Monterey County Agriculture, Food & Gardening Digest

This summer’s Michelin star recognition for Chez Noir in Carmel, granted within 10 months of its opening, might seem sudden. It’s not.

Daniel Laggner, founder of Santa Cruz-based Wildstag Provisions, is on a mission to protect American wildlife by selling free range game meat.

Many farmworkers in Coachella Valley lack legal status as citizens and don't qualify for most federal and state disaster aid. Even a new $95 million storm assistance program for immigrants that Governor Gavin Newsom recently touted is out of reach because it pertains to the winter and spring storms and floods.

Office parks, corporate campuses, strip malls would have to remove grass, or face fines of up to $500 a day.

This year we celebrate the founding of the Arroyo Seco AVA—granted status on April 15, 1983—making it one of the earliest to be established of California’s over 100 such designations.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, has led a coalition to reduce barriers that producers face in accessing agricultural conservation programs that would help farmers deal with the impacts of climate change.

The complex, located east of Marina, consists of 66 affordable apartments. It is named after the CEO of the Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association, who died unexpectedly in 2021.

When winemaker Bobby Graviano left Bargetto, he had signed on as winemaker with Nicholson Vineyards in Corralitos. However, his subsequent involvement in a new project made that impossible, so he tapped his winemaking colleague Ellie Loustalot to take the reins at Nicholson.

This artichoke revolution that has uprooted thousands of acres of artichokes across Castroville—the “Artichoke Center of the World”—and replaced them with new hybrids is pitting technology over tradition and playing out at farm stands and on dinner tables across the country.

Coauthored with Rep. Alma Adams, the Opportunities in Organic Act seeks to help organic producers expand access to new markets and resources, and provide support and training for farmers.

With budget hearings for the county beginning in a week, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors signaled that they will support a 30% cut in the county’s Cannabis Program.

The Pacific Grove City Council will hold a concept review of draft regulations for bringing cannabis retail to town.

How divided California is about the sale and growing of cannabis might surprise you.

The bill would authorize the California governor to work with the federal government to establish a pilot program allowing undocumented farmworkers to start a process toward legal status.

An estimated 170,000 Indigenous Mexican farmworkers live in California, contributing to its booming economy. Researchers say 6 in 10 farmworkers in the state are Indigenous. State and local officials have yet to fully include this growing population into their planning, often relying on nonprofits to communicate basic information.

Unofficial estimates that some 20,000 acres of local farmland flooded in recent storms threaten a costly road to recovery up ahead.

Food safety rules require that soil and irrigation systems be inspected and tested for pathogens after the floodwaters recede.

California has given the federal government its own counterproposal for apportioning reductions of Colorado River water, saying a plan offered by six other states would disproportionately burden farms and cities in Southern California.

Crop disease is ravaging lettuce fields in Salinas Valley, causing a nationwide shortage.

Stanford scientists have genetically re-programmed plants to grow roots that change how they gather nutrients or water.

Supervisors Mary Adams, Chris Lopez and cannabis program staff reached a consensus to recommend cutting the cannabis program from $7.25 million to $4.6 million and reducing full-time equivalent positions from 25.23 to 18.98.

In the fall, rice fields in the Sacramento Valley usually shine golden brown as they await harvesting. This year, however, many fields were left covered with bare dirt.

Drought, human-caused climate change, invasive species and a “legacy” of environmental issues are permanently altering California’s landscape and placing some communities and ecosystems at increasing risk.

Monterey County elected officials on Tuesday voted to deliver to cannabis growers and manufacturers another break in taxes as an industry glut continues to pressure prices.

Linda and Stewart Resnick have donated $50 million to UC Davis for an agricultural research center—the largest donation in the campus’s history—but the couple’s Wonderful Company is the state’s single biggest water user.

In a 50-page legal request, Central Coast activists are asking the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner to review all permits for pesticide applications issued this year within a mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle School and Hall District Elementary School in North Monterey County.

UC Davis is set to build a center focused on agricultural innovation and research after Beverly Hills billionaires Lynda and Stewart Resnick gave the university $50 million, the largest donation it has received from individual donors.

Photos from Stanford University’s Ernesto Galarza collection documenting the bracero program were on view at the Salinas Sports Complex. Now county leaders hope to find a permanent place for the display, but until then the photos can be seen at the Monterey County Historical Society.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Silent Spring,” the Rachel Carson book that sparked the environmental movement, activists called on the Agricultural Commissioner and the Board of Supervisors to limit the applications of 1,3 dichloropropene, a soil fumigant and “probable carcinogen.”

For a group of local parents with kids in the Salinas City Elementary School District, the school food situation left much to be desired. So they got moving on a solution.

For the first time, members at the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting will be able to sell goods from their farms and ranches. Called the California Marketplace, this interactive event will be held Dec. 4—one of several new features of the meeting, taking place Dec. 2-7 in Monterey.

It’s not always easy to know which wineries are practicing eco-conscious farming and operations. Edible Silicon Valley gathered various tips and things to look for when deciding which corks to pop.