming Events May 2 - 5 United Fresh 2011 May 6 Friend‘s Day at Duarte Nursery May 20 - 22 Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions May 24 Certification, Consumption and Change June 28 - 30 Sustainable Food Lab Leadership Summit 2011

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According to Napa grape grower Andy Beckstoffer, the time of legendary men may be over. "The vineyards are the next Robert Mondavi. The vineyards are what matters," he said.

One could argue that this position was either born of great knowledge or was rather self-serving, since Mr. Beckstoffer owns 1,000 acres of vineyard land in Napa.

Unlike many growers, Mr. Beckstoffer only sells grapes to other wineries; he doesn't make wine himself. "That's an entirely different business," he said. It simplifies matters and reduces expenses and also answers the inevitable question about growers who also make wine from their grapes: Don't they keep the best fruit for themselves?

The Beckstoffer holdings (which also include a couple thousand more acres in Mendocino and Lake Counties) are not only notable for their size but their pedigree. They include some of the top Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the state.

The greatest of these vineyards is unquestionably To Kalon. Planted in 1868 by Hamilton Crabb, one of the Valley's earliest pioneers, To Kalon (which means beautiful in Greek) was made famous by Mr. Mondavi, who laid claim to the To Kalon name—he even trademarked it, though he didn't own the entire vineyard. Mr. Beckstoffer purchased part of To Kalon (89 acres) from Beaulieu Vineyards in 1993, and after some wrangling with Mr. Mondavi, he was granted the right to use the name To Kalon in conjunction with his own—Beckstoffer To Kalon a name that all winemakers who buy grapes from this vineyard are entitled to use. (The Mondavi winery uses the To Kalon name for its Fumé Blanc I Block and Cabernet.)

In addition to To Kalon there are five other historic vineyards in the Beckstoffer portfolio, as well as many nonhistoric vineyards. The historic vineyards include Dr. Crane (planted by Dr. George Belden Crane in 1858), Missouri Hopper, Las Piedras, Georges III and most recently, the Bourn (formerly Hayne) vineyard.

Mr. Beckstoffer is known for spending aggressively to buy the vineyards he wants. According to one Napa source, Mr. Beckstoffer paid $3.9 million—which would be the second-highest price paid for a Napa vineyard—for the 13-acre Hayne Vineyard, which has famously been the source of some of the best, and priciest, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah in California. (Both Mr. Beckstoffer and Elliott Hayne, the seller of the vineyard, allowed that the $3.9 million figure was "close" to the selling price.)

"We've been buying vineyards from wineries since the 1980s. We don't ask to buy vineyards. People come to us," Mr. Beckstoffer said as we walked through the Dr. Crane Vineyard, located in the suburbs of St. Helena just down the road from Bourn/Hayne.

Mr. Beckstoffer, a 71-year-old native Virginian with a Southern drawl, got his start in the wine business as a business analyst at the spirits company Heublein in the 1960s, helping the company to negotiate the purchase of famed wineries like Inglenook and Beaulieu. He eventually became president of a Heublein subsidiary he helped to create, the Vinifera Development Company.

When Heublein decided to sell Vinifera in 1973, Mr. Beckstoffer, then 33, decided to buy the subsidiary. He had no money so he took out loans. By 1978, "We were effectively underwater," Mr. Beckstoffer said, but he managed to survive—and never took on investors or partners. "I never wanted to explain my business to anyone," he said. Today he works with his son, David. (Another son, Tuck, is a winemaker.)

Mr. Beckstoffer sells grapes to everyone, from large wineries like Franciscan and Cain and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars to tiny producers like Schrader. Of course, the best blocks (vineyards are divided into "blocks" of various sizes) of the top Beckstoffer vineyards aren't readily available or easily obtained. For example, the best blocks of To Kalon were secured long ago by top winemakers like Thomas Brown (Schrader Vineyards), Mike Hirby and Paul Hobbs (Paul Hobbs Vineyards).

Mr. Hobbs, who makes acclaimed wine in California and Argentina (and more recently France) has been buying fruit from Mr. Beckstoffer's To Kalon since 1997) and says he has the best blocks or as put it, "the pick of the litter."

"To Kalon produces sublime fruit—truly extraordinary. We could talk for hours about the kind of wine it can produce," Mr. Hobbs said by phone from Argentina. "Of course," he added, "There are blocks that are Porsches and blocks that are more like Volkswagens, although Andy sells them all like they're Porsches." (Mr. Beckstoffer responded rather heatedly that one of the blocks that Mr. Hobbs doesn't work with produced a 98-point wine for Realm Cellars. "Is that a Volkswagen?" he asked.)

The Beckstoffer pricing formula calls for the price of a ton of To Kalon Cabernet grapes to equal 100 times the current retail price of a bottle. (This is true of all his heritage vineyards.) For example, if a bottle of Paul Hobbs Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon costs $250 (as it did at my local store) then Mr. Hobbs paid $25,000 for a ton of the fruit plus a base amount per acre that may vary. By contrast, the average price per ton of (average) Napa Cabernet is just north of $4,000.

Mr. Beckstoffer says there are two types of people he will not do business with: untalented winemakers and people who brag about how much money they have. But in most cases, he is ready to make a sale. "If they come in looking for To Kalon, my plan is to get them to buy Hayne. I'll tell them, 'I can get you something exciting and new,' " he said over lunch at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena.

He sat taller in his chair (he's quite tall already) and fixed his eyes upon mine. "If you want to do business with me, you've got to believe," he said, in a deep and sonorous voice.

"You could be a television preacher," I ventured. Mr. Beckstoffer laughed. "Elmer Gantry!" he replied, slamming both hands on the table. Elmer Gantry was the lead character of a Sinclair Lewis novel, a con man turned evangelical preacher.

But unlike Elmer Gantry, Andy Beckstoffer has a genuine cause. It's not just about making money but preserving vineyards—his "stewardship," he says. As we walked through To Kalon Vineyard after lunch, his pride and pleasure was palpable.

"Look at that even spacing; look at the trellising," he said, staring down row after row. "Think of how long this vineyard has been here, of how much great wine it has produced." For Mr. Beckstoffer, this is his contribution and his legacy: He is creating legends in the land.

—Read the On Wine blog at blogs.wsj.com/wine. Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com

In response to these customer queries, retail stores are developing educational programs and new product labeling to provide this information. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, is one of the leaders in developing this program. In September 2009, Wal-Mart announced that it will begin requiring all of its suppliers to document the energy consumption and carbon footprint of products it buys.

Since Wal-Mart ranks among the largest food retailers, there likely will be ramifications of its decision throughout the U.S. food supply chain and agriculture. Suppliers will begin to request more detailed information from food manufacturers who, in turn, will begin asking agricultural processing firms and producers to provide an accounting of their energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Information on farm and ranch energy consumption and carbon emissions are related topics. While consumers are concerned about all the energy consumed, they are especially interested in the use of fossil energy. Using fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide and other gases that are classified as greenhouse gas emissions and linked to climate change.

I am working with two North Dakota agricultural commodity organizations that are proactively responding to the signals Wal-Mart and consumers, in general, are sending to farmers and ranchers. In particular, they are striving to document how much energy is utilized in farm and ranch production activities.

If consumers are sincerely committed to changing their buying habits and purchasing low-fossil energy or low-carbon agricultural products, these two agricultural commodity groups see a marketing opportunity to sell premium products in the marketplace. In turn, this would enhance profits to participating farmers.

Europe is farther along in consumer awareness, marketing of new low-fossil energy agricultural products and documenting on-farm or ranch energy consumption. Energy prices have been historically higher in Europe compared with U.S. markets, which has motivated change.

How do agricultural producers begin to measure how much fossil energy is consumed or carbon is released during commodity production activities? While I was a student, I asked producers to measure each gallon of fuel going in their tractors or read their power meter hourly. Today, we have lifecycle analysis.

Lifecycle analysis is a new integrated tool that energy scientists have adopted worldwide as the standard method for making energy and carbon assessments. A unique aspect of the analysis is that it evaluates all of the energy entering the process and tracks where it ends up (air, soil, water or human products) at each process stage.

Merlyn Garber, like a lot of veteran growers, was initially skeptical when he learned of the Almond Board of California’s drive toward sustainability. But while sitting in on his first California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP) workshop, he was struck by a couple of realizations. The first was that sustainability wasn’t something new or unfamiliar. As the board’s Gabriele Ludwig put it, “You can’t be a third, fourth, or fifth generation almond farmer without already being sustainable.”

Indeed, thought Garber, who shared his workshop experience with those attending a session on CASP at the annual Almond Board meeting in December, this is what he’d been doing all along in his Modesto-area orchards. “Our farming practices — what we’d been doing for years — fit the definition of what they gave us,” he said. “The Webster’s definition of ‘sustainable’ gives ‘sustainable agriculture’ as an example.”

Then came the second realization, and if anything, it was even more gratifying than the first. “If this helps convince people to buy more almonds,” he recalled thinking, “let’s all do it.”

Documentation Pays

Garber is just one of more than 100 almond growers who’ve participated in CASP, said Dan Sonke, a senior scientist for SureHarvest, which is working with the Almond Board in implementing the program. Buyers of almonds around the world are asking if the almonds they buy are grown sustainably, so it’s incumbent on growers to provide assurances. CASP, a self-assessment program, is designed to help growers do just that, he said.

Sonke shared a few of the questions designed to evaluate the sustainability of various practices. One focused on water usage, for example: “I’m using historical evapotranspiration tables to determine when to irrigate.” The possible responses: “Current Practice, Tried It, Haven’t Tried It, Not Familiar With It, Not Applicable.”

Garber was joined on a panel by two other growers, Gary Martin and Matt Angell. Angell, who farms near Madera, said that not only will CASP provide valuable information to reassure buyers, but it’s a valuable educational tool because it gives insight into other growers’ practices. “I get to peek over the fence at my neighbor,” he said. “This conference — isn’t that what it’s all about?”

Martin, who farms near Firebaugh, said that after coming to the realization that they’d been practicing sustainability all along, CASP participation seemed like a natural. It’s great to practice sustainability, he said, but it’s another thing to prove that you are actually doing it. “It seemed like a good way to document what we’re doing,” he said. “Because we’re already doing it, we’d like to get credit for it.”

Growers Get Credit
Growers at the sustainability forum hosted by the Almond Board of California (ABC) said that they are always jumping through hoops to assuage environmentalists, but never get credit. They would like to see this effort publicized in the media, because ordinarily the consumer media only portrays agriculture as having a negative impact on the environment.

They might get their wish because this sustainability effort, in which growers’ efforts are documented, is different. ABC President and CEO Richard Waycott said the reason he expects to see this laudable effort get publicized is because of who is driving it: mainstream food companies and retail chains. Unlike past efforts, which at best relied on bare-bones marketing and public relations campaigns, this sustainability effort is being championed by behemoths like General Mills and Wal-Mart, and they have huge marketing budgets.

Waycott said that last year he visited Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, AR, and learned of the company’s sustainability initiative. Wal-Mart plans to save from $20 billion to $40 billion in efficiencies it realizes from its sustainability program. The company obviously is going to champion its sustainability push, and consumers should hear the message that almond growers are playing a role.

“We need to engage these retailers to be that mouthpiece for us,” he concluded.

SOQUEL -- As the idea of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices gains traction worldwide, SureHarvest, a small Soquel-based technology and services company, is celebrating the close of its best year ever and is looking forward to increasing sales by as much as 20 percent this year.

"We're optimistic," said Jeff Dlott, company founder, chief executive officer and board chairman. "The market is responding to the whole issue of sustainability. We're at the right place at the right time."

When Dlott, an entomologist by training, founded SureHarvest in 1999, he introduced pest management software and systems that helped winegrowers and vineyards compile data around some of their agricultural practices. Dlott, however, says he soon realized the complexity of sustainability in the agricultural industry and broadened the company's focus to meet the growing demand for information at all steps of the growing business.

Today, the company is on the front lines of sustainability, helping growers of specialty crops, distributors, associations, government agencies and even global corporations measure and track the complex details of bringing a seed to the shelf. The goal is to reduce negative environmental impacts, increase efficiencies, and meet growing demands of consumers and governmental regulatory agencies.

"There are forward-thinking companies and organizations that see this as a strategic initiative to be out front on improving their environmental footprint," Dlott said. "Some companies see it as a defensive strategy, but most are looking at opportunities."

Consumer demand is pushing companies to quantify just how green they are.

"I think we really are on the verge of consumers having access to information about where their foods are grown and the impacts around their food choices," Dlott said. "That is going to become more and more mainstream. We will see a lot more people asking, what is the carbon footprint? There will be companies that will start to brand on that."

In the company's early days, Dlott and a team of scientists helped develop the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices for the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. It was a novel, Web-based self-assessment to improve sustainable practices and measure them to get an industrywide snapshot. Today it covers more than 68 percent of California's 526,000 winegrape acres, and that technology has been tailored to numerous other specialty crops throughout the country. SureHarvest has created tools for numerous specialty crops such as almond growers.

"One can't have fourth and fifth generations of almond farming without a long-term perspective," said Jenny Konschak, industry relations coordinator for the Almond Board of California. Data from almond growers will be anonymously compiled to document the extent to which they implement sustainable practices and where additional research or education may be helpful. The data will also augment marketing efforts.

Last month, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation named SureHarvest one of six Innovator Award recipients for their efforts in 2010 to reduce risks associated with pesticide use. In November, the California Department of Food and Agriculture awarded SureHarvest several sizeable grants including $404,505 to expand the California Almond Sustainability Program, $360,000 to advance a self-assessment and benchmarking sustainability initiative involving 12 specialty crops and $74,000 to assist the California Cut Flower Commission catalog the environmental benefits of buying California grown flowers.

The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance received $824,171 in grants to strengthen its sustainability efforts which have been shaped in large part by SureHarvest.

"He definitely had vision of where things were going," said Deana Knuteson, program coordinator for the Healthy Grown Project with the University of Wisconsin. Knuteson worked with Dlott and SureHarvest to incorporate sustainable practices in the Wisconsin potato growing community. There, the company launched its first farming management information system involving pest, nutrient, irrigation, planting, tillage and harvest management. "I think the company is definitely on the right track and has hit it right when sustainability in agriculture is becoming an important issue."

SureHarvest is extending its self-assessment model to almonds, pears, pistachios, walnuts, tomatoes, peppers, stone fruit, raisins, table grapes, carrots and other specialty crops. In January, the company announced its first foray into the citrus industry with Booth Ranches one of California's largest citrus growers. The National Grape and Wine Initiative is studying the California program as a model for adaptation to other winegrowing areas throughout the country.

"We're pretty confident that this year it's going to be a good year in agriculture," Dlott said. "Generally commodity prices are up."

The economic slump has also caused many companies to delay technology investments and SureHarvest expects to benefit from the delayed demand. "In 2010, we had our best year ever and we still had a lot of people in the fence," he said. "I think 2011 is going to be a breakthrough year."

Today the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) recognized a diverse group of businesses and organizations as 2010 IPM Innovators. They control insects, weeds, rodents and other pests with a combination of natural and preventive strategies and pesticides less toxic than traditional treatments.

“Integrated pest management, or IPM, is being used by this year’s honorees in innovative and effective ways to reduce pesticide use,” DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam said. “We are proud to showcase their efforts that range from free tours of native plant gardens that thrive without pesticides, pioneering strategies to grow organic walnuts and winegrapes, technology that helps farmers make data-driven decisions and incentives to encourage more environmentally friendly pest control.”

This year’s recipients include two growers, Dixon Ridge Farms and Bonterra (Fetzer) Vineyards, and a company that develops farming management information systems and sustainability self-assessment programs for growers, SureHarvest. The three other winners were the University of California Statewide IPM Program and Natural Resources Conservation Service Partnership, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, and the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California.

Dixon Ridge Farms, based in Solano and Yolo counties, is a pioneer in sustainable walnut production that took a sustainable farming and processing system that works for smaller, diversified farming and raised it to the commercial scale. Its cover crop management technique provides habitat for beneficial insects, produces seed and returns organic matter to preserve soil fertility.

The walnut growing and processing operation converted to organic production in 1989 after implementing a number of IPM practices to control pests and water runoff. These include replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers with composted turkey manure; incorporating chipped prunings back into the orchard; encouraging beneficial insects; using earthworms to improve water infiltration and soil health and prevent root rot; and freezing insects to death rather than killing them with methyl bromide during processing. The business has further reduced its environmental footprint by converting walnut shells into energy, using recycled materials in its packaging and installing solar panels on its buildings.

Bonterra (Fetzer) Vineyards, a top producer of organic winegrapes in California, is a wine industry pioneer, using certified organic practices and an IPM approach to manage pests on its 950 acres in Mendocino County. The Bonterra (Fetzer) brand is the No. 1 selling wine made with organic grapes in the U.S.

For more than 20 years, Bonterra Vineyards has been an innovator in developing cover crops to attract beneficial insects; using weather forecasting to monitor for pests and diseases; mechanically controlling under-the-vine weeds; and conserving and enhancing habitat to attract beneficial insects and birds. On some of its vineyards, Bonterra also grazes sheep and chickens between vines to control pests and weeds and provide soil nutrients. In addition, it has collaborated with the local Resource Conservation District on creek restoration projects.

Bonterra has a long history of working with University of California Cooperative Extension scientists and others on pest management and related research. Bonterra staff regularly provide education through seminars, workshops, conferences, field events and technical advising to growers on organic and sustainable viticulture practices.

SureHarvest is a privately held company based in Santa Cruz County that was founded in 1999 to develop farming management information systems and sustainability self-assessment programs that help growers make data-driven decisions about IPM and other sustainable farming practices. “Our work at SureHarvest, and that of my fellow honorees, and those before us that have earned this award, represents a manifestation of the groundbreaking contributions of Hagen, van de Bosch, Huffaker and Stern who built the scientific foundations of IPM at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside,” stated Dr. Cliff Ohmart, VP of Professional Services for SureHarvest. “We stand on their shoulders today and I thank DPR for continuing to recognize this important aspect of pest management.”

Beginning in 2001, SureHarvest led a collaborative effort among the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers in the formation of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. A multi-stakeholder team built a self-assessment program covering 227 vineyard and winery practices called the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices, building on the Lodi Winegrowers Workbook. From 2002–2004, SureHarvest coordinated 72 workshops with more than 1000 participants from 800 vineyard enterprises and 125 winery facilities to complete self-assessments. Using the SureHarvest Sustainability MIS, a web-based software platform, SureHarvest prepared benchmark reports with aggregate results for the trade associations and confidential reports for individual growers to compare sustainability performance. IPM adoption and energy efficiency were identified as priorities for continuous improvement.

From 2004-2009, 131 pest management workshops were held involving more than 7,400 vintners and growers. In 2009, 1,237 vineyards and 329 wineries re-assessed their practices using the web-based platform. The 2009 Progress Report revealed that vineyard performance increased for 35 of the 38 pest management criteria measured. The SWP is the largest agricultural sustainability program in the nation involving 68.1% of the 526,000 total statewide vineyard acres and 62.5% of 240 million total statewide cases of wine produced in California.

“This is a great honor, not just for SureHarvest, but for the California winegrowing industry itself, who leads the nation in agricultural sustainability and enjoys the reputation as a sustainability leader among its global competition,” stated SureHarvest President and CEO, Dr. Jeff Dlott, who authors a column on sustainability for American Vegetable Grower magazine.

"Our work at SureHarvest, and that of my fellow honorees, and those before us that have earned this award, represents a manifestation of the groundbreaking contributions of Hagen, van de Bosch, Huffaker and Stern who built the scientific foundations of IPM at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside,” stated Dr. Cliff Ohmart, VP of Professional Services for SureHarvest.  “We stand on their shoulders today and I thank DPR for continuing to recognize this important aspect of pest management."

Beginning in 2001, SureHarvest led a collaborative effort among the Wine Institute and the California Association for Winegrape Growers in the formation of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.  A multi-stakeholder team built a self-assessment program covering 227 vineyard and winery practices called the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices, building on the Lodi Winegrowers Workbook. From 2002 – 2004, SureHarvest coordinated 72 workshops with over 1000 participants from 800 vineyard enterprises and 125 winery facilities to complete self-assessments. Using the SureHarvest Sustainability MIS, a web-based software platform, SureHarvest prepared benchmark reports with aggregate results for the trade associa­tions and confidential reports for individual growers to compare sustainability performance. IPM adoption and energy efficiency were identified as priorities for continuous improvement.

From 2004-2009, 131 pest manage­ment workshops were held involving over 7400 vintners and growers.  In 2009, 1237 vineyards and 329 win­eries re-assessed their practices using the web-based platform. The 2009 Progress Report revealed that vineyard performance increased for 35 of the 38 pest management criteria measured. The SWP is the largest agricultural sustain­ability program in the nation involving 68.1% of the 526,000 total statewide vineyard acres and 62.5% of 240 million total statewide cases of wine produced in California.

“This is a great honor, not just for SureHarvest, but for the California winegrowing industry itself, who leads the nation in agricultural sustainability and enjoys the reputation as a sustainability leader among its global competition,” stated SureHarvest President and CEO, Dr. Jeff Dlott.

The IPM Innovator Awards ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, January 27 in the Sierra Hearing Room on the second floor of the California Environmental Protection Agency building in Sacramento.

About SureHarvest: (www.sureharvest.com) Since 1999, SureHarvest has provided growers farming a total of over 400,000 acres with software and services to implement sustainability as a business strategy. SureHarvest Farming MIS tracks, analyzes and reports on all farming activities, including scouting, chemical-fertilizer applications, irrigation, yield forecasting, harvest and labor. As a key architect of the Sustainable Winegrowing Program, SureHarvest securely houses the self-assessment data for more than 60 percent of California vintners and wineries with its Sustainability MIS web-based platform.

The Almond Board of California is developing a sustainability self-assessment program to allow almond growers to confidentially evaluate the sustainability of their practices in key areas. As enough growers complete the self-assessment, the Almond Board said it expects to be able to go to corporate buyers, regulators and the public with evidence of the almond sector’s commitment to sustainability.

“I would encourage each and every one of our almond growers to participate so we can go to the people who buy almonds with information about how we grow almonds,” said Merlin Garber, a Modesto-area almond grower who was among the first to complete the self-evaluation.

The first two modules of the self-assessment questionnaire cover irrigation and nutrient management. Future modules on air quality and energy should be available early this year, and a module on pest management should be available in the spring. The questions for the self-assessment are based on information from the University of California, UC Cooperative Extension, California State University, private consultants and almond growers.

A group of nearly 80 almond growers answered a sampling of the questions during the discussion of the sustainability program at the 38th annual Almond Industry Conference in Modesto in December. Their answers revealed the wide range of practices among almond growers when it comes to irrigation and nutrient management. More than a quarter of the growers had done a distribution uniformity test of their irrigation system in the last year, while nearly that many had never done the test. More than 40 percent regularly use historical and real time evapotranspiration (Et) information in their irrigation decisions, while a third do not use that information. Nearly three in five growers are using neutron probes or other devices to measure soil moisture, and a quarter of them are using pressure bombs to directly measure tree water stress. Fully 70 percent of the growers use plant tissue testing to help guide decisions about fertilizer. 

“As I suspected, a very high percentage of people are doing plant tissue testing. It is one of the first things you should do,” said Dan Sonke, SureHarvest senior scientist and a consultant to the Almond Board on the sustainability initiative. According to Sonke, around 100 of the state’s 6,000 almond growers had taken the self-assessment survey before the recent Almond Industry Conference. The first modules of the self-assessment program are available on the Internet (www.almondboard.com/Growers/Sustainability/Pages/Default.aspx). The Almond Board is planning to offer an ongoing series of events to encourage as many growers as possible to take part in the selfassessment.

“The only way this program will be successful is if as many almond growers and handlers as possible participate,” said Gabrielle Ludwig, Almond Board associate director of environmental affairs.

Many of the growers who have done the self-assessment received confirmation of the steps they have taken over the years to manage water and fertilizer more efficiently. “I think I’m up to speed with the techniques that are out there,” said George Nicolaus, who grows almonds just south of Chico. He was part of the group of Sacramento Valley almond farmers who filled out the questionnaire last summer. Nicolaus monitors soil moisture with a neutron probe to make irrigation decisions and figures that saves 10 percent to 20 percent on his water. He also uses leaf tests every year and soil tests every other year to achieve similar savings in his fertilizer applications. The program not only saves on water and fertilizer, it more than pays for itself, he said.

“A leaf analysis is cheap compared to the cost of a truckload of fertilizer,” Nicolaus said.

The self-evaluation is also a way of learning about practices and techniques that might make the orchard operation more sustainable. “At our review, there were some things that came up and I thought, ‘Maybe that’s something we ought to consider.’ That can be a benefit of doing this,” Garber said.

After finishing the questionnaire, growers can take a peek over the fence by learning the average answers of all the growers who have taken the survey. The self-evaluation is an evolving process because growers who go through the assessment are also asked to contribute their thoughts on how the questionnaires could be made more helpful. “They had us review a module that is coming up and I appreciate that they gave us an opportunity to say what relates to us,” Garber said.

The impetus behind the sustainability initiative is the interest that major corporate almond buyers have expressed in learning about the almond sector’s sustainable practices. “We have representatives talk to companies like Walmart, Kraft, Nestle and Unilever about unrelated questions and as soon as the conversation starts they ask what we are doing in the area of sustainability. The major food corporations are driving the sustainability movement,” Ludwig said. In order to answer the questions asked by these buyers and by regulators, however, the almond sector needs
a significant number of growers to take part in the selfassessment. “We need more participants to feel comfortable saying this is representative of what’s going on out there. We don’t have any data to stand on now, and regulators do respond to data,” Ludwig said.

Almond Board leaders said they are optimistic that the interest of corporations with enormous public relations resources could make this campaign uniquely successful.

“There have been umpteen initiatives to get the story out there and they have failed because they went about it the wrong way. The difference with the sustainability initiative is that the top managers of major retailers and manufacturers see it as a way to make money. The other initiatives did not have the money-making ability behind them that this one does. These companies are the mouthpieces we need to get the story out,” said Richard Waycott, Almond Board president.