{"id":469425,"date":"2026-09-19T22:10:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469425\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T22:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:10:35","slug":"can-technology-and-innovation-keep-californias-family-farms-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469425\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Technology and Innovation Keep California’s Family Farms Alive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

This story is part of our September 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

\n At first the light flaring up outside Camelia Enriquez\u2019s home in
\n rural Newcastle seemed harmless \u2014 maybe headlights casting a
\n glare in the window or someone goofing around. Then she saw the
\n truth, burning clear and bright under the California sky: Her
\n family farm\u2019s packing shed, the heart of their operation, was
\n going up in flames.\n<\/p>\n

\n It was devastating \u2014 the loss of the facility where they packed
\n peaches and other stone fruits, the financial hit, the
\n generations of memories. It was also the start of a
\n transformation.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cInnovation comes, sometimes, just out of desperation,\u201d Enriquez,
\n 48, says.\n<\/p>\n

\n Since that 2020 fire, Twin Peaks Orchards, which has been around
\n since 1912 and favored by farm-to-fork chefs across the region,
\n has been the site of constant innovation, from installing a new
\n irrigation system to changing how they pack their harvest.
\n Whether born of desperation, aspiration or both, Sacramento\u2019s
\n Capital Region is emerging as an international zone for
\n agricultural innovation.\n<\/p>\n

\n The cutting-edge technological research, industry evolution and
\n hardscrabble on-farm practices like those at Twin Peaks offer
\n rare solutions for family farms in tough economic times and fuel
\n Sacramento\u2019s status as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Farm-to-Fork Capital.\u201d The
\n question is just how many farms this innovation can save before
\n it\u2019s too late, with family farms and food systems in deep peril
\n after decades of farm loss and modern crises like the war in Iran
\n raising the stakes.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Twin Peaks Orchard in Newcastle, a favorite among chefs for their
\n fresh fruits and vegetables, grows 50 different varieties of
\n peaches.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Making innovation \u2014 and its benefits \u2014 affordable<\/p>\n

\n While long known for its farming roots, the Capital Region
\n punches far above its weight on the innovation side of
\n agriculture, according to farmers, industry leaders and
\n researchers. There\u2019s UC Davis, a hub for ag innovators from
\n across the country, a burgeoning start-up culture and scores of
\n farmers and researchers trying to tie past farm traditions to
\n future food solutions.\n<\/p>\n

\n Central to that success, some innovators say, will be how much of
\n the technology can be \u201cscale neutral\u201d \u2014 meaning, technology that
\n can work on small and mid-sized farms as well as large farms, to
\n serve all levels of agriculture. For decades, agricultural
\n technology in America has largely centered on helping farms
\n reduce costs while getting bigger, according to leading
\n agriculture researcher James MacDonald of the University of
\n Maryland. That\u2019s a goal that was necessary decades ago as farming
\n lost workers to other industries at much higher levels, he says,
\n but now leaves many farms behind by promoting technology they
\n can\u2019t afford or implement.\n<\/p>\n

\n Technology that can save farms can also doom them if it\u2019s not
\n affordable for small and mid-sized farms, experts say. In that
\n case, it\u2019s just one more force driving farms to \u201cget big or get
\n out,\u201d as they have for decades. The rising costs for farmers to
\n produce a crop, while the prices they receive stay the same, has
\n contributed to wiping out 70 percent of America\u2019s farms in the
\n past century, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.\n<\/p>\n

\n Rising costs include land, equipment, labor, fuel, seeds,
\n fertilizer and labor are the most immediate pressures farmers
\n cite. But they are also facing the historical effects of economic
\n catastrophes like the farm crisis of the 1980s and recessions of
\n the 2000s, which economists say reshaped the industry in ways
\n that disadvantage many family farms, including the role of
\n government policy in agriculture. Other factors in farm loss
\n include farmers retiring or consolidating their farms into larger
\n farming operations.\n<\/p>\n

\n Bart Peintner, CEO of Elemental Agronomy, was living out how to
\n solve that dilemma in the region when he attended the FIRA USA
\n conference hosted in Woodland in October 2025, part of an
\n international network of events exploring robotics in
\n agriculture. His Denver-based company has developed an
\n award-winning device that can help make spraying fields far more
\n precise and affordable for farms of all types and sizes.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n California, which has long been a major agriculture-producing
\n state, has been losing farmers for decades due to high costs for
\n fertilizer, labor, fuel and other reasons.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou better be removing costs overall, or your value proposition
\n better be absolutely bulletproof,\u201d Peintner says of the effort to
\n make technology work for farms. \u201cIt matters who is in charge of
\n that destiny.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The sun is bright as Peintner and dozens of other innovators roam
\n the FIRA demonstration site at the Yolo County Fairgrounds, with
\n technological demonstrations going on over mock orchards,
\n vineyards and more. At one point, a drone hoists weights over the
\n mock orchard, its whirring weedwhacker noise surging as it
\n strafes left and right to show how it can help family farms
\n efficiently move equipment out to their fields.\n<\/p>\n

\n Enriquez says for Twin Peaks, farm efficiency had to be improved
\n so that they could survive. She and her husband poured their
\n savings into transforming the farm as they recovered from the
\n fire and bought it from her parents. They started packing their
\n fruit right in the field rather than constructing a new packing
\n shed, removing steps and cost. They also invested in a new
\n irrigation system that was more efficient and environmentally
\n friendly, and decided to shift their farm toward being organic \u2014
\n something they believed in, but also hoped would pay off with
\n better profits.\n<\/p>\n

\n One of the biggest dilemmas farmers face in innovating is cost.
\n New practices can mean meeting other goals \u2014 such as supplying
\n local food or helping the environment \u2014 but they also have to
\n make financial sense by driving better profit, cutting costs or
\n otherwise \u201cpenciling out\u201d when farm families do their math.
\n Sometimes those transitions make economic or practical sense for
\n one farm, but not for another.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy environment to survive. So I think the farms
\n that are around are more forward-looking.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\u2014 Tim Nuss, vice president of operations, Nuss
\n Farms,
a fifth-generation farm in Lodi<\/p>\n

\n Nuss Farms in Lodi, a fifth-generation, 1,500-acre farm, is also
\n evolving its irrigation techniques \u2014 the controversial issue of
\n water is a ripe place to save money and promote conservation by
\n using less, but the family, whose motto is \u201crestoring our soil
\n and our planet through regenerative agriculture,\u201d is also
\n experimenting in other places. They recently tested out an
\n Ecorobotix \u201csee and spray\u201d implement, a sprayer they pulled
\n behind their tractor that uses artificial intelligence to discern
\n weeds from crops. The machine \u201cspot sprays\u201d those weeds, rather
\n than spraying the entire field.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy environment to survive,\u201d says Tim Nuss, one of
\n three brothers helping their dad run the farm. \u201cSo I think the
\n farms that are around are more forward-looking.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Innovators hope to give farms more ways to reduce costs and meet
\n their goals. Danny Bernstein is CEO of Reservoir, a California
\n company that operates an ag startup incubator in Salinas, where a
\n barn serves as a robotics laboratory, and is developing
\n additional locations in Santa Rosa and Merced. Bernstein says the
\n Capital Region is near the top of places also ripe for a new
\n incubator.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe need more energy, more ideas,\u201d Bernstein says.\n<\/p>\n

Mixing the old with the new<\/p>\n

\n The region\u2019s innovations also go far beyond technology, extending
\n to countless practices by farmers trying to find new paths
\n forward. For Eric Walker, it means blending the old with the new.\n<\/p>\n

\n He and his brother, Andrew, run Farmboy Organics in Winters,
\n growing a wide range of fruits and vegetables. They\u2019re constantly
\n trying to figure out what other crops they can grow, making sure
\n each is something they can make money on before moving forward.
\n They recently connected with the University of California
\n Extension for an on-site, computerized method of soil testing.
\n But they also proudly use more primitive practices that also
\n count as innovation these days \u2014 for example, using string to
\n guide their tomato plants upward so they\u2019re easier to harvest.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just let an AI control your whole farm,\u201d Eric says of
\n mixing technology with his own judgment and hard work. \u201cYou need
\n the farmer\u2019s footsteps on there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n There are many other ways to innovate, one of them being shifting
\n from traditional chemicals to fertilize or protect crops to
\n \u201cbiologicals\u201d that draw on more natural materials. But here
\n again, even farmers who want to make the change have real reason
\n to worry it won\u2019t work on their farm. The key is winning over
\n farmers who already live with so much risk that they can\u2019t afford
\n a product failure, says John Finegan, founder of Beck Ag, a
\n Sacramento-based company that helps ag companies commercialize
\n new products by identifying and encouraging markets of farmers
\n willing to adopt new practices. (He is also a member of
\n Comstock\u2019s Editorial Advisory Board.)\n<\/p>\n

\n Beck Ag does this through peer review \u2014 working with farmers who
\n test out a product and, if it works, vouch for it to their fellow
\n farmers. This can help win the faith of farmers who can\u2019t afford
\n to have a crop fail. A biological spray that doesn\u2019t work can
\n mean a field that has low yields or is overrun by weeds or pests,
\n leaving a farmer with all their costs for the year and none of
\n their income. It puts another dimension on the cost savings
\n aspect \u2014 for many farmers, the possibility of saving money can\u2019t
\n outweigh a risk that is too high.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can\u2019t afford to take a big risk on a product failure when
\n you\u2019ve only got one shot in a full 12 months to make your profit
\n for keeping your farm alive,\u201d Finegan says.\n<\/p>\n

\n Finegan thinks the time to innovate is now, with the war in Iran
\n choking off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sending
\n fertilizer prices spiraling upward more than 30 percent as of
\n August, according to the World Bank. It\u2019s just another crisis for
\n farmers, and it may mean there is a financial incentive to try
\n new biologicals. Beck Ag has created a new Bio Efficiency Council
\n to study that and seize the moment.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Camelia Enriquez picks peaches at Twin Peaks Orchards.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Enriquez at Twin Peaks agrees innovation takes many forms. Since
\n the fire, the family has worked to recover emotionally and
\n financially. They\u2019ve weathered the dip in crop yields that can
\n come with the switch to organic when conventional chemicals are
\n no longer protecting against threats to crops \u2014 but then watched
\n yields rise and profits improve as their soil got healthier.
\n Thanks to new technologies, they feel they\u2019ve got a brighter
\n future for themselves and their kids.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou have to have a five-year plan, a 10-year plan,\u201d she says of
\n making it through such transitions to put the farm in a better
\n place for the future. \u201cOur biggest goal, the thing that we\u2019re
\n aiming for, is sustainability.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

\n Stay up to date on business in the Capital Region:
\n Subscribe to the Comstock\u2019s newsletter
\n today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of our September 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here. …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-469425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}