Opinion

The Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau (SCCFB) was honored with five County Activities of Excellence Awards, and was a finalist in the statewide Innovator Awards at the California Farm Bureau’s 104th meeting in early December. A local delegation of five attended the annual meeting in...

Thirty-three years ago, while my family was preparing for a birthday party, I decided to arrive early. My mother was shopping for a cake for my sister’s second birthday in our small hometown of Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, Mexico—a rural town of at the time just...

Michael Rozen said Aug. 1 he would rather be playing sports with his friends than attending the weeklong Bruce W. Woolpert Algebra Academy offered by Graniterock.  While Michael stopped short of admitting an affinity for math, the 13-year-old admits the experience will prepare him for...

A newly formed community group with the vision of reducing the use of pesticides in the Pajaro Valley is taking on international berry giant Driscoll’s. The Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA) recently sent a letter to Driscoll’s CEO Miles Reiter calling for the...

A month and a half ago, Principal Todd Wilson of Pajaro Valley High School decided against renewing a contract with Barrios Unidos, a grassroots Santa Cruz organization that has long worked with incarcerated and system-impacted people, drawing wisdom and leadership from those with lived...

It’s been more than half a year since the Kmart on Freedom Boulevard closed its doors for good. And as someone who constantly drives past the shell of the former community hotspot, it pains me to see what that location has become. On top...

Open Farm Tours (OFT) returns Oct. 8 and 9, offering the community a chance to visit organic farms, meet local farmers and learn about how their food is grown. The event, which has been held for the past nine years, is more than doubling the...

Editor’s note: This letter was written to the Watsonville City Council. We are Pajaro Valley for Ethnic Studies and Justice (PVESJ), a local grassroots coalition that has been organizing students, teachers, and community members at PVUSD for almost two years.  In last November’s election, our group...

MONTEREY COUNTY—Monterey County agriculture’s gross production value bounced back by 4.8% in 2021 to just over $4.1 billion, despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that also resulted in supply chain shortages. This increase represents a $190 million rise from 2020, when the gross production value was...

Watsonville police arrested two men on July 3 after they were found with more than 4,500 pounds of illegal fireworks. The bust is the largest in Watsonville Police history, and the biggest on the Central Coast this year, police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said. Luis Martinez and...