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...

As we all manage the implementation of our groundwater management sustainability plans in the next 15 years, there will be some hard choices that communities will need to make. Most of these will include financing various water supply solutions, such as resource projects, land...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Raley’s and Washington-based FirstFruits Farms donated 30,000 pounds of fresh apples on April 1 to the Food Bank for Monterey County. The contribution was made possible by Raley’s customers who purchased select apples during January and February as part of a give-back...

KING CITY — Construction crews recently finished pouring the foundation for King City High School’s new Future Farmers of America facility, which is taking shape at the former Mildred Street parking lot on the east end of the campus. The facility will feature new areas...

CALIFORNIA — Grappling with higher costs and challenges related to water, labor, regulations and trade, some California farm leaders question whether the nation’s No. 1 agriculture state has reached a tipping point. California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass discussed the high cost of operating a...

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.

KING CITY — The 78th annual Salinas Valley Fair returned after two years of Covid-19 pandemic closures with crowds packing the fairgrounds in King City, living up to the theme of “Back in the Saddle.”  While total attendance numbers weren’t available yet, the four days...

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...

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...