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