Focus on Agriculture

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

When Dick Peixoto decided in 1996 to convert his 55-acre farm in Watsonville to an organic production, he wasn’t sure if he’d made the right decision.  Peixoto had been farming conventionally for years, and back then, organic produce was a specialty—something only smaller farms tended...

Apple harvest is underway, and at Pista Farmlands in the Pajaro Valley, the season is shaping up to be a bountiful one. Pista Farmlands is a 75-acre plot of land about one parcel northwest of Watsonville, consisting mostly of apple orchards that supply fruit to...

The Rancho Cielo Youth Campus was the site of a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ted Taylor Agricultural Center on April 8, with speakers including Bruce Taylor and John Phillips, founder of Rancho Cielo.

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

In 2021, biotech company Blume Industries (BI) and Whiskey Hill Farms (WHF) became recipients of The Farmer Rancher Grant, a major grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Western Division of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). The grant aims to support farmers and...

Patrick and Teresa Royan were living in Los Gatos when they first discovered Pleasant Valley, a rural area in Aptos permeated with rolling hills, orchards, vineyards and pastures. The couple had been looking for a place to settle relatively close to the beach yet...

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, tree farms across the nation are thrust into the spotlight and sellers start their busiest time of year. This year, the industry is holding steady, despite a nationwide shortage that is pushing up prices. Heatwaves and fires that...

WATSONVILLE—On March 30, the Watsonville Municipal Airport (KWVI) announced it had renewed a two-year lease with Watsonville-based Urban Organics, aiming to bring fresh produce to the community as the sole organic farm within city limits. At the southernmost tip of airport property, just over the...

In 2014 Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, set out on a road trip across the U.S. Hoover covered 20,000 miles over four months, visiting 29 different Indigenous communities and asking everyone she met one question: How do...