JOIN US FOR THE BEST WEEKEND ON THE TRAIL! OPEN FARM DAYS JULY 2023 FRIDAY, 14TH - SUNDAY 16TH

This family-friendly experience is an up-close chance to learn about agriculture through demonstrations, tastings, and farm tours. Ticket holders will visit local farms, ranches, producers and purveyors.

NORTH COUNTY - Engines were running, veterans were honored, and families explored as the Best of the West Antique Equipment Show returned Memorial Weekend to support the Paso Robles Pioneer Day Committee. From Thursday, May 25, through Sunday, May 28, collections of tractors and farm equipment were on display at the Santa Margarita Ranch.

Grazing goats are in high demand to devour wild grass and shrubs that are proliferating across California after a drought-busting winter of heavy rain and snow. When the summer heat arrives, that vegetation will dry out and provide fresh tinder for wildfires.

State Farm General Insurance Co. last week became the latest insurer to retreat from California's homeowners market. The culprit isn't climate change, as the media claims in parroting Sacramento talking points. The cause is the Golden State's hostile insurance environment. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of last week's decision by the Supreme Court in Sackett v. EPA. Faced with yet another sweeping application of the term "waters of the U.S." by EPA, the Supreme Court has set a clear and practical definition that respects the words and intent of Congress in the Clean Water Act.

The Senate and House Agriculture committees are weeks or even months away from drafting the 2023 farm bill, a remarkably late start for what is always a detailed and time-consuming process. The new farm bill would be the most expensive ever and is likely to be completed after the Sept.

Editor's note: This article is the first in a four-part series exploring how climate change may reshape life in San Luis Obispo County over the next 10 to 50 years. The series will examine the existing science and evaluate the steps we can take to reverse the impacts, both as a community and as individuals.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants the state to purchase massive amounts of renewable energy. Utility companies in California are responsible for buying their own power. But they have not been buying geothermal or offshore wind energy. That type of energy is difficult and expensive to produce.

The California State Senate has unanimously approved a bill that aims to put the state on the path to developing wave and tidal energy as a new source of renewable energy that will help meet its carbon-free targets while bolstering the power grid.

PUBLISHED ON WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is extending the deadline for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase Two and Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) to July 14, 2023, to give producers more time to apply for assistance. The original deadline was June 2.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants to hear from farmers regarding possible changes to prevented planting crop insurance coverage, with multiple in-person comment sessions scheduled over the summer through the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA). The Request for Information - written and in-person - will remain open until Sept.

In 2018, food products labeled "natural" accounted for slightly more than 16 percent of all consumer retail food purchases. USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration require producers to adhere to specific standards or processes to use certain label claims, such as USDA Organic.

Despite the rainy winter seen on the Central Coast this year, one local grower in Morro Bay says they are harvesting more fruit than in previous years. "It is hard to speak about other farms, but for us, it has been very beneficial with the rain," said Bruce Harwood, store manager of the Morro Creek Ranch off Highway 41 and Morro Road.

Despite the growth of the avocado industry and the exponential increase in the availability of the fruit over recent years, its price has remained relatively stable in the U.S., shifting the demand curve outwards.

Navigating Disputed Contracts for Fresh and Frozen Produce: The Significance of PACA Formal Decisions In the realm of disputed contracts for fresh and frozen produce, the WG Trade Practices department plays a crucial role in representing shipper members.

Although California's citrus domestic season is winding down, Bee Sweet Citrus is reporting an ample supply of royal red oranges, star ruby grapefruit and lemons, according to a news release from the grower-packer-shipper. ...

State Farm says it's no longer accepting homeowner insurance applications in California due to "historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation" and "rapidly growing catastrophe exposure" to extreme weather events like wildfires.

A judge has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service can keep using chemical retardant dropped from aircraft to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law. The ruling Friday from U.S.

A wet winter brought record snowpack to California, alleviating drought conditions in many parts of the state. But even that blessing for parched landscapes comes with its costs. Officials throughout the state have prepared for what comes in a wet season's aftermath, like excess snowmelt flooding rivers.

GEORGETOWN, California, June 1 (Reuters) - The prescribed burn begins on a California hill with a drip torch to light brush, needles and fallen branches, the flames spreading out on the forest floor far below the tree canopy.

A California law passed in 2016 aimed to help farm workers by providing them with overtime, but some say this could completely wipe out the goat herding industry. Goat herders say California's farm worker overtime law is making it more expensive to provide goat grazing services.

Just over two years ago, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House of Representatives on a 247-174 vote. I was surprised at its passage because most of what I'd heard about it convinced me it was a non-starter.

From farm to table, immigrant workers get the job done. At least for now. That was the theme of a May 31 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where lawmakers heard impassioned testimony from growers and worker advocates about needed steps to preserve necessary workers in the U.S. food supply chain.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture Animal Care Program will be hosting a Prop 12 Implementation Webinar Series consisting of three webinars reviewing Prop 12 Animal Confinement regulations and requirements for end-users, distributors and pork producers. Webinars will be recorded and available for viewing after the event, CDFA said in a release.

More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world's appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest's importance in fighting the climate crisis. A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil ...

Every year, millions of beef cattle are born without horns, a trait that naturally emerged in Scottish pastures in the 16th century and has since spared many lives from goring. But when UC Davis created horn-free dairy cattle - through gene-editing, rather than generations of routine breeding - federal regulators did not welcome the new bovines to the herd.

The public is invited to Allan Hancock College's first wine festival at the college's Santa Maria campus. The college is currently selling tickets to its inaugural West Coast College and University Wine Festival, which will take place on Saturday, June 10, from 1-4 p.m.

Editor's note: This article is the third in a four-part series exploring how climate change may reshape life in San Luis Obispo County over the next 10 to 50 years. The series will examine the existing science and evaluate the steps we can take to reverse the impacts, both as a community and as individuals.

The people of Fairmead, California, in the Central Valley, have struggled to gain reliable access to drinking water for years. The unincorporated community of around 1,300 - "mostly people of color, people of low income, people struggling and trying to make it," according to Fairmead resident Barbara Nelson - relies on shallow wells to meet its needs.

Recent scientific work by the California Bountiful Foundation, the 501(c)(3) science and research arm of the California Farm Bureau, has found that California farmers and ranchers use only 15% of the total water the state receives.

These findings, now available on the California Bountiful Foundation website under Research and Studies, offers a data-based analysis of water use of California agriculture, the largest food producing sector in the U.S. The data contradicts stereotypes often repeated on the share of water used for agriculture. ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A pair of California bills aimed at curbing water use for landscaping has cleared the California State Assembly. On Wednesday, AB 1573, which requires the use of California native plants, and AB 1572, banning the use of potable water for irrigation on non-functional turf, passed onto the Senate.