This show explores how almond growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich is visiting with almond leaders throughout California who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry. Hearing the voices of these industry leaders might spark a connection or idea you can use in your own journey. That’s why we want to feature these stories of innovation, resilience, and community.
September’s Marketing Bulletin explores how the Almond Board of California is growing demand for California almonds in Mexico’s bakery sector. ABC’s Becky Jeffers shares how they identified Mexico’s premium bakery category as a strong opportunity for almond usage and how the organization is working directly with bakers, culinary schools, chefs and industry events to inspire new almond-based products. From hands-on workshops and major trade shows to an upcoming harvest tour in California’s Central Valley, the episode highlights how education, creativity and personal connection are helping bring almonds to the forefront of bakery innovation in Mexico.
Andrea Carrothers and Carmen Berry of FoodMinds join the Journey to provide a look back, and ahead, of what’s happening globally in terms of nutrition policy that may affect almonds. FoodMinds partners with the Almond Board of California and their recent report focuses on the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and as a result the interest in defining the term “ultra processed food.” Explore how this movement could impact the almond industry specifically, and why it’s important to be part of the conversation.
“ We know almonds are nutrient dense and have a lot of health benefits, and then it's being compared to a product that doesn't have nutrient dense foods. It's hard to compare apples to apples.” - Carmen Berry
In Today’s episode:
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
Entomologist Dr. David Crowder joins the Journey to talk about a project that could be beneficial for management of navel orangeworm. Crowder shares how phenology models have been used to manage major pests in other crops like codling moth and Colorado potato beetle, and how the same approach could help California almond growers with navel orangeworm. Often called "nature's calendar,” phenology is the study of the timing of recurring biological events in the natural world. Crowder says that using a phenology model can provide predictive information about the behavior of things like insect pests.
“Trying to give people simple models of when something might happen seven to 14 days in advance, sending them a text message, ‘Hey, your bugs are going to be flying,’ these are the most effective models.” - Dr. David Crowder
In Today’s episode:
Growers can create an account and explore the Decision Aid System at treenuts.decisionaid.systems/
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
This month’s Almond Byte from ABC’s Global Technical and Regulatory Affairs team looks back at a busy 2025/26 year supporting market access for California almonds around the world. From progress on Japan’s voluntary aflatoxin pre-testing protocol and duty-free access into the European Union to strengthened relationships in key markets including China, India, Mexico, Morocco and the United Kingdom, the GTRA team worked to resolve nearly 100 trade and technical issues, protect export opportunities and represent California almonds in global regulatory discussions.
Dan Sonke joins the Journey from The Almond Conference 2025 in Sacramento to discuss sustainability programs and their impact on consumer perception and farming economics. At that time of this interview, Sonke was the head of sustainability programs at Blue Diamond Growers where he was responsible for building and leading enterprise sustainability strategy, reporting, and governance. Sonke also led development of one of the world’s largest farmer datasets through the California Almond Stewardship Platform (CASP), and serves as the current chair of the Almond Board of California’s Environmental Stewardship Working Group.
“We have an amazing, science-backed story for our customers around the world. When they buy almonds from California, they're buying something that's not only a healthy product, but has a high degree of environmental protection associated with it.” - Dan Sonke
In Today’s episode:
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
In this Almond Byte, the Almond Board of California’s Global Technical and Regulatory Affairs team provides updates on key international trade and regulatory issues affecting California almonds. The episode covers ABC’s participation at SNACKEX in Lisbon, recent tariff and trade developments, the new U.S.-EU trade deal that could support almond competitiveness in Europe, and evolving maximum residue limit policies in Vietnam and Thailand. Together, these updates show how ABC works to protect market access, strengthen global relationships and keep almond growers informed about issues that can affect demand and movement of California almonds around the world.
Carson Pettit joined the Journey to share what led him back to California and into the almond industry, some of the current market dynamics in the global almond trade, how RPAC is staying on the cutting edge of grower engagement, his experiences with the California Ag Leadership program, and his hopes for the future. Pettit is the grower relations manager at RPAC growers and processors. This episode was recorded at The Almond Conference 2025 back in December, so his comments are all relative to what was happening at that point in time.
“We really need clarity for everybody to feel better about being active in the market. And when there's not that clarity, it's just very hard for anybody to have any sense of a good idea of what's going to happen in the world.” - Carson Pettit
In Today’s episode:
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
Marlin Flory and Gerry Rominger join the Journey on its 100 podcast episode to reflect on how far the almond industry has come. About 100 years ago, the California almond industry was just starting to grow with applied irrigation. Flory and Rominger, multi-generational California almond industry members take listeners through a few major advancements in the industry over that time and detail how the industry supports its growth.
“It’s fascinating the evolution of the industry, both with machinery and technology. The science has just really changed everything and let it become what it is today.” - Gerry Rominger
In Today’s episode:
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
Mel Machado joins the Journey to provide a wide-ranging “state of the almond orchard” discussion. Machado is the Chief Agricultural Officer at Blue Diamond Growers and discusses the current challenging grower economics, the decline in almond acreage, the decision to end the objective estimate and some of his thoughts on pollination, cover crops, bee health and more. In addition to his 34-year career at Blue Diamond, Machado also serves as an alternate on the Almond Board of California and holds positions on the Production Stewardship Workgroup and Strategic Ag Innovation Committee.
“Excell at the basics. You can have all the fancy stuff in the world like remote sensing tools. But if the nutrition's not right, if the water's not right, you're going to have a problem. Master the basics.” - Mel Machado
In Today’s episode:
The Almond Journey Podcast is brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This show explores how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. Host Tim Hammerich visits with leaders throughout the Central Valley of California and beyond who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with their communities, and advance the almond industry.
ABC recognizes the diverse makeup of the California almond industry and values contributions offered by its growers, handlers, and allied industry members. However, the opinions, services and products discussed in existing and future podcast episodes are by no means an endorsement or recommendation from ABC. The Almond Journey podcast is not an appropriate venue to express opinions on national, state, local or industry politics. As a Federal Marketing Order, the Almond Board of California is prohibited from lobbying or advocating on legislative issues, as well as setting field and market prices.
In this month’s Almond Byte, we’re digging into highlights from May’s Global Update and what they mean for California almond growers. We’ll cover the latest developments in trade and tariff activity, including movement on the farm bill and ongoing discussions tied to key export markets. We’ll also look at how the Iran conflict is disrupting shipments in the Middle East, creating delays, reroutes and added costs for handlers. And we’ll share news on new USDA funding that will help ABC continue building demand and expanding opportunities for California almonds overseas.