Washington Wine Industry Foundation Donates Pt 1

Washington Wine Industry Foundation Donates Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. A major problem for many growers is finding enough labor to harvest their crops. It's a problem wine grape growers know all too well, and a problem the Washington Wine Industry Foundation wants to address ...

STRAUB ... "It's forcing a lot of wine grape growers and other commodities to have to consider automation or adding hours to their current labor. And so, it's a major concern and something that the foundation is equipped to do is to think through these challenges and bring together partners and stakeholders to think through, okay what can we do, how can we help the industry, how can we facilitate funding to craft sustainable solutions. It's part of our mission."

At an event in Benton City last week, the Foundation's Katlyn Straub says they went to the heart of the matter ...

STRAUB ... "And so, during that event they felt that giving back to a group that they felt was doing work that contributed to addressing a solution for the industry which was the Northwest Immigrants Right Project, was part and parcel of a sustainable solution."

And so, Straub says the Foundation presented them a check for $15,000

STRAUB ... "The NWIRP executive director, Jorge Baron was there to accept the check and he mentioned that the support will help efforts in the Yakima Valley. And, in that area, is just a lot of agricultural labor needs just because there's a lot of growers in that region."

Listen tomorrow for more on the WWIF mission and the support they give the industry.

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BL: Welcome back to another "Fruit Bites" brought to you by Valent U.S.A. And we are joined, once again, by Valent's Allison Walston. And this week Allison, let's talk about a new group within Valent, the Sustainable Solutions Business Unit.

AW: Sustainable Solutions will be comprised of a group of specialists that primarily focus in organic and transition acres. We, at Valent, are making a commitment to put ability in sustainability and to become leaders in sustainable agriculture.

BL: What types of things are going to be done for growers?

AW: We are putting growers first, discussing where they are on their sustainable journey and providing them with our latest research, science, products and field experience.

BL: Is this within just Sustainable Solutions or the entire Valent organization?

AW: This will reach to through the entire company to search for new & better ways to bring solutions and what is best for growers, people and the earth. Your earth. One example is working with mycorrhizae and bettering soil health.

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I'm Bob Larson.

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