Oxnard strawberry farm and robotics firm developed prototype this year
VENTURA — The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District awarded a $50,000 grant to an Oxnard strawberry farm to begin replacing its gasoline-powered harvest-aid machines with solar models it helped develop.
The Clean Air Fund grant will help GoodFarms LLC purchase two solar-powered harvest machines for Crisalida Berry Ranch, a 100-acre farm on Rice Avenue near East Pleasant Valley Road. GoodFarms collaborated with Agrobot to develop the prototype and tested it earlier this year on the Oxnard farm. The solar version of the harvest-aid machine, which holds flats while propelling itself down crop rows, costs $69,500.
“Now we would like to replace all 20 harvest machines at our farm to save more than 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year,” said Matt Conroy, district manager for GoodFarms’ Oxnard operations. “Our current Berry Ferry Harvest Machines are under intense use, running for more than 200 days per year and consuming more than five gallons of fuel per day.”
This is the type of innovative pilot project that the Ventura County Clean Air Fund is designed to support. Eligible community projects must reduce emissions that contribute to ozone or particle pollution, which are problems in Ventura County, or address climate change, for instance by reducing greenhouse gases.
“The new harvesters will improve the lives of our workforce, generally from disadvantaged communities, by removing noise and emissions from their workspace,” Conroy said.
GoodFarms is a founding member of the Equitable Food Initiative, a national organization that brings farmworkers, growers, retailers and consumers together to transform agriculture and the lives of those who work on farms.
“We are fully committed to environmental sustainability,” Conroy said.
Conroy hopes that this project will inspire other farmers who tend the more than 7,500 acres of strawberries in Ventura County to replace their gasoline- and diesel-powered harvest-aid machines with solar ones. As part of the grant agreement, GoodFarms will submit annual reports on the machines’ operations and maintenance, including cost comparisons to the gasoline harvesters. They also agreed to provide demonstrations and information for other county farmers who are interested in solar harvest-aid machines.
GoodFarms will dismantle two of its gasoline-powered harvest-aid machines beyond repair and recycle the materials after it receives the solar replacements.
The Clean Air Fund was established in 1992 with a $1.5 million donation from 3M Co. Each year, interest earned by an endowment created with part of the donation becomes available for grants. Since 2015, the district has awarded $465,000 in grants.