The Greater Sacramento Economic Council Supports Successful Innovation

In the epicenter of California’s agricultural heartland, the Greater Sacramento region is where innovators in the agricultural and food technology spaces come to develop game-changing solutions. Those who choose this region as their homebase benefit from proximity to University of California, Davis, the number-one ag sciences university in the country, as well as a cluster of industry experts whose specialties range from food production and processing to biological sciences. For agtech companies looking to make their mark, this is the place to be.

This wasn’t always the case. Although the region has long been known for its fertile farmland, it took a concerted effort from key partners across the state to elevate it to the status it enjoys today. Sacramento is now ranked fourth in the country with respect to employment growth, according to BLS, Total Non-Farm Payroll Employment July 2024. But in the years leading up to 2015 when the Greater Sacramento Economic Council (GSEC) was formed, the region had some of the worst outcomes related to growth, participation on diversity, equity and inclusion, and job placement for young people.

Barry Broome, president and CEO of GSEC, saw an opportunity to change the narrative. He knew it would be impossible to do it alone, so he sought buy-in from other parties that were interested in boosting the region’s economic success. Broome founded GSEC as a public-private partnership, one that brought together CEOs (now 50 of them), public leaders and 22 communities, all with the goal of helping Sacramento and its surrounding communities become a hub for growth, prosperity, equity and innovation.

It's working. Since 2015, GSEC has supported more than 118 new company locations and expansions in the region, which have in turn created or retained more than 33,400 jobs. The Greater Sacramento area has become the state’s leading market to reside, work and do business. Forbes named Sacramento the number-one city to live in California, and Brookings Metro Monitor listed the region as fourth best in the country for economic inclusion.

Broome says the biggest step in working toward these high-level goals was to replace government employment as the backbone of the economy and drive industry diversification in partnership with higher education. This made sense given UC Davis’ reputation for championing startups—more than 130 with over $1 billion in research funding to date.

“All the talent, capabilities, technology and know-how for our economy comes out of the universities,” he says. “Having universities like UC Davis and Sacramento State own the economy changes everything inside the university. The curriculum, the technology, the translation of the technology, the entrepreneurship, the ability to work with and partner with other industries are all impacted. Not to mention that this changes the lives of the students and alumni.”

This transformation is not limited to the farming industry, but agriculture is positively impacted. In practice, this means that students at universities in Greater Sacramento are poised to graduate with the skills they need to gain employment and succeed in the workforce. Their studies have positioned them to be essential players in the modern economy.

“Now, as agriculture pivots, instead of being an academic setting, UC Davis acts as an enterprise to support and catalyze the pivot,” Broome continues. “The university’s mission is no longer scholarship. It’s regional economic stability.”

This fundamental shift in focus doesn’t end with the universities. The 22 communities GSEC represents also collaborate in pursuit of a better economy. Broome says that this is the organization’s second greatest achievement. The six regions may have their rivalries, but they all see one another as allies. Instead of being adversarial with resources and opportunities, they work together to uplift Greater Sacramento as a whole.

“We want the mayor of Woodland or the mayor of Davis or the assembly member of Yolo County to all strive to make their community the best among all the other communities, but success is the byproduct of them raising their own game and cooperating with others,” Broome says. “Success is not a zero-sum game. You have to work together in order for everybody to reach their potential and then collectively you raise the performance of the region.”

One recent example is Woodland’s 350-acre Research and Technology Park. Broome says this proposed development project requires a lot of engineers and capital that the city alone doesn’t have, but the region does. By pooling their resources, the communities can collaborate to make this vision a reality.

“When everyone participates in their local economic philosophy and then ties the local philosophy to the regional philosophy, the regional philosophy can drive the potential of Woodland, which allows Woodland to do things that, historically, it’s never been able to do before,” Broome says. “That allows Woodland to be bold and creative and innovative, which inspires other communities to go after those bigger ideas because they’re not operating in an isolated way. They’re a part of a bigger pool of partners and investors.”

GSEC’s vision, however, expands beyond the universities, the communities, the CEOs on its board and the public officials who support it. The organization wants everyone to participate and share in the collective success. Broome says that part of reaching this goal is to focus on doing the right things to foster a robust economy. The other part is to do them with sustainability, equity and inclusion in mind.

“The idea is that everybody gets a fair shot and participates at a high level, so that when you look across your region, everyone sees themselves in the economy and does well in the economy,” Broome says. “That levels off the fear that a lot of people are expressing right now. When you fragment these outcomes and you start leaving people behind, we see people feeling cheated and like things are being taken from them. That creates a lot of negative energy. But if people have housing, food security, healthcare benefits and can afford things like going to the movies, they’re a lot more confident in themselves. They aren’t going to be as easily threatened or radicalized by some of the crazy political rhetoric that’s out there.”

GSEC does its part to build a sustainable and equitable economy by investing strategically in companies and institutions that have an eye on the future. This work includes everything from developing investor pipeline networks to attract new innovators to the region to offering business incentives to help companies expand their workforce and capabilities. GSEC is also designing a zero-emissions vehicle platform with Sacramento State that would make the university’s engineering school a carbon-free facility. As such, the school would focus on producing the next generation of sustainable vehicles.

“Through this platform, Sac State’s curriculum would only be involved in engineering design around things like hydrogen trucks, zero-emission vehicles, solar power storage, battery technology and other things like that,” Broome says. “It’s a great example of how you take a university’s engineering school and move into these socially needed objectives. That’s also where the economy is going. You don’t want to be chasing gas cars that will be going away in 10 or 15 years. You want to move where things are headed, so it’s important for a community to constantly refocus its objectives toward the future.”

At FIRA USA, GSEC will be attending to learn how best to support its already robust farming sector and the agtech companies interested in calling Greater Sacramento home. Broome believes these types of events are important to help create shifts within traditional industries like agriculture.

“What happens over time is that you can either move towards new technology as an act of inspiration or as an act of survival,” he says. “Right now, what I see with the labor shortages and policy pressures and climate change is that the industry has to shift to succeed. Any event like this is a great opportunity for innovators in the industry to see our region and all our capabilities and understand why they should keep building on those capabilities in our community. That’s important because if we can showcase who we are to those innovators, then they will begin to see us as a place where innovation should occur first.”

For more information on GSEC and what the organization can do for your company, visit greatersacramento.com.