Ten Ways Innovation Can Drive Your Business Into the Future

The second annual Growing Innovations conference, which took place in November in Las Vegas, brought together growers and technology suppliers from across the specialty crop industry for a closer look at the latest innovations available to leading growers, and how they can make the best use of it. But the event wasn’t just about suppliers making their products available. It was a great opportunity to learn how technology is shaping the direction growers can take their businesses, as well as structural changes that owners can managers can consider.

Here are ten factors driving this innovation, and how you might be able to take advantage of it.

• Technology can help your labor force become smarter, according to Art Van Wingerden of Metrolina Greenhouses. “The right machinery will make your employees more efficient than they are today, and this is a message you need to communicate to them,” Van Wingerden says. “I want people fighting to get a job at our operation, not settling for one.”
• Despite the wide array of technology now available to growers, the lack of reliable broadband internet access in some areas is an issue. “We can’t have a smart farm with a stupid connected,” noted Robert Saik, CEO of Saik Management Group.
• Before you add new technology in the field or the greenhouse, it’s critical to look at the technology in your office first, according to Danny Royer, President and CEO of Great Valley Oak. “Your office and your office team need to be able to handle all the data that you are collecting,” he says.
• Artificial intelligence can be a profitable tool in your greenhouse, as outlined by Rodney Bierhuizen, General Manager and Co-Owner of Sunrise Greenhouses, a niche potted flowering plant production company in Vineland, ON, Canada. Bierhuizen describes how his company is using the LUNA system from iUNU to capture and analyze plant data.
• You can always learn something when you venture out of your office and explore what other growers are doing, said Mike Goyette, Head Grower at Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NH. Even if the technology you discover is ultimately not something you’re able to apply to your operation, you’re sure to gain insights into how to make your business more efficient.
• One position you may want to consider adding to your staff is chief data officer, said Vonnie Estes, Vice President of Technology for the Produce Marketing Association. In fact, perhaps the main theme of the event was the vast data available to growers, and how to best take advantage of it.
• Estes also noted that many technology suppliers are getting much better at coming up with real solutions for problems growers are facing. “Simply put, suppliers are learning how to learn from their grower customers,” Estes says.
• Tyler Scheid, a Solutions Consultant at Source Advisory, noted that a lot of the “new” technology that growers are finding has actually been around for a while. “The difference is, we are now on the cusp of how it can be used coming into fruition.”
• While technology is critical to helping growers solve problems, one thing it should not do is create a whole new set of problems. “The last thing I need is more complexity,” says M. Vincent Restucci, Director of Procurement & Business Technology for R.D. Offutt Company, a major grower of potatoes headquartered in Fargo, ND. “What I am looking for is simplicity and predictability. I need to know it will be able to help me easily solve my most pressing problems.”
• Art Van Wingerden and Tyler Scheid echoed each other when they brought Growing Innovations to a close by emphasizing that growers cannot be afraid to make mistakes. “Failure is OK,” Scheid said. “Not learning from your failure is not OK.”