In this heartwarming episode, I sit down with Tony, a longtime member of the United Ag community, to talk about his inspiring journey through agriculture—from working alongside his father in the fields as a child to becoming a safety manager and United Ag ambassador. Tony shares how early hands-on experiences shaped his deep appreciation for hard work and sparked a lifelong mission to support and protect agricultural workers. We dive into how technology is transforming the ag space, with digital tools like timekeeping apps and virtual ID cards making life easier for field workers. As part of United Ag’s Ambassador Program, Tony provides honest feedback that helps customize these tools for real-world use across diverse regions and employers. More than just work, this episode celebrates the sense of family, community, and purpose that defines United Ag. Tony and I reflect on what it means to be part of something bigger—where work doesn’t feel like work, and where partnerships feel more like family.
In this heartwarming episode, I sit down with Tony, a longtime member of the United Ag community, to talk about his inspiring journey through agriculture—from working alongside his father in the fields as a child to becoming a safety manager and United Ag ambassador. Tony shares how early hands-on experiences shaped his deep appreciation for hard work and sparked a lifelong mission to support and protect agricultural workers.
We dive into how technology is transforming the ag space, with digital tools like timekeeping apps and virtual ID cards making life easier for field workers. As part of United Ag’s Ambassador Program, Tony provides honest feedback that helps customize these tools for real-world use across diverse regions and employers.
More than just work, this episode celebrates the sense of family, community, and purpose that defines United Ag. Tony and I reflect on what it means to be part of something bigger—where work doesn’t feel like work, and where partnerships feel more like family.
Plantel Nurseries: https://www.plantelnurseries.com/
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg.
Reach me at kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg website - www.unitedag.org
UnitedAg Health and Wellness Centers - https://www.unitedag.org/health-benefits/united-agricultural-benefit-trust/health-centers/
Episode Contributors - Tony Ramirez, Kirti Mutatkar, Dave Visaya, Rhianna Macias
The episode is also sponsored by Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com
Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com
Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com
Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/
SAIN Medical https://sainmedical.com/
MDI Network - https://www.mdinetworx.com/about-us
Kirti: [00:00:04] I'm sitting across from Tony. And this is a beautiful day actually. We're looking out in the ocean and a beautiful view. And we are the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes, San Pedro. I don't know, I always get that confused, but really end of conference and excited. Excited to be here, Tony, to be sitting across from you. Because I know this is going to be a great conversation and I'm looking forward to hearing your story. So welcome to the show.
Tony: [00:00:34] Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Kirti: [00:00:36] So before we get started, can you introduce yourself? Tell us what you do?
Tony: [00:00:41] Yes. My name is Tony Ramirez and I work for a company in Santa Maria, California, where we do vegetable transplants. So we grow vegetable transplants for a lot of the locals. And we also ship to the desert area and to Wisconsin area, and we provide transplants like broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, that type of thing. And I've been working for this company for 37 years now, so I've been in agriculture for quite a while now.
Kirti: [00:01:15] I didn't realize you were working for 37 years, before --.
Tony: [00:01:18] Your time.
Kirti: [00:01:19] Yeah. So what do you when people like. So one of the things I do with the show is, -- people who don't know agriculture listen to it. So when you say transplants, can you explain that to people who might not know what that means?
Tony: [00:01:30] Yeah. The average person, when they go down the road where you see vegetables planted in the fields there’s part of it, we grow the starters in nurseries. And so what it is, is we give the farmer a head start. For an example, if a farmer has their fields full of plants. We have other plants growing in the nurseries ready for them. It's like a farmer having extra ground because their fields are full and we have nurseries also with their next plantings, so we can have their next plant would be 30 to 90 days, depending on the varieties or plants they want to grow. And when they harvest their fields, they clean it up. And we got the next plant ready to go to their fields and which already advanced 30 to 90 days. So it's a win win. Got it. We help by growing it in a more condensed areas, where a lot more plants in a smaller area we’re wasting less water or wasting less fertilizers and other materials. So it's cost effective and it's something that the farmers really like because they actually get an extra yield in their fields by using transplants.
Kirti: [00:03:07] So when they're ready to plant, they reach out to you. And then that's what happens. So they don't need that land, right?
Tony: [00:03:12] Yes, we have a lot of farmers with that. We have yearly schedules for to where, you know, they're harvesting one field and the next one's ready to go. They harvest another field, the next one's ready to go. So it's a pretty steady process for them. They're able to produce more. They're able to provide more.
Kirti: [00:03:31] Yeah that's awesome because yeah like I said, one of the reasons I started This is Ag was not just for the ag industry. So one of my goals is people listening to this outside of the agricultural industry understand what it means. And even when you listen to your story. So I'd love to hear what your story is, what made you come into agriculture. Sure, because even from people outside agriculture kind of listening in, it's some of some of the stories are inspirational from what happens in agriculture. But somebody within agriculture listening and it just becomes a very relatable story that you feel, oh, I had this too, and get inspired by that. So that's kind of the goal with that. Having said that. So Tony, 37 years in clientele, what's your story and what makes somebody stay in a place for 37 years?
Tony: [00:04:27] Well, for me, I think it's the way I am being treated in the company. They treat me very well. A lot of respect and that type of thing keeps a person happy, keeps a person employed in the same company. But our family has always been in agriculture. I come from a family in Jalisco, Mexico, where my grandparents, my great grandparents, they've always been in the growing of beans and corn. Hard working people from the beginning of the day, when the sun's not even up till the sun goes down. People working. And you know, it came down to my father. My father. When he was in his early 20s, he decided to start his family. And he migrated from the state of Jalisco in Mexico down to the US. And he ended up here in Los Angeles working as a landscaper. And he lived in the city of Wilmington, here in Los Angeles, to the point where he was looking to get his family out of the area because of influences, you know, trying to have a better life. Yeah. We're young. And so he decided to move north to the Central Coast in the city of Santa Maria, where he went from working in landscaping into harvesting lettuce. At that time, my mother didn't work in Los Angeles, but when she landed in Santa Maria, they both went into farmworkers, became farmworkers, working, picking lettuce. So my dad was a picker, and my mother would be a bagger and packing the boxes. And, you know, these were long hours, and they did it for a very long time. And, you know, one of the I should say that it would be a very long day working their day would start like at 4:00, 4:30 in the morning, getting up, preparing their lunches, and then heading off to find the field where they're going to work.
Tony: [00:07:00] They would have long days after that long day. They would get home tired and still try and get ahead prepping for the next day. By the time that was done, they're done. They're tired, wanting to get to bed and prep themselves for the next day. So interaction with our parents, like during the week, was kind of hard because they were so busy. So yeah, so much going on for them. And our weekends working were good. That was family time. That's the time when we were able to interact and go out and do things with mom and Dad. But working in the lettuce fields was hard work. I remember asking my dad at one time. I said, dad, why do you keep going to work in agriculture? I mean, it's hard. You're tired. You're always working and you get up early. We never see you. And his response was, I like it. I like the people that I work with. I met new friends and they're good people. And we talk. And I couldn't do that in landscaping because it was only a couple of us. And now your mom's doing this. Your mom's there, too. Your mom's interacting. Your mom's getting to know new people. And today, they are still running across these people in town, and they stop and they say hello and they talk.
Kirti: [00:08:36] It's like a community for all of them. Yeah.
Tony: [00:08:38] So even though it was hard work. Yeah, they enjoyed it.
Kirti: [00:08:43] Nice. And you as a young person looking at this, right. So this is 4:30 in the morning to late at night. Busy almost 5 to 6 days a week. What does the young Tony looking at this saying I want this life? Did you ever feel I should try something outside of agriculture?
Tony: [00:09:04] Yes. Yes. From what I saw when I was young, I was like, no.
Kirti: [00:09:08] This is not for.
Tony: [00:09:09] Me. It's not for me. That's not what I'm looking to do.
Tony: [00:09:13] So I honestly, my goal was to work in construction. And my very first job was actually in construction.
Kirti: [00:09:22] It was okay.
Tony: [00:09:23] It was. Yes. I landed a job where we were building the very first greenhouses for plant nurseries.
Speaker4: [00:09:31] Oh. You were. Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker3: [00:09:33] Yes.
Tony: [00:09:34] So I was part of the construction team. And when we finished the job building the greenhouses. Well, the president at the time, Mr. Ken Patchett, one of the founders of the company, approached me and says, hey, we'd like to offer you a job. We'd like for you to stick around. And your boss says you're a good person and a good worker. And at the time, I said, you know, I don't have my next job ready to go, so I'll take it. I'll see what plan tells all. About 37 years I'm still here.
Tony: [00:10:10] And that's because of the way I'm treated there. It's not so much a salary or the money. It's the people that I work with and down from the worker, from the co-workers to my managers, my supervisors. They're all good people. And that's what made me stick around all these years.
Kirti: [00:10:35] It's so consistent. I think you must be my 38 or 39th person I've talked to you as part of this podcast And every single time this comes up, every single time people say that they stay for the people. And it is about people, right? So it's very interesting. It's like a theme across the board. And when you think of jobs outside and you think of corporate jobs and stuff and you talk to people, it's so much about how much do I make? What do I get out of this? What are the benefits, what are this and what are that? But deep down, I think, and when you talk to our people, our people, it's like it's about the people, right? It's very interesting. Interesting. In the last 37 years, right, as you've been part of plant health and doing that, anything that you felt about the way this industry is or even just generally about life, has it shifted for you? Has it made you think a little different about things.
Tony: [00:11:44] The hard working is still the same. People are still going through the same motions of getting up early in the morning. Families that have children have to get up early and move their children to their, you know, daycare centers or maybe family members that help them out with watching their kids while they're working. But it's still the same. You know, you have to get up early, prep yourself, you go to work, you get a long day at work, and it's just a cycle. And as much as we can help, the simplest things is very appreciated by the worker, mainly helping our frontline workers that, you know, have a little bit of difficulty communicating and even understanding documents. You know, the slightest little thing that you help somebody with. It's very appreciated by the person. So it's our goal not to turn anybody away because it could be something big that looks like, hey, this person really needs this. But the slightest little thing could be very important to that person. And by helping every single person, it goes a long ways.
Kirti: [00:12:58] That is true. Is that the most rewarding part of your job?
Tony: [00:13:01] It is because I remember, you know, my parents, my dad was the firstborn in the family, and he was the first one to migrate to the US. And so my brothers and I were the first ones actually going to school to learn English. And so at the age of five years old, I was already the family translator, which was very difficult because, you know, at kindergarten, you don't really know much, right? And you're having your, your father ask you to call like a physician or call, you know, a certain office and you don't know what what you're saying. You're just saying what your parents are telling you to say, but you really don't know what you're bringing across. And so it was it was very it was difficult because when the person on the other line was talking to me so that I can relate that to my father. My father is still chewing on my ear.
Kirti: [00:14:03] You're like, hold on, let me first understand.
Tony: [00:14:05] Slow down. Let me let me figure out what they're saying. I'll let you know. And then you can tell them what you want to say.
Kirti: [00:14:11] You're really five years old. Five years old.
Kirti: [00:14:13] You know, one of the things that in our member services team, when we hire a lot of people come in and say something very similar that they have done this for their families in the past, and we hire them because it's like, then you can start imagining your moms and dads and others in that. And so it really helps. But that's uh, did you find that like, that's a huge responsibility in a way, right?
Tony: [00:14:37] It was it was a huge responsibility. And I always, I always said, why me? Why always me? Why not my brother's house?
Kirti: [00:14:46] Your younger brother.
Tony: [00:14:47] I have younger brothers, so I'm the oldest one also.
Kirti: [00:14:50] So that's the reason? Yup. Yup.
Kirti: [00:14:53] You have to be the responsible one.
Tony: [00:14:55] I had to step up and do it. And, you know, I kind of got into that. Since I was that age, I've always been trying to help the next.
Kirti: [00:15:05] That's your passion? You want to help people?
Tony: [00:15:07] Yeah.
Kirti: [00:15:07] And that's the reason you're here.
Tony: [00:15:09] And that's very rewarding.
Kirti: [00:15:11] So when you were younger and your parents were working, did they ever take you with you to work and stuff? Did you get exposed to what they were doing?
Tony: [00:15:19] I got exposed when we were living here in Wilmington, when he was working in landscape at the age of ten years old. He would take me along with him and I would help him, you know, for putting in irrigation lines. I would be helping them dig in the trench.
Tony: [00:15:39] And to me, at that time, it was just fun. It wasn't work.
Tony: [00:15:43] And he had such a nice boss that, you know, he allowed me to be with him. And it was a random. It wasn't like on a regular basis.
Kirti: [00:15:52] Yeah. Yeah. But you got, like a kid to work.
Kirti: [00:15:56] But I think it's a way of learning. It's a way of understanding. I think that's another consistent thing I've seen. So usually it's people. The other thing, even when some of our board members and they talk about their earlier kind of what the childhood look like, it was on the farms doing things, it was that's how you learned and that's how it's like fun and doing that.
Tony: [00:16:19] Yeah. Right.
Tony: [00:16:19] I managed to do that, but once we got to Santa Maria. I didn't get the opportunity to work with them in the farms, but when I was in high school, I landed picking strawberries for a little while. So I picked strawberries for like three seasons. And after the third season I said, no, this is too hard for me.
Kirti: [00:16:45] You didn't want to do it.
Tony: [00:16:46] It's hard work. It makes you appreciate the hard work. Yeah, it makes you appreciate the people that do it. And they do it on a daily basis.
Kirti: [00:16:55] Yeah.
Tony: [00:16:56] But I chose to do something a little different. Even though I'm not doing all that hard work, I think I'm still in ag. And I still feel that I'm doing something productive and something that helps people.
Kirti: [00:17:10] Yeah. And you can empathize with them because you know what that looks like.
Tony: [00:17:14] Yes.
Kirti: [00:17:14] Right. We actually at United Ag every year when a new employee starts. So we do kind of an onboarding or we do this even for existing employees, we take them to the farms, local farms and have them work for a day. And what that gives is now certainly an appreciation for what our members are going through. So when a customer service person is now picking up the call, they know. So you're doing this in the sun like super hot and you're doing all this and you're just doing it for one day or a couple hours a day and you feel how exhausted you are. And so when the call comes in from somebody who's now, then you're so relatable that, oh, this person must be going through all this. I should be a very different person. I need to relate to them.
Tony: [00:17:58] All of a sudden that strawberry tastes a lot more sweeter.
Kirti: [00:18:01] Sweeter?
Kirti: [00:18:02] That's right. It does, it does. So anything else? Tony, you want to add any stories?
Tony: [00:18:08] I landed working in greenhouses. I was doing production and in production, I learned a lot of different equipment, a lot of greenhouse stuff that we do, like growing the plants, seeding the plants, forklifts, you know, just a lot of different procedures that have to be taken care of in the greenhouses. And for my last 20 years, I took on a role of a safety manager. And so my role changed a little bit in keeping employees safe. And that has been very rewarding for me in the sense that now I stand in front of them giving them trainings, and it opens up different doors because they learned to come to you because you're always in front of them. You're speaking their language. It makes it easier for them to come to you because you frequently visit them. And by helping one, that person tells the next, hey, this so-and-so helped me talk to him and we help him. And then the next one and next one. All of a sudden you have a lot of people coming to you because you're helping them.
Kirti: [00:19:28] That's right. So safety role is a very important role in agriculture, right? Because a lot of things that we need to be careful, like have those rules and all of that. So what does that look like for somebody who might be trying to understand what this means from an Ag standpoint?
Tony: [00:19:48] Well, it means, I think, that there is a lot of dangers, I want to say in Ag, because we work with a lot of big, heavy equipment, a lot of machinery, a lot of moving parts. And in Ag, people tend to be focused on work, what they're doing. Sometimes they oversee those aspects like those machineries, those things. So we have to constantly remind people to be cautious of what they're doing and explain the dangers that are around them so that they can, you know, avoid getting hurt because you know, we want everybody to come to work safely and go home safely, just as well.
Kirti: [00:20:33] Lot of training has to be done and safety comes first. Right?
Tony: [00:20:36] People have to get home and people have to come back to work the next day to be able to support their families. So it's a win win win when you keep them, you know, safe and healthy.
Kirti: [00:20:48] Yeah. Is that a stressful job?
Tony: [00:20:50] It could be in the very beginning if you're someone trying to learn it, but after a while, you learn how to maneuver through things and how to explain things in better ways, easier ways so it's better understood. We present these presentations in a way and in a manner where people are going to understand it. Your audience, you know, you adjust your audience, and it's been working for us.
Kirti: [00:21:19] Nice.
Kirti: [00:21:20] So you're part of the United X ambassador program for a few years now, and we have made a lot of changes based on the feedback that we get from the ambassador program. So this is a group of individuals who kind of test out some of the products that united or some of the ideas that come up. So what has been your experience being part of the ambassador program?
Tony: [00:21:42] I think that's getting better and better in workers, employees accepting and learning how to use some of these tools, because nowadays, for example, we're using digital timekeeping for people when they work, and it has to do with using your cell phone. And so there's features that they have to be working with their cell phones in order to get, you know, clocked in, you clock out or your break back in, you're off your break your lunches. And by people continuing to use these type of equipments and applications and they're starting to learn more and more and they're starting to accept how to use these things. For example, the latest application that was put out through United Ag where you have the membership ID cards accessible digital, it's huge because that's one of the biggest things that we get asked for. Hey, I lost my card. Hey, how can I get a new card? And so this way they have it with them all the time.
Kirti: [00:22:54] Right. And everybody has a smartphone.
Tony: [00:22:56] Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: [00:22:57] And now this feature also has a button that you press that says, hey, I need new cards. Can you send me new cards? So you avoid a lot of calls. You don't have to speak to nobody.
Kirti: [00:23:09] Right.
Tony: [00:23:09] You just click it in and they send it to you. The address that you request.
Kirti: [00:23:14] Right.
Tony: [00:23:14] And at the same time, when we're hiring people or we're giving out information, a lot of the people, when you give them information, they don't take care of their documents, you know, like a week or two later, they're asking you for something you just recently gave them.
Kirti: [00:23:31] Yeah.
Tony: [00:23:32] And with the applications, you have the access to look up physicians or different pharmacies, stuff like that. And you don't have to save any documents. It's with you all the time, right?
Kirti: [00:23:45] Yeah. That's so true. All these innovative things. And you don't know sometimes how it is being used or what happens. But it is really good to get that feedback from all of you to say, because you don't want to introduce something as a check mark, right? Saying you have this thing, but you want to make sure you have something that can be used and that that's a really good I mean, it's good to hear, as I was listening to this, oh, the digital ID cards will be back.
Tony: [00:24:12] And, you know, one of the things with the ambassador program and you know this, we give you feedback, whether it's good or whether it's bad, right? Because even the bad gives you good information 100%.
Kirti: [00:24:24] Sometimes I say, give me the bad first. Right. Because it is what cannot be used as more important. Actually, when you really look at anything right, good or bad and anything, why something doesn't work, what are the limitations? Any of that is good information because that's the data we want to collect. And we see what we need to do moving forward.
Tony: [00:24:45] Right.
Tony: [00:24:46] And that doesn't mean the tools are bad. It's just maybe the tool needs to be tweaked out a little bit so that it could be better understood or better used.
Kirti: [00:24:55] And some people in some other industries might be different. For us it's different. So it's like very different from different things.
Tony: [00:25:00] You we see that from valley to valley like Samuel Valley is not the same as the Salinas Valley.
Kirti: [00:25:07] Correct.
Tony: [00:25:08] You know, there's different people, different ways of doing things. So it changes the dynamics a little bit.
Kirti: [00:25:16] You know, and every employer is different. So one of the things I say at United Ag is, you know, a lot of people have very standard. This is how it is. You take it or leave it or this is how we can do. We cannot customize this. I find that United Ag is getting that feedback. Maybe this works for clientele. So let's let's change it for that. Maybe not for somebody else. Right. So we can do that. And that's actually our strength because that's what we need to be, right.
Tony: [00:25:42] You're customizing.
Kirti: [00:25:43] Customizing for each and every one. Every employer.
Kirti: [00:25:46] Yep. Yeah. And that has a better impact on utilization and overall claims cost and overall healthcare cost. That's what we want to strive for. So this has been a really good kind of your working with you as a partner and implementing some of the things. And it's always fun to see you at the conferences at United Ag and events at United Ag. You've been very, very engaged with United Ag, and when you're engaged at United Ag, it is a two way process, right? You get the benefit of that. We get the benefit of that. And it makes a great, great partnership. But more than partnership. Tony I feel you're part of our family. You're the United family. And thank you. Thank you for being that.
Tony: [00:26:26] Thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, during this conference that we just went through, it was very noticeable. I heard a lot of comments from other people that, you know, this whole United Ag, it's one big family because I didn't see one little click that was hanging out in the corner or people on that side. They were all in one single group.
Kirti: [00:26:51] Right?
Tony: [00:26:52] So that was that's special, you know, that you don't see very many places that operate in that fashion. United Ag is one group that that's true. It's like that like a big family.
Kirti: [00:27:04] That's true. And yesterday at the dancing time, it felt like we were at a family event. It felt like it's a family event rather than a work event. And it's actually every day when you go to work, it feels like I'm going to some family stuff, then rather work stuff. But how cool is that to be that you and I. You feel similar, right? Yeah. It feels like we are. It's like work doesn't feel work anymore. And even if we had to work like your parents, it's still okay, because we are. It's just a family thing. It's like we're just hanging out and doing our work. What needs to be done?
Tony: [00:27:34] I don't think I've ever said to myself, like, when I'm driving to work, oh, man, here we go again.
Kirti: [00:27:42] Right?
Tony: [00:27:43] I'm happy to go to work. I know who I'm going to go work with. And we have a very good team also at Plantel, just like United Ag. It's all one big partnership.
Kirti: [00:27:54] It is. So thank you. Thank you for making the time to talk to me. And I'm excited to maybe make part two of this conversation, Tony, thank you.
Tony: [00:28:02] Thank you for having me.
Kirti: [00:28:03] Okay. Bye.