Conference probes climate change and farms
WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley’s agriculture businesses and the employees that keep them running are starting to feel the heat, literally.
Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves and wildfires are growing concerns for farmers in the typically cool, coastal stretch of land that overlaps Santa Cruz and...
Production moves forward at JSM Organics
For many farmers, the winter months are spent recovering from harvest season and getting ready to plant. Even in a Mediterranean climate like the Central Coast, it is common for farms to use the slower time to reassess.
But at JSM Organics in Royal Oaks,...
CDFA seeks members for advisory committee
CALIFORNIA—The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is currently accepting applications from stakeholders interested in serving on a Registered Service Agency (RSA) Advisory Committee. Business and Professions Code (BPC), Division 5, Chapter 5.5,
Section 12541 authorizes the RSA Advisory Committee to advise the Department...
Calabasas students plant garden at Whisky Hill Farms
An eager group of fifth graders filed through fresh beds of dirt at Whisky Hill Farm (WHF) in Watsonville Sept. 13, ready to plant their very own seedlings.
Laura Arnow’s fifth grade class from Calabasas Elementary School were there to finally transplant crops they had...
From dry to drenched
After more than four years of devastating drought, 2017 saw California receive the wettest winter in more than 100 years.
USDA announces increase to CalFresh benefits
WATSONVILLE—Starting on Oct. 1, anyone receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, known in California as CalFresh, will see a slight increase to the amount they receive each month.
The changes to the federal Thrifty Food Plan comes thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
Farm, biotech company secures more grants for education programs
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...
Supervisor Friend hosting tele-town hall to discuss farmworker protections
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend tonight will host a tele-town hall from 6-7pm with guest Tom AmRhein to talk about the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
AmRhein, the former president of the Farm Bureau and the current chair of...
Keeping the tradition alive
Walking through a rose garden, it can be hard to resist bending down to take a whiff of at least one flower.
How Farmworkers Outlawed ‘El Cortito’ 50 Years Ago
For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept...
