Sod farms see demand shifts from pandemic and drought
home wanted to appreciate their yards.” Jimmy Fox , who runs Amer i can Sod Farms, said his Escondido oper- ation was the hardest hit as pandemic shelter-in-place orders took hold in spring 2020. “It didn’t shut us down all the way, but it definitely slowedbusiness down, espe- cially for the first three or four months,” Fox said, noting that this coincided with March throughMay—typically peak sea- son for homeowner business. Larry LeMay, president of A-G Sod
Farms, saw the same mixed bag—more residential but less commercial de- mand. His company—which grows sod inMoreno Valley, Palmdale, Fresno and Stockton—works with a lot of schools and their sports fields. “I think the schools were probably a l ittle more hesitant, not knowing when they were going to be back,” LeMay said. “We had a downtick in that market.” So far, Fox said, 2021 looks promising.
ByKevinHecteman Wi t h Ca l i f o r n i a b e g i nn i n g t o emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic but sliding deeper into drought, the people who operate sod farms have found two powerful forces buffeting their businesses. John Marman of Palm Desert-based West Coast Turf describes doing business inCOVID times as “interesting.”His busi- ness covers residential, commercial and municipal customers. “We really shut down initially with the pandemic,” Marman said, noting that professional sports suffered one of the worst effects. Football stadiums, for example, typ- ically resod after hosting non-football events such asmotocross races and con- certs, Marman said—events sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic. “For us, that was heavily impacted,” he said. “That category of our business ‘Innovation Fair’ will discuss food loss and waste A free, virtual event later this month will describe federal investments and business activities in reducing food loss and waste in the food system. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will hold the first Food Loss and Waste Innovation Fair May 26 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT. In announcing the event, USDA said the Innovation Fair “will present busi- nesses and research teams that have received USDA funding to research or commercialize cutting-edge food loss and waste solutions.” Presenters will include businesses that have committed to reducing food loss and waste in their operations by 50% by 2030, plus USDA agencies that will discuss their food loss and waste activities in research, measurement, education, funding and outreach. One of the presenters will be a San Francisco-based f irm, ReGrained, that has collaborated with the USDA Agricultural Research Service to develop patent-pending technology to dry and process brewers grains into healthy, high-quality flours, transforming food waste into value-added products. USDA said the event will feature vir- tual booths where visitors can learn about solutions offered by business, government and academic institutions. Attendees will be able to text-chat with representatives and other guests, watch videos, and download reports and other materials, USDA said. Registration is available via www. usda.gov/foodlossandwaste/news/ innovation-fair.
was close to nonexistent.” On the residential side, “whether it be smaller landscape contractors or homeowners, or even big-box stores for that matter, (we) definitely saw an uptick,” Marman said. “Not enough to cover our losses in the sports-turf cate- gory, but I think people being forced at
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May 12, 2021 Ag Alert 3
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