This week, Ag Council board member Mona Shulman, VP and general counsel with Pacific Coast Producers, spoke as a panelist during a hearing with the Assembly Select Committee on Technology & the Future of California’s Agricultural Workforce.
The hearing provided an opportunity for panelists to inform legislators about the various technologies used by farmers, food producers and processors and the types of jobs and training needed to fill the jobs of today, as well as the jobs of the future.
Shulman talked about technologies used by Pacific Coast Producers, including: robotics on the production lines, automated optical color sorters, pallet conveyers, and automatic clean-in-place technology across production lines, in addition to digital readers and controls for production equipment in facilities.
With newer technologies, Shulman said Pacific Coast Producers’ workforce is gradually changing from highly manual, to a more technically skilled group of employees who can service or troubleshoot controls and work on more sophisticated equipment.
Given this, Shulman discussed the need for more collaborative partnerships with community colleges and technical schools with a focus on specialized training and apprenticeship programs to help prepare the workforce of the future and fill the needs of the food and agricultural sector.
To achieve this going forward, and recognizing labor shortages are very real, the state should prioritize and invest in workforce development programs with increased stakeholder participation to ensure training is targeted to the jobs of today with an eye toward the future.
“The state right now seems to have a little bit of a surplus, and we would love to see some of that surplus go toward encouraging and funding some of these programs,” Shulman said.
Ag Council looks forward to working with the committee in the coming months as it evaluates how to best address challenges in this policy area.
Special appreciation goes to Mona Shulman for participating as a panelist and to Select Committee Chair Carlos Villapudua (D-Stockton) for including Ag Council in the informational hearing.
As background, Pacific Coast Producers is owned by more than 150 family farms located in Central and Northern California and specializes in canning fruit and tomatoes.
To watch the full video of the hearing, please go to the link below. Shulman is the final panelist toward the end of the hearing.