Clash between union campaigns and private property at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — Before dawn on an October morning in 2015, representatives of the United Farm Workers turned up at a strawberry plant nursery in Northern California to meet with workers and urge them to consider unionizing.
They were able to enter the nursery’s property thanks...
Taking the vaccine into the fields to help vulnerable farmworkers
CALIFORNIA — Before state officials announced that 40% of California's new vaccine doses would go to low-income communities, leaders were struggling to make good on promises to prioritize vulnerable Californians in the vaccine rollout.
As my colleague Miriam Jordan recently wrote, farmworkers were among those...
Lavender Creek Co. partners with quilters to bring comfort to local patients
MONTEREY COUNTY — Lavender Creek Co., Monterey County’s local family-run lavender wellness brand, has announced a new partnership with the Monterey Peninsula Quilters Guild, providing locally grown lavender for the handcrafted eye pillows donated to CHOMP, Salinas Valley Health, Natividad and the VNA.
The eye...
Women in agtech: Martha Montoya
Editor’s Note: The following profile is an excerpt from Amy Wu’s upcoming book, “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown,” which tells the stories of women entrepreneurs who are transforming agriculture through high technology.
Martha Montoya never imagined that her...
Virtual exhibit highlights women innovators in agtech
SALINAS VALLEY — A new exhibition at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas highlights a diverse generation of women innovators and their contribution to agriculture by way of technology.
“From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators in California Agtech,” which premiered last month, uses multimedia to...
Guest Column | Food Security is Critical to Economic and National Security on California’s Central Coast
The agricultural stretch of California’s Central Coast along the Salinas Valley is often called the “Salad Bowl of the World,” and for good reason. It supplies over 60% of the nation’s lettuce and substantial portions of strawberries, spinach and broccoli. But beyond the fertile...
Wine festival features four days of activities
Ranked 11th by last year’s U.S. food and wine festival calendar critics, the 2017 Paso Robles Wine Festival is scheduled for May 18-21.
Supreme Court rules against union recruiting on California farms
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a California regulation allowing union organizers to recruit agricultural workers at their workplaces violated the constitutional rights of their employers.
The vote was 6-3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing...
Newsom signs bill to protect farmworkers from wildfire smoke
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 73, Assemblymember Robert Rivas’ Farmworker Wildfire Smoke Protections Act, into law on Sept. 27.
California’s wildfire season, combined with heat waves and the Covid-19 pandemic, has helped shine a light on the necessary safety protocols agricultural...
