Focus on Agriculture

For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept farmworkers stooped over for long hours each day. Workers were only able to stand and stretch when they reached the...

Cesar Mendoza had been a participant in Food, What?!, an organization that brings the youth of Santa Cruz County into the world of farming, food production and cooking.

SALINAS VALLEY — This Earth Month, Scheid Family Wines celebrates nearly seven years of being 100% powered by renewable wind energy. The Greenfield family-owned and operated wine company, which has embraced sustainability as a core tenet since its inception in 1972, is the only winery...

More than three decades ago, Cesar Chavez, founder of the first successful union for farmworkers, predicted a future in which the cities of California would be run by people who looked like him. “History and inevitability are on our side,” he said in one of his best-known...

Hundreds gathered at the AgTechx Expo last Thursday at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City to learn about the latest advances in how to better keep the public food supply safe from dangerous pathogens.

SALINAS — Multiple agencies from across Monterey County responded to a four-alarm fire that severely damaged Taylor Farms’ food production facility in Salinas last Wednesday. The 225,000-square-foot building, located in the 1200 block of Abbott Street, had been closed for the winter but was in...

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.

KING CITY — Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City were buzzing last month as the annual Fair Kick-Off event drew more than 600 guests and set an enthusiastic tone for the upcoming 81st Salinas Valley Fair, scheduled for May 15-18. Organized by the Salinas Valley...

CENTRAL COAST — Ellie Dyt knows a lot more about the California dairy industry than most 17-year-old high schoolers. Dyt was raised on a dairy farm her whole life in the small town of Crows Landing, home to thousands of dairy cows, gaining first-hand experience...

KING CITY — King City planning commissioners have delayed a final decision on the Meyers Farmworker Housing Facility until their Oct. 7 meeting. The 4-0 vote came during the Planning Commission’s Aug. 19 meeting, where numerous community members, business owners and farmworkers spoke out on...