Focus on Agriculture

SALINAS VALLEY — The iconic Artichoke Festival is making a grand return to its roots in the heart of the Salinas Valley this year. Set for June 14-15, the annual festival will take place at the Monterey County Sheriff’s Posse Grounds in Salinas, a move...

SALINAS VALLEY — Salinas Valley Fair activities will begin this week with the virtual junior livestock auction set for Saturday, May 8. Like last year, Covid-19 pandemic health guidelines have caused an online format and an earlier scheduling than the traditional mid-May fair dates. Youth from...

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.

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...

SALINAS VALLEY — As the country celebrates National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month this June, the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) is spotlighting the farmers behind the produce — and the power of farming to change lives. Located in the heart of the Salinas...

GREENFIELD — For the second time, thousands of freshly prepared meals were distributed to farmworker families suffering during the Covid-19 crisis on May 26 at Patriot Park in Greenfield. The food distribution is the latest effort by the United Farm Workers and World Central Kitchen...

SALINAS VALLEY — One year after a devastating fire destroyed Taylor Farms’ food processing plant in Salinas, the agriculture company will reopen the facility later this month in time for the start of the Salinas Valley planting season. Following months of construction, the foodservice location...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Monterey County Supervisors Luis Alejo and Chris Lopez will be conducting a special honoring of living Bracero workers who reside in Monterey County at the Sept. 12 Board of Supervisors meeting in Salinas as part of the first-ever “Bracero History Recognition...

CALIFORNIA — As wildfire conditions across California are expected to increase steadily through the summer, state officials last month expressed concerns about cuts in staff and funding at federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, a division within the Agriculture Department that partners with...

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...