Focus on Agriculture

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...

KING CITY — Hundreds of third graders from South Monterey County schools attended the 2025 South County Farm Day last month to learn all about agriculture. The annual enrichment program, sponsored by Monterey County Agricultural Education, gives an opportunity for youth to become familiar 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...

SALINAS VALLEY — University of California Santa Cruz’s CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) along with several partners has received a $1 million, 15-month planning grant to support regional drone education and workforce development from the James Irvine Foundation. The funds will be...

SALINAS VALLEY — Monterey County health officials have been working with agricultural companies and have reiterated safety plans with the onset of the new growing season, with the goal of keeping ag workers safe and the food supply network stable. “With the start of the...

KING CITY — Jeremiah Casey arrived in San Lucas, Calif., in 1861 as a young Irish immigrant. He started homesteading and ranching, raising beef, finishing them on grass and marketing them as best he could, given the limited resources at hand.  Back then, ranchers didn't...

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...

Future Farmers of America members from King City to Watsonville gathered at Soledad High School for the annual interview contest on Jan. 31.

SALINAS — Hartnell College has been awarded a $9.5 million grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s inaugural NEXTGEN program.  The official announcement was made during a presentation by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Washington, D.C., on June 20. “This...