The Almond Board of California (ABC) hosted its annual environmental stewardship tour at Travaille and Phippen in Manteca, Calif. The purpose of the event is to educate policy makers and regulators on how almonds are produced in the state.

Key messages left with those attending the annual event include the environmental stewardship practices almond growers employ when producing almonds.

Typical attendees of the event include representatives of various state agencies including the Department of Pesticide Regulations, Department of Water Resources, the state water board, California Department of Food and Agriculture and staff for various elected representatives.

Tour hosts this year included Dave Phippen and Nick Gatzman, partners in Travaille and Phippen, a grower, packer and shipper of California almonds.

According to Gatzman, Travaille and Phippen grows about 1,500 acres of almonds in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Their facilities near Manteca process about 32 million pounds of almonds annually.

“We are getting a lot more questions about how almonds are grown,” Gatzman said during the tour.

The annual tour features Almond Board staff and sometimes includes various members of the ABC board of directors. For this year’s event, Phippen represented the ABC board as a member recently re-elected to a one-year term.

Rob Kiss, chairman of the ABC’s environmental committee, said the Almond Board is “all in on the environmental aspects of growing almonds.”