Santa Clara County Agriculture, Food & Gardening Digest

In their meeting on January 12, the Palo Alto City Council agreed to support the expansion of restaurant street parklets into their neighbor's space without the need for prior permission. Read on to learn more about this change of policy.

“If this is the new normal, this is absolute economic devastation,” says one local economist.

Those in California who’d like a latte with a side of weed have gotten their wish now that a new law goes into effect that permits licensed cannabis dispensaries to add sit-in cafes to their sites.  

New operating rules for massive Delta systems will increase water deliveries to Southern California cities and some growers. Salmon numbers could drop, especially in dry years.

Keith Poulsen's jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.

SAN JOSE TEMPORARILY limited meals for older adults at city community centers in early December amid a budget shortfall — a move that left recipients flustered.

Gov. Newsom launched an ambitious program that uses Medi-Cal to help Californians access housing, healthy food and more. Now, its fate is in the hands of President-Elect Trump.

Are food recalls on the rise? Yes. Read on to learn more.

H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in a retail sample of raw milk from a Fresno-based raw milk dairy. Read on to learn more.

Learn how you can help local programs as they struggle to meet an increase in need of food assistance.

The Food Closet in Palo Alto has been serving the needy for over 40 year. Learn how you can help them help others by donating or volunteering.

Voters in California’s farm belt, stretching more than 400 miles from Kern County on the south to Tehama County on the north, delivered solid majorities for Donald Trump in this month’s presidential election.

Learn more about a large solar renewable energy, storage and agriculture project is under development in Santa Clara County.

You are invited to the newly completed Gourmet Alley public pedestrian plaza served by bars and restaurants in downtown Gilroy.

THE SALINAS VALLEY is the setting for fecund soil, labor rights movements and John Steinbeck novels.Squeezed into one 90-mile-long wedge between the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountains, the valley’s residents constitute less than 1% of Californians but have shaped the identity of the whole state.

A list of local Dia De Los Muertos celebrations.

Many California farmworkers have long lacked safe and affordable places to sleep — an issue thrown into sharp relief after last year’s mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, which left seven agricultural workers dead.

The City of Saratoga has partnered with nonprofit Our City Forest to offer free or subsidized trees as part of a program to encourage residential tree planting.

The chemical, used for decades, can harm babies’ developing brains. Farmworkers and people living near fields are most at risk. The EPA issued a rare emergency order.

A judge has halted a union effort at the Wonderful Company, throwing into question a new state law designed to make it easier for agricultural workers to organize.

A Kings County judge today issued a temporary restraining order against the state that pauses its unprecedented move to crack down on groundwater depletion in California’s agricultural heartland.

The weekly Cupertino Farmers Market is seeking a new location after losing their lease at the De Anza College's parking lot.

The $4.5 billion Sites Reservoir project is advancing after a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

The centerpiece of California’s water wars pits Gov. Newsom against local communities and environmentalists. A new report says the benefits of the tunnel exceed the cost since other water supplies would cost more.

It is being called the Cicada-pocalypse and the Cicada-geddon. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions of cicadas — grasshopper-like insects — will emerge from underground burrows all across the Midwest and the South where they have been living for as long as the past 17 years.

As school meal programs expand, school kitchens are experiencing struggles hiring and retaining food workers.

The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources advisors has published a new website with information resources for small acreage landowners raising livestock.

Commercial beekeeper Andrew Strehlow estimates he’s had 1,000 hives stolen over the years. The latest theft, of 96 hives from a Fresno County orchard, was his last straw.

Beehives, tractors and more are getting stolen from farmers.

The Bay Area is home to a rich tapestry of food-based enterprises owned by Black chefs and entrepreneurs. Here’s a list by geographic area of many in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

State lawmakers grill Cal/OSHA officials, with allegations that employers get tipped off to inspections. The chairperson of the Assembly Labor Committee is seeking an audit.

State Sen. Scott Wiener wants to allow California cities and counties to designate “entertainment zones” where bars and restaurants could serve alcoholic drinks that people can consume on public streets and sidewalks.