More than a dozen USDA officials visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas, Calif., this week to meet with representatives of startups using the facility.

The 14-member delegation included Bill Richmond, chief of the agency's U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program, and Robin Chilton, director of the Standards Division of the USDA's Specialty Crops Program, according to a news release.

The group met April 26 with Solare Holdings to discuss the hemp program and talked with entrepreneurs from a half-dozen other WGCIT member companies, according to Western Growers. For information about the visit, click here.

The center is a technology incubator aimed at bringing innovative entrepreneurs together with farmers to facilitate creative solutions to the biggest challenges facing agriculture. Western Growers represents produce farmers in Arizona, California and Colorado.

Source: Western Growers, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.