Focus on Agriculture

KING CITY — Roughly 1,400 third graders from South Monterey County schools attended the 2024 South County Farm Day last Thursday to learn about agriculture and experience animals firsthand.  The annual enrichment program, sponsored by Monterey County Agricultural Education, gives an opportunity for youth to...

After more than four years of devastating drought, 2017 saw California receive the wettest winter in more than 100 years.

The City of King has implemented a comprehensive effort aimed at attracting and increasing quality housing for our local agricultural employees. There has been a significant amount of misleading information in the community regarding the City’s position involving the permitting of a local temporary seasonal...

KING CITY — Salinas Valley Fair Heritage Foundation has announced Valeria Beltran, a junior at Gonzales High School, as the recipient of the 2025 Heritage Foundation Scholarship. As this year’s winner, Beltran will raise the official Heritage Animal, a hog she has named “Zero,” and...

GREENFIELD — South Monterey County Joint Union High School District (SMCJUHSD) will launch two farm-to-cafeteria educational programs between Greenfield High School and the district’s Food Services Department. The first-of-its-kind collaboration was made possible by a new grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s...

KING CITY — Monterey County Home Charter School senior Carli Hammond was crowned 2022 Miss Salinas Valley Fair after competing against one other girl in such areas as personality, scholastic ability, poise and horsemanship. The annual contest took place at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in...

SALINAS VALLEY — Hartnell College hosted a special version of the annual Ag Tech Summit — a half-day, in-person program called AgTechX Ed — last month on the Main Campus in Salinas. The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology has joined with the California...

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...

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.

WASHINGTON — Before dawn on an October morning in 2015, representatives of the United Farm Workers turned up at a strawberry plant nursery in Northern California to meet with workers and urge them to consider unionizing. They were able to enter the nursery’s property thanks...