Focus on Agriculture

SALINAS VALLEY — Nearly 400 people with a professional stake in the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed worldwide gathered at Hartnell College on May 4-5 for the 17th Annual Western Food Safety Conference. The conference, held on Hartnell’s Main Campus in Salinas as...

KING CITY — King City in Bloom hosted a dedication ceremony on June 24 for the recently completed mural, “A Tribute to Cattle Ranching and the Salinas Valley Fair,” which is the organization’s third historic mural in the town. Project co-chair Steve Schmidt spoke...

Ranked 11th by last year’s U.S. food and wine festival calendar critics, the 2017 Paso Robles Wine Festival is scheduled for May 18-21.

KING CITY — Applications are currently being accepted for the prestigious title of Miss Salinas Valley Fair, which is open to any junior or senior high school girl who is a resident or student of school districts in the counties of Monterey, San Benito,...

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...

KING CITY — Celebration Nation is continuing to host food banks for local farmworkers in the Salinas Valley, with the next two events planned for King City and Greenfield on upcoming Saturdays. The nonprofit, launched in 2020 to support farm-working communities in California, currently schedules food...

KING CITY — Kacey Hass, a seventh-grade life science teacher at Chalone Peaks Middle School, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to start a school garden. Hass is also the gardening teacher for both seventh and eighth grades, but the campus currently does...

SALINAS VALLEY — Monterey County companies, organizations and agencies have partnered to host mass vaccination sites weekly, with the latest having taken place at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City last Saturday. Two mass clinics had already taken place earlier this month in Salinas,...

CALIFORNIA — Arcadia Publishing has announced the publication of “California Agriculture,” a new history of the state’s agriculture industry by author Patti DesMarais. The 128-page paperback is part of Arcadia’s “Images of America” book series, featuring historical information and photographs. Beginning with the Spanish padres in...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Monterey County agriculture pumped more than $11 billion into the local economy in 2023 and supported 81,315 jobs, according to a new economic report. Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Rich Ordonez released the latest comprehensive analysis of the county’s largest industry on Nov. 18,...