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GREATER SACRAMENTO tration. The six-county Sacramento region alone represents $2 billion in annual food production, according to GSEC. West Sacramento houses the global headquarters of Bayer Crop Science. As one of three divisions of the German-based megacorporation Bayer Group, Bayer Crop Science is a powerful entity operating across the intersection of the agriculture, food production and technology sectors in the region. The Bayer Crop Science division alone generated over $10.9 billion worldwide in sales in 2017. “We have this agtech ecosystem here in Northern California that is ideally located,” says Deborah Tucker, senior global project leader for Bayer Crop Science. “We’re sitting at the doorstep of all the biotech that’s coming from Silicon Valley. We, in Northern California, belong to an agriculture economy that is worth about 1.5 million acres and about 50 percent of the fruit and veg production in the U.S. … It’s really just a very rich, diverse, talented ecosystem for agtech and innovation, and we like to think of ourselves as a strong corporate partner with that ecosystem.” Tucker notes that the region has, in her estimation, yet to arrive at its full potential. By fostering continued innovation, encouraging investment, and incubating startups in agriculture, food and technology, the region has the opportunity to flourish into a kind of agtech Silicon Valley. “We just need to keep at it,” Tucker says. • Robert Schaulis is a native Sacramentan and graduate of UC Berkeley. He is managing editor of a local trade publication. 96 comstocksmag.com | December 2018