Focus on Agriculture

SALINAS VALLEY — Pacific Valley Bank has announced that Taylor Fresh Foods, parent company of the Taylor Farms operating companies, has acquired a 16.3% ownership stake in the bank. The investment represents a significant minority position by a locally based, family-owned company with long-standing operations...

In recent weeks, dangerous heat has killed hundreds of people in Oregon and Washington, endangered workers across the region and strained California’s power grid. It has also exacerbated the slow-moving natural disaster already punishing the West: the drought. Late last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom formally urged...

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...

KING CITY — The 2022 Monterey International Wine Competition wrapped up March 12 at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City. Eighteen judges representing all aspects of the wine industry swirled and sipped through 743 entries, resulting in the selection of 58 Platinum Award winners,...

KING CITY — Roses that were planted by Girl Scouts 30 years ago at King City High School have been included in the new landscaping of the school’s state-of-the-art Career Technical Education building, which is set to open in February. Troop 3157 chose a beautification...

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...

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.

CALIFORNIA — A new article appearing in the current issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry explores the concept of “superfoods” and makes a case that fresh grapes have earned what should be a prominent position in the superfood family. The author,...

After 30 years of making its own wine, Smith Family Wines will discontinue producing the Paraiso, Irie and Alexander-Smith labels and close the tasting room at the Paraiso Vineyards on Paraiso Springs Road in Soledad.

MONTEREY COUNTY — The role of agriculture and the resulting monetary ripples through the economy was the subject of a recent analysis conducted by the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. Titled “Economic Contributions of Monterey County Agriculture,” the report was published in June 2020 based...