Team

“The SureHarvest team is genuine, knowledgeable and disciplined. They want to deliver real value to their clients. SureHarvest gave us a disciplined approach to building our sustainability program.”

– Jan DeLyser, California Avocado Commission

Dr. Jeff Dlott

Dr. Jeff Dlott founded SureHarvest in 1999 with a vision for achieving a sustainable agrifood system by measuring and then rewarding growers for producing public benefits like cleaner water and air, job opportunities, and vibrant communities, in addition to food. Dr. Dlott assembled a group of tech-savvy investors and dedicated management team to design the knowledge and technology systems needed to create a ‘sustainability currency’ for the agrifood marketplace. He has almost 20 years of experience in pest management research and the development of sustainability programs for over 25 different commodities, most notably, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program. Dr. Dlott is a co-founder of the Sustainability Index for Specialty Crops, an initiative to design sustainability performance metrics for the specialty crop sector. He is also participating in a multi-stakeholder effort to design a Sustainability Index for Walmart to measure the impact of the production processes of Walmart’s 60,000+ suppliers.

Dr. Dlott received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management.

Dr. Cliff Ohmart

Dr. Cliff Ohmart joined SureHarvest in September, 2009 to lead the Professional Services team in the design, implementation and evaluation of sustainability strategies for the agrifood supply chain. Prior to joining SureHarvest, Cliff served as the Sustainable Winegrowing Director at the Lodi Winegrape Commission (LWC) for13 years. Working with the Commission’s 750 growers who farm over 100,000 acres, Cliff established the LWC as a national and international leader in sustainable farming practices.  Cliff is the senior author of the Lodi Winegrower’s Workbook: A self assessment of integrated farming practices, to guide grower innovation and adoption of sustainable farming practices. Cliff was the architect of the LodiRules for Sustainable Winegrowing program for third-party certification by Protected Harvest. In 1990, as a pest control advisor for Scientific Methods, he designed what was likely the first computer database system for commercial pest management, including programmable hand-held data loggers for in-field data collection using barcodes. This innovation was the inspiration for SureHarvest and its Farming MIS technology.

Dr. Ohmart received his PhD in Entomological Sciences in 1976 from the University of California-Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Forest Entomology from the SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry. Dr. Ohmart has delivered over 300 lectures and presentations around the world and has written over 50 publications.

Andrew Arnold

Mr. Andrew Arnold manages the Professional Services arm of SureHarvest, where he collaborates with commodity associations and agrifood companies to design and develop sustainable practice programs. Mr. Arnold leads the development of Web-based tools to support sustainable practice data collection and benchmarking. Throughout his 20+ year career in the agri-food industry, he has focused on the intersection of information technology and business with experience in strategic planning, product development, project management, marketing, sales, and business development. Mr. Arnold brings experience in using information sharing tools to build collaborative value chains from his work with John Deere’s FoodOrigins group. He also managed information systems for the grape supply, logistics, and winemaking sector at E&J Gallo Winery.

Mr. Arnold earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California-Berkeley and a Master of Science from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Dan Sonke

Dr. Dan Sonke grew up working on his family's almond farm and custom harvesting business near Manteca, California. He is the Program Manager for Protected Harvest, overseeing the development of standards, the process of certification and third-party auditing. As Senior Scientist with SureHarvest Professional Services, he partners with clients to define sustainable practice program strategies, develop metric-based assessment programs, and implement outreach, training and data collection efforts. Dr. Sonke helped to create the IPM Florida program at the University of Florida, where he served as Assistant IPM Coordinator, 2001-2005.

Dr. Sonke earned a Doctorate in Plant Medicine from the University of Florida and holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies (with a horticultural emphasis) from Dordt College in Iowa.

Dr. Joe Browde

Dr. Joe Browde joined the SureHarvest Professional Services team in June 2010. Joe was the key architect of the Cycle of Continuous Improvement for the Sustainable Winegrowing Program during his tenure as the Senior Project Manager for the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) from 2004 through 2010. As a co-author of the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices Self-Assessment Workbook, Dr. Browde led projects in pest management, air quality, water conservation and quality, and risk management, educating over 7400 growers through130 events. From 2000-2003, Dr. Browde directed the Winegrape Pest Management Alliance as a consultant to the California Association for Winegrape Growers. As a result of Dr. Browde’s outreach efforts to more than 2600 growers, pest control advisors, vineyard managers and workers, the industry achieved a 30 percent reduction in the use of higher-risk pesticides. Dr. Browde began his career with Zeneca Ag Products, where he served as an Entomology Specialist and Team Leader of an interdisciplinary research team. His experience spans a breadth of cropping systems including commodities such as cotton and soybeans, as well as, specialty crops.

Dr. Browde received his Ph.D. in Entomology from Iowa State University. He also holds a Master of Science in Entomology and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology from North Carolina State University.

Mr. Franklin Dlott

Mr. Franklin Dlott brings a depth of production agriculture experience to SureHarvest, having worked for the University of California Cooperative Extension for 10 years in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties (the “Salad Bowl”) where he was responsible for IPM research and extension activity for growers, PCAs and agricultural professionals. His specific research experience involved symphylan and biological control of lettuce aphid. He has over 6 years experience providing consulting support to the statewide Sustainable Winegrowing Program delivering program content, data management, analysis and reporting. Franklin was a collaborator for an American Farmland Trust sponsored project in the Salinas Valley developing alternative pesticides for lettuce production in response to FQPA.

Mr. Dlott received his M.Sc. in Botany from the University of British Columbia and a B.A. in Biology and Linguistics, with honors, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ms. Barbara Meister

Ms. Barbara Meister brings a unique balance of agricultural-based marketing, public policy, advocacy, leadership development, consulting and communications experience. Ms. Meister worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics from 1994-96 and the State Departments of Agriculture in Texas and Nebraska in her early career. Barbara manages the communications functions for the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops project and provides support for the grower outreach and educational strategies of the Professional Services Team. 

Ms. Meister completed a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University – John F. Kennedy School of Government.