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