Focus on Agriculture

On May 18, the Salinas Valley Fair returns to King City for four days of family-friendly events, exhibits and activities.

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...

SOLEDAD — CRU Winery’s tasting room has been designated a Blue Zones Project Participating Organization — the first of its kind to join the health initiative in Monterey County. The acknowledgment recognizes CRU Winery for actively implementing lifestyle changes and environmental modifications to promote longevity...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Monterey County residents can now put food scraps, including cooked meat and bones, among other kinds, in the green curbside cart, to be composted with their yard trimmings. With the greater convenience comes a big reduction in harm to the climate. When food...

SALINAS VALLEY — Salinas Valley Ag Tech Summit returns March 18-19 for its eighth annual event, recognizing the increasingly international scope of the produce industry, with a number of presenters from Latin America and a diversity of experience and expertise from California. There is...

YUMA, Ariz. — The Rev. Emilio Chapa was delivering a homily on a recent Sunday when he paused to lament a sight that had shaken him as he entered the sacristy before Mass. The board where his staff posted requests for funeral services was covered...

GREENFIELD — This Earth Month, Scheid Family Wines celebrates nearly seven years of being 100% powered by renewable wind energy. The Greenfield family-owned and operated wine company, which has embraced sustainability as a core tenet since its inception in 1972, is the only winery in...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Crop values fell in 2020 by a total of $499 million from 2019, with 2020’s total at $3.9 billion, according to the Monterey County Crop Report issued by Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Henry Gonzales on July 20. The 11.3% decrease in production...

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...

SALINAS VALLEY — Things were challenging enough for lettuce growers in Monterey County’s Salinas Valley before Mother Nature dealt a one-two punch in this year’s storms. Farmers in 2022 had suffered an estimated $150 million in crop losses as impatiens necrotic spot virus — a...