Farm to Fame - Conversations with Ali Cox

In Episode 17 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Alexandra Trower, a communications powerhouse whose career spans JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and The Estée Lauder Companies, where she served as Executive Vice President of Global Communications. A Noble West advisory board member and Ali's friend and mentor of 25 years, Alex shares a crisis communications playbook that food and ag businesses can put to work before trouble ever hits. We're honored to welcome her to the show. 💄

In this episode:

• Why someone else's crisis is your greatest gift, and how to "murder board" your own brand before anyone else can
• Communications is not the caboose: why comms needs a seat at the table when decisions get made
• The Bank of America tagline that showed her the danger of overpromising on a brand
• How to vet supply chain partners like you're marrying them, plus the recall question to ask every one of them
• How to prepare before a crisis hits: a "what keeps us up at night" session, a clear decision tree and a one-page playbook
• What Leonard Lauder taught her about learning from frontline employees and younger team members
• Why crisis management has gotten harder, and how social listening turns real-time chatter into "news you can use"

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: Alexandra Trower, crisis communications, crisis management, crisis communications plan, crisis playbook, public relations, PR strategy, corporate communications, reputation management, brand reputation, brand values, consumer trust, food safety, food recalls, product recall, supply chain, supplier vetting, decision tree, social listening, social media monitoring, Estée Lauder Companies, Leonard Lauder, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Costco, Walmart, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, farming podcast, food marketing podcast

#FarmToFame #CrisisCommunications #PublicRelations #FoodSafety #NobleWest

In Episode 16 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Cannon Michael — sixth-generation farmer and the leader of Bowles Farming Company in Los Banos, one of California's most storied specialty crop regions. Since taking over in 2014, Cannon has grown Bowles from three crops to more than 20, earned Regenagri certification across 100% of the farm, and became the first farm certified in California under the Better Cotton Initiative's pilot program. He's also a leading voice on California water, serving on a number of water boards, and one of agriculture's most candid advocates for transparency with consumers. We're honored to welcome him to the show. 🌾

In this episode:

• Why Cannon still has beef with Patagonia over its 1980s campaign against California cotton growers — and what brands give up when they source elsewhere
• How transparency and education became a brand strategy for a farm with no product on the shelf
• Why California's long, strong cotton fiber can't be grown anywhere else, and the high-end brands that want it
• The ag tech math: drip irrigation, weeding robots, and fewer but higher-paying jobs on the farm
• How brand and market signals drive certification decisions — and why he wouldn't make the switch to organic again today
• Why farmers still have little say on price, and how the loss of seasonality keeps food cheap

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: California cotton, cotton farming, Bowles Farming Company, regenerative agriculture, Regenagri, Better Cotton Initiative, organic farming, sustainable fashion, supply chain transparency, ag tech, farm automation, agricultural robotics, drip irrigation, California water, specialty crops, California agriculture, Central Valley farming, farm labor, sustainability certifications, brand sourcing, food and fiber, agribusiness, farming podcast, food marketing podcast

#FarmToFame #CaliforniaCotton #RegenerativeAgriculture #CaliforniaAgriculture #NobleWest

In Episode 15 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox kicks off season two with Walt Duflock — Senior Vice President of Innovation at Western Growers and one of the most widely followed voices in global ag technology. A fifth-generation Monterey County farmer, Walt leads the team that vets, validates, and stress-tests the startups building automation and chemistry alternatives for specialty crop growers. He's also become the industry's go-to analyst on what's happening in Peru — and why California growers should be paying very close attention. 🫐

In this episode:

• Why Western Growers doesn't act like a typical trade group — and what that frees its innovation team to do
• The real math behind H-2A labor, and what it's doing to the cost of farming in California
• Walt's USDA census projection for where California acreage and farmer counts land by 2052
• The demand problem the industry created for itself — and what consumers will and won't pay extra for
• How berries took the front table of the produce aisle away from apples
• What Peru's rise in ag exports should be telling California growers

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: ag tech, agriculture technology, ag innovation, Western Growers, Walt Duflock, specialty crops, California agriculture, farm labor shortage, H-2A, farm automation, agricultural robotics, produce industry, fresh produce marketing, food and beverage marketing, organic produce, regenerative agriculture, grocery retail, produce aisle, berries, avocados, Peru agriculture, ag exports, food supply chain, agribusiness, water infrastructure, farming podcast, food marketing podcast

#FarmToFame #AgTech #CaliforniaAgriculture #FreshProduce #NobleWest

Alison Patt is the CEO of Thomas Cuisine, the Boise-based food service company celebrating its fortieth year and serving tens of millions of meals annually across more than a dozen states — in hospitals, senior living communities, schools, corporate dining, and professional sports kitchens. Since joining in 2020, she has taken a real food ethos that had been in the company's DNA for decades and turned it into something operational: a shared definition, hard standards, and a published list of ingredients the company will no longer serve. Her conviction on this is personal, rooted in what changed for her son Joey when her family cut processed food from their home. Ali sits down with one of the most dynamic executives she's worked with in twenty-five years for a conversation about what it actually takes to mean what you market. 🥗

In this episode:

• The family story that turned Alison into a real food advocate, and the founder's own health scare that put the same conviction at the center of Thomas Cuisine forty years ago
• Why food service is the least understood bridge between agriculture and consumers — and what it means to serve millions of meals to the most vulnerable people in the country
• Inside the scrap list: how the company built a shared definition of real food without outpricing the clients it serves
• Food as part of the care team in a hospital, and as performance fuel in a pro sports kitchen — the same standard doing two very different jobs
• Why Alison wants marketing to be operations, not aspiration, and what she means by companies that "teach you how to tap dance"
• What farmers, growers, and food brands can do to become better partners to food service — and why prioritizing quality ingredients sends a market signal all the way back to the farm

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: Alison Patt, Thomas Cuisine, food service, foodservice industry, real food, real food movement, scratch cooking, hospital food, senior living dining, school food, feeding pro athletes, San Jose Earthquakes, Simplot, Boise, chefs, dietitians, ingredient standards, healthy food at scale, food service marketing, mission-driven company, food industry, women in leadership, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, food podcast

#FarmToFame #RealFood #FoodService #ThomasCuisine #NobleWest

CJ Bruce is the founder and CEO of The Missing Ingredient, the food and beverage marketing agency he launched in 2016 and has built into a growth partner for some of the most talked-about brands in the category. He started out studying film and television, moved to LA to break into entertainment, and discovered he was better at getting people to watch things than making them — a realization that led to viral video work for brands like IKEA, Gatorade, and Ford before he brought that expertise to an industry he actually cared about. Six seasons into leading digital strategy for Sumo Citrus, CJ has become one of the sharpest voices on what it takes to build a beloved brand around a whole food.

In this episode:

• How CJ went from film school to food marketing, and why translating technical work for non-technical people became his sweet spot
• The real difference between a food trend and a diet trend, and which one you can actually build a long-term strategy around
• Inside six seasons of Sumo Citrus: how built-in seasonality became the brand's single biggest asset
• Defending a premium price point on a piece of fruit through education and farm-level storytelling (yes, including the sunscreen)
• Why CJ thinks the next ten years in ag marketing will bring exponentially more change than the last ten, and where AI fits in
• The underrated case for owning your audience through email, even if you don't sell direct to consumer

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: CJ Bruce, The Missing Ingredient, Sumo Citrus, mandarins, citrus, specialty fruit, premium produce, produce marketing, seasonality, seasonal produce, food trends, diet trends, TikTok food trends, yuzu, real food, grocery delivery, Instacart, food and beverage marketing, brand storytelling, creative agency, food agency, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, marketing podcast

#FarmToFame #SumoCitrus #FoodTrends #ProduceMarketing #NobleWest

In Episode 12 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Rachel Klataske — a food scientist, product developer, and the show's first bakery-science-trained, Midwestern guest. A graduate of Kansas State's bakery science and management program (the only four-year degree of its kind in the country, and one her dad went through before her), Rachel spent time at Kraft and Post before landing at Nu Life Market, where she's spent nearly eleven years championing an underdog crop: sorghum. She and Ali get into why sorghum is "the best grain you've never heard of," how one farmer's observation built a company, and what the future of gluten-free food really looks like. 🌾

In this episode:

• How the only four-year bakery science degree in the country shaped the way Rachel thinks about ingredient functionality and food development
• Why sorghum is "the best grain you've never heard of" — an ancient, drought-resilient crop grown in Kansas for 150 years, yet historically sent to export, feed, and ethanol instead of the dinner table
• The market shift she's watched firsthand: from an estimated 1–2% of U.S. sorghum going into food a decade ago to roughly 7–10% today
• Why gluten-free bakery is the hardest formulation challenge in food — and why grains like sorghum, rice, and corn work best in concert, not competition
• How the industry moved past "good enough" gluten-free toward nutritionally dense products people actually crave (yes, including that gluten-free Cheez-It that keeps selling out)

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: Rachel Klataske, sorghum, sorghum flour, milo, Nu Life Market, Kansas, Kansas farmers, Sorghum Checkoff, gluten-free, gluten-free baking, gluten-free flour, ancient grains, whole grains, drought-tolerant crops, bakery science, Kansas State, food ingredients, alternative flours, food innovation, grain farming, women in food, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, farming podcast

#FarmToFame #Sorghum #GlutenFree #AncientGrains #NobleWest

In Episode 11 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Denise Junqueiro — a produce marketing powerhouse whose career runs from the USDA to the commodity board world (the California Fig Advisory Board, California Tree Fruit Agreement, and California Olive Committee) to one of the rarest feats in ag marketing: helping take Mission Produce public. Now having worked across eight-plus commodities and currently leading customer and business development at Westfalia Fruit, Denise and Ali dig into why policy is the foundation under everything, how commodity boards really create value, and what it actually takes to be one of only a handful of marketers to steer a produce company through an IPO. 🥑

In this episode:

• How a USDA internship out of Fresno State became a foundation in policy — PACA, grades and standards — that still shapes her work on the private side
• Why she chose commodity boards over a full-time USDA post: staying close to growers and the land, and being "part of the solution" rather than just a messenger
• The case for commodity boards as "family" — a long-tail investment where "everybody's money is nobody's money," and you only reap the benefit if you show up and serve on the committees
• Inside the Mission Produce IPO: how marketing became a far bigger lever than anyone expected, learning the process on the fly during COVID, writing the company's story, and landing on Nasdaq
• Why your website and social are your "front door to the world" — and why produce marketing can't keep being the third thing thought of

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: Denise Junqueiro, Mission Produce, avocados, IPO, Nasdaq, produce IPO, taking a company public, produce marketing, commodity boards, California Olive Committee, California Fig Advisory Board, California Tree Fruit Agreement, USDA, agriculture policy, Apeel, Westfalia Fruit, Fresno State, export programs, fresh produce, agribusiness, marketing career, women in produce, women in leadership, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, farming podcast

#FarmToFame #MissionProduce #Avocados #IPO #NobleWest

In Episode 10 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Lynn Ducharme — a talent and executive search leader who came up through the HR and "people" side of business and has spent the last eight years focused exclusively on food and beverage. An advisory board member at the Females & Food community and now scratching an entrepreneurial itch across a dynamic client roster (everything from macarons to big, big business), Lynn makes the case that HR and marketing are the two most underestimated forces in any company — and that in food, getting talent right is everything. 🤝

In this episode:

• Why HR and marketing are the "two underdogs" of business — dismissed as warm-and-fuzzy and pretty pictures, when both quietly drive enterprise value and long-term strategy
• Why food operates like no other sector: "as fast-paced as fashion, but as regulated as pharma" — and why outsiders (and tech money) so often underestimate its nuance
• What Lynn looks for in talent in the age of AI: not raw intellect, but social and emotional connectivity and relationships with real subject-matter experts
• Why "staying in your swim lane" is a liability, and why cross-functional players who tap into institutional knowledge win
• The hard truth for owner-operated food companies: you can't just hire a VP of Sales and expect your problems to disappear — you have to invest in the marketing engine behind them

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

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Keywords: Lynn Ducharme, HR, human resources, talent, recruiting, hiring, executive search, food industry careers, food and beverage industry, agriculture careers, sales leadership, marketing and HR, food and beverage talent, enterprise value, specialist vs generalist, fresh produce, frozen foods, retail sales, razor-thin margins, business growth, women in leadership, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, business podcast

#FarmToFame #HR #Recruiting #FoodIndustry #NobleWest

In Episode 9 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox is back solo behind the mic — fresh off her first trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a goal that had been on her list for a decade. Four days post-Cannes and still shaking off the jet lag, Ali unpacks the two biggest takeaways from her time at the world's most influential creativity award show, and makes the case for why food and agriculture marketing deserves a much bigger seat at that table. 🎬

In this episode:

• What Cannes Lions actually is (and how to pronounce it) — plus why showing up as a specialty ag marketer turned heads all week
• Why community is everything: lessons from Worldwide Partners, the global network of 100+ independently owned agencies across 44+ countries that's shaped Ali's last several years in business
• Inside Own It, the community for women agency owners — and the eye-opening reality that only 1% of U.S. agencies are woman-owned
• Why Food & Beverage brands took home just 15-20% of this year's Cannes Lions awards, and the opportunity that gap represents for the industry
• A shoutout to Heinz Ketchup, the only hero food ingredient brand with repeat wins this year, and to Maple Leaf Foods' award-winning "Look for the Leaf" campaign

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.

---Keywords: Cannes Lions, Cannes Lions 2026, Ali Cox, Noble West, food brands, food and beverage marketing, advertising awards, creative awards, Worldwide Partners, independent agencies, women-owned agencies, women in advertising, specialty agency, agriculture marketing, hero food ingredients, brand building, Heinz, Maple Leaf Foods, marketing conference, female agency owner, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, Own It podcast, advertising podcast, marketing podcast

#FarmToFame #CannesLions #WomenOwnedBusiness #FoodMarketing #NobleWest

In Episode 8 of Farm to Fame, Ali Cox sits down with Katie Manetti, Retail Account Specialist for the California Strawberry Commission and a sixth-generation pear grower who's spent her career working with commodity boards including the National Watermelon Promotion Board and the National Mango Board. Katie shares what it's like growing up on her family's Sacramento Delta pear ranch, why the farming industry struggles to tell its own story, and how commodity boards actually work behind the scenes — who sets the agenda, who funds the campaigns, and why every grower and brand gets the same treatment no matter their size. 🍓

In this episode:

• Growing up sixth-generation on a Sacramento Delta pear ranch — and learning the business from the field to the packing shed to the store shelf
• Cannery pears vs. fresh market varieties, and why most consumers (even self-proclaimed foodies) don't know the difference
• Inside the National Mango Board's playbook for teaching buyers, produce managers, and consumers how to select and use a mango
• How commodity boards work — growers fund the campaigns, set the agenda, and get equal representation no matter the brand
• What makes a strong promotions committee, and why diversity of perspective beats a room full of people who agree

Farm to Fame explores how farming operations and food producers evolve from commodities into culturally relevant, beloved brands. Hosted by Ali Cox, CEO of Noble West and fifth-generation farmer.
---Keywords: Katie Manetti, pears, Bartlett pears, pear farming, Sacramento Delta, apple varieties, Cosmic Crisp, Red Delicious, how to pick a mango, mangoes, National Mango Board, National Watermelon Promotion Board, watermelon, California Strawberry Commission, strawberries, commodity boards, produce marketing, fresh produce, fruit varieties, women farmers, sixth-generation farmer, female founder, female entrepreneur, female CEO, women-owned business, women in business, women in agriculture, farming podcast#FarmToFame #AppleVarieties #CommodityBoards #FreshProduce #NobleWest