Registration is now open for the 2026 Organic Grower Summit, a two-day conference scheduled for December in Monterey, California, targeting producers, suppliers, and buyers across the certified-organic supply chain.
The event adds two notable elements this year: a partnership with This Week in Agribusiness, a long-running agricultural media brand, and the introduction of an Ag Tech Reception hosted at Reservoir Farms. The latter signals a deliberate push to bring precision-agriculture and technology vendors into direct conversation with organic growers — a segment that has historically lagged conventional agriculture in technology adoption rates.
Why It Matters
The organic produce sector continues to post steady retail growth even as broader fresh-category volumes flatten. USDA data has consistently shown organic farmgate sales outpacing conventional on a percentage basis, making grower-facing events a meaningful commercial venue for input suppliers, certification bodies, and foodservice procurement teams scouting domestic supply. Monterey's Salinas Valley corridor — the self-described "salad bowl of the world" — gives the summit a natural geographic anchor in one of the highest-density leafy-greens production regions in North America.
Ag Tech on the Agenda
The new Ag Tech Reception at Reservoir Farms reflects a broader industry shift: venture capital and corporate R&D investment in agri-food technology has drawn organic operations into conversations about automation, soil-health monitoring, and traceability platforms that were once the exclusive domain of large conventional growers. For foodservice distributors and retail category managers attending the summit, the reception provides a structured setting to assess emerging supply-chain tools alongside the growers who would deploy them.
The addition of This Week in Agribusiness — a television and digital program with decades of reach into the farm community — broadens the summit's audience development beyond the Pacific Coast organic niche and into the wider U.S. row-crop and specialty-crop ecosystem.
Organizers have not yet disclosed speaker lineups, registration pricing, or attendance capacity targets. Further program details are expected as the December dates approach. Operators, retailers, and procurement professionals active in the organic and specialty produce segment can monitor the summit's registration portal for updates.
For context on how farm-level events intersect with downstream foodservice sourcing strategy, see F&B Industry News's coverage of supply-chain transparency initiatives.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
