GSEC 2018 | Page 32

GREATER SACRAMENTO es and Intrexon, all operating within Davis city limits; Bayer in West Sacramento; and S&W Seed Company in Sacramento. Yolo County is also home to the UC Davis-HM. CLAUSE Life Science Innovation Center in Davis and the Bayer Crop Science CoLaborator in West Sacramento. Pam Marrone, CEO and founder of biopesticide-maker Marrone Bio Innovations, understands the opportunities and challenges of developing that cluster of industries as well as anyone. Since founding the now-global provider of bio-based pest management and plant health solutions in Davis in 2006, Marrone has seen the region’s industry grow despite what she describes as ongoing challenges to entrepreneurship. “The Sacramento region really is this burgeoning hotbed of the food, ag and health tech and biotech industry right now. Being in the Davis area and being able to network and cross-pollinate, if you will, with that growing segment is incredibly important and very useful and helpful for us as a growing company.” - Tracy Shafizadeh, director of scientific communications, Evolve BioSystems “Back when I first moved to Davis — 28 years ago — someone asked me about the culture of Sacramento, and I said it lacked entrepreneurial energy. And boy, wasn’t that the truth,” Marrone says. “But it’s improved dramatically.” In the ensuing years, Marrone has seen the Sacramento region shake off much of its torpor. “There’s just a lot of entrepreneurial energy now,” Marrone says. Like Shafizadeh, whose company occupies lab space previously employed by Marrone Bio Innovations, Marrone notes that UC Davis’s presence in the region was crucial to bringing businesses at the intersection of food, agriculture and technology, into the greater Sacramento area. She notes that the area has made great strides in encouraging entrepreneurship in these sectors over the course of the last three decades. Since 2010, $211 million has been invested in ag and biotech startups in the Sacramento region, according to the Greater Sacramento Economic Council. The area has a unique mix of resources that position Sacramento as an innovation hub at the crux of technology, life science, agriculture and food production. UC Davis, a university with premier life science and agricultural studies programs, is just one of the draws bringing ag techand life science-related business, investment and talent to the region. Sacramento sits squarely in one of the most fertile growing regions in the world. California is the largest agricultural economy in the United States. The 28-county Central Valley region of California is among the most productive farming regions in the world, with approximately $43.2 billion in food and beverage manufacturing output and $11 billion in agricultural exports, according to AgPlus, a food and beverage manufacturing consortium designated by the U.S. Economic Development Adminis- 94 comstocksmag.com | December 2018