BY VIVIENNE AGUILAR

CV Journalism Collaborative

It’s hard to get a fulfilling job that allows local biomolecular scientists, like Cody Fondse, to be creative. 

But, a local organization dedicated to solving this issue may give hope to Fondse and other Valley students and researchers. 

Fondse, a 32-year-old from Turlock, said he has learned more about the industrial food manufacturing industry by taking on odd jobs around the Valley, than in the classroom. He hopes the region can address this for the next wave of students. 

“I feel like there’s just such a lack of awareness in the college because they’re pushing just direct paths, and the classroom structure is not geared towards something like, ‘Hey, class, we’re going to do a project to completely learn and apply this random knowledge you’re getting.’” he said. “So those are the things I think that would really change the scope of how we do a lot of things.”

Much to his surprise, his unique experience with odd jobs around the Valley became a strength when he met a prospective employer at the first ever BioCirCA Summit hosted at his alma mater, California State University, Stanislaus Nov. 5 and 6.

The event brought industry leaders, policymakers, local politicians, college students and prospective employers together for a two-day affair on the Turlock campus, featuring interactive sessions, presentations and workshops.  

Building a better economy, through ag waste

The summit focused on regional efforts to build a circular bioeconomy, a cycle that uses biology to create products from organic materials. In this model, agricultural waste, like almond shells and husks, could be broken down and turned into its basic components and repurposed into new food sources. 

“Right now in the current job climate, it’s very hard to get a job, especially in very specific fields,” he said, “They just want to hire technicians. They don’t want to hire somebody that can be innovative, that can do research. Those jobs are very limited and hard to get. What’s really cool about this (summit) is the direct contact with somebody who’s like, ‘Hey, we’re trying to do something innovative. Come work with us.’”

Cody Yothers, a prospective employer from Optimized Foods said he’s on the hunt for exactly that kind of mindset in a role that recently opened up on his team. The startup company uses fermentation to break down food waste into new ingredients to sell to food manufacturers.

“If kids are coming out of here with, fermentation experiment experience, even if it’s like a beer brewing class, that immediately makes it more attractive to me, because… you’ve messed around in the same kind of field, or you’ve touched the same grass,” he said.

He said the agricultural packing and manufacturing industry across the northern San Joaquin region being home to several wineries and breweries is a real draw for him. His Davis-based company is thinking about where it would like to expand, and he said BEAM Circular has made it easier to imagine building in a place like Modesto.

“Down here, the infrastructure is maybe not as obvious, but it is here. One of the things that (BEAM) does is it (creates) visibility and really being like, look, this can happen here, look at this community that’s ready to support it,” he said.

BEAM Circular, a Modesto-based nonprofit organization, is dedicated to creating economic opportunities for San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties, by connecting regional experts who want to build a new type of economy around industrial agriculture, the region’s largest business sector. 

The organization’s goals include creating educational pathways that channel directly to local employers, and changing local and state policy to emphasize waste management and sustainable production.

Since its launch in 2023, BEAM has worked with local communities to define what a “good job” looks like to people in the tri-county region.

Yothers said the worksheets on “BEAM’s Good Jobs Framework” provided in one of the sessions was a huge help for him. 

“That resource alone, actually, to me, seems like a really valuable thing… The hope is that any companies that are coming in, or companies that are here that are going to innovate around this space (refer to the framework),” he said.

While the northern San Joaquin Valley’s economy is widely known for its agricultural industry,  researchers are also looking at ways to turn waste into wealth. Establishing the value that garbage has for the circular bioeconomy is one of the main problems BEAM works to address.

Egon Terplan, an economic strategist with California Forward and advisor to BEAM Circular and North Valley THRIVE, said so many people from education, policy, advocacy and other backgrounds are getting involved in the work because a biocircular economy invites creativity, and people are excited about the idea.

“Places that are able to put the pieces together, could become the center of that new opportunity. And the bio-economy is fascinating because it’s going to be everywhere. Yet, not all the places will have the special expertise,” he said.

The biocircular economy is a model recommended by the United Nations Trade and Development department. It encourages regions across the world to incorporate waste from manufacturing into new products, and therefore reducing waste and creating more sustainable jobs.

Terplan said a combination of climate change, social expectations of sustainability and new state legislation, like the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, are already changing the way the economy runs in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Building a circular bioeconomy, he said, gives the region the chance to adapt.

The northern region of the San Joaquin Valley is home to several manufacturing facilities that employ 10% of the region’s population and produce a significant amount of natural waste that can be commodified, he said. 

Through his work, he’s envisioning how those factors, along with the region’s proximity to researchers in the Bay Area and Sacramento, are the initial building blocks needed to make a biocircular economy a reality.

“We have an opportunity to kind of transition the (local) economy in this direction, but with the right intention, in a way that’s connected to community… It’s a big lift, but I think this is a ton of positivity,” Terplan said.

Planting the seeds of innovation at local colleges

BEAM has partnered with several colleges in the region in their effort to train a workforce ready to build a biocircular economy. Terplan said if this is achieved, it has the potential to kickstart generational opportunities for people living in the valley.

First-generation and immigrant students in Modesto are already pursuing these opportunities, and have found BEAM to be a validating force.

Elana Peach-Fine, director of the Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program at Modesto Junior College watched her students present, knowing how much effort it takes for students from their backgrounds to see themselves in the work.

She said she often sees her students discouraged by the anxieties their families have about them leaving the region to take on research positions after graduation.

“Then (BEAM) came along, and I’m like, ‘this is so amazing’, because it shows students how you can have a sustainable impact on your own communities, how you can stay here, and how you can make real jobs and impact in your community, how we can be the change makers,” Peach-Fine said.

Projects by students in the MESA program were featured throughout the summit. The program is designed to support students facing economic and social barriers as they pursue degrees in science, math and engineering pathways.

“A lot of industry professionals were saying that they were surprised that this type of research was being carried out at the community college level. It just felt really good to be acknowledged that way as well,” said Alondra Robles, a 20-year-old Ceres resident and environmental engineering major at MJC.

She and her research partner, Sukheer Kaur, who moved here three years ago from India, spent a month on a project titled “Catalytic conversion of agricultural waste into biofuels.” They will present their revised findings again at MJC’s annual science conference.

Both agreed that the MESA program and BEAM make the idea of the circular bioeconomy, and their place in it, seem real.

“I do want to come back to the Central Valley and serve people. Even if I don’t become a doctor… I would definitely get back to the valley where I’m from, even though I’m not from here, but like, I’m still a part of it now,” Kaur said.

Moving forward, Peach-Fine hopes the partnership between BEAM and MJC can bring more engagement from established local manufacturing facilities, like Gallo, to her students. 

Learn more about BEAM Circular’s regional partnerships, funding opportunities and upcoming projects at beamcircular.org.