Over the past decade, combined nut acreage in Tulare and Kings Counties has more than doubled, resulting in an expansion of the labor force needed to harvest the >250,000 acres of nuts locally. The annual Nut Harvest Safety Training co-hosted by the Kings County Farm Bureau, the Tulare County Farm Bureau, and UCCE Tulare and Kings Counties attracted over 150 attendees to the Kings County Fairgrounds on July 11, 2018. The program was conducted in both English and Spanish, with Walter Martinez and Gabriel Torres, UCCE Tulare County, serving as translators. The program was additionally sponsored by the American Pistachio Growers.
Dr. Farzaneh Khorsandi Kouhanestani, a new CE Specialist at UC Davis in Biological and Agricultural Engineering joined the program with a talk on equipment safety. Martha Sanchez, Department of Pesticide Regulation presented on chemical safety. Officers Chris Tuttle and Gabriel Perez, California Highway Patrol, discussed road safety, and Gumaro Castellanos, Nationwide, presented on heat illness prevention. Francisca Camarena and Mireya Gutierrez of Family HealthCare Network were available during registration to measure attendees' blood glucose level and blood pressure.
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