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Almond Facts
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2017
John Monroe credits his father-
in-law, William “Bill” E. Warne,
for fostering his dedication to
growing almonds. Assuming the
seat vacated by Elaine Rominger,
who retired at the 2016 Annual
Meeting, Monroe will represent
District 2 on the
Blue Diamond
board of directors. He is CEO
of Done-Again Farms, Inc., in
Arbuckle, California, farming
215 acres of almonds.
“Bill was strongly committed to the
values of an agricultural community,
and was a strong advocate of
agricultural co-ops,” he said. For more
than 45 years, the Monroe family has
been members of
Blue Diamond
. In 1981,
Monroe invested in a small orchard
project with his father-in-law, planting
almonds very densely and installing
solid-set irrigation. “As Bill got older, I
got involved with running his walnut
orchard. After Bill died in 1996, my
wife and I decided to continue nut
farming with a focus on almonds.
We planted our current orchard in
1998 and 2000, and added to the
operation in 2010 and 2012.”
Technology Meets
Almond Farming
Almonds are not the only success
Monroe has experienced in life. He
spent 30 years in the technology
industry working at Hewlett-Packard
(HP) gaining knowledge that
spans from global manufacturing,
distribution, quality assurance, and
marketing to general management.
“My years at HP saw the company
grow from about
Blue Diamond’s
size
today to a level 100 times larger,”
he explained. “HP’s business
success was a result of a relentless
Blue Diamond
Board
Welcomes New
District 2 Member
