Mission Plaza in San Luis Obispo was home to the 17th annual Great Pumpkin Contest Thursday evening. Pumpkin growers from all over the Central Coast competed in several competitions. Those including the heaviest pumpkin, most beautiful pumpkin, and most unusual pumpkin. Morro Bay resident and Cal Poly student Ty Evans won the heaviest pumpkin competition.

Two-day event features over 100 western vendors, artisans - The Cowgirl Christmas craft show will celebrate its 20th year on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 25 [...]

PASO ROBLES - Fourth-graders around the county learned about agriculture at the 20th Annual Great AgVenture on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the Paso Robles Event Center. Hosted by the San Luis Obispo County Agricultural Education Committee and the Harold J.

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY - The County Clerk-Recorder has discovered two printing errors in the County Voter Information Guide for voters within the City of Pismo Beach and Lucia Mar Unified School District, Trustee Area No. 3.

These Voter Information Guides went out with ballots last week.

The San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder's Office is scrambling to correct multiple errors found on thousands of local voter guides and ballots for the Nov. 8 election. Two South County election candidates-Kevin Kreowski for Pismo Beach City Council and Ashley Smeester for Lucia Mar Unified School District Area No.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- If you're planning on voting in next month's election, Monday is the last day to register to vote. Early voting locations have been open since Oct. 10. On Sunday, Gov.

The national push to bring offshore wind power to the Central Coast reached another milestone this week. The U.S. Department of the Interior...

The 2022 election is drawing closer. Chad Smith has more on the opportunity for U.S. agriculture to help influence its future. Smith: Election 2022 is an important time for U.S. agriculture and its many stakeholders to cast their votes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service has awarded over $64 million for 185 grant projects to expand and strengthen local and regional food systems and increase the availability of locally grown agricultural products.

Producers in San Luis Obispo County are eligible to apply for 2022 Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) benefits on native pasture. LFP provides compensation if you suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or cash leased land or fire...

The federal government announced Tuesday a program that will provide $1.3 billion in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the farm loan relief program funded from $3.1 billion...

LOS ANGELES -- It's almost that time when the turkey is in the oven and family is coming over to celebrate the holidays. However, this year, that turkey is going to eat up more of your money. The American Farm Bureau reports turkey prices could hit record highs this holiday season.

The Federal Reserve is finding it harder to cool the economy than almost anyone expected. Most corners of the U.S. economy are performing very well considering the Fed has been aggressively raising rates for seven months. Manufacturing continues to expand, consumer spending...

In an open-access report in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers from UCLA and the University of Chicago estimate that California's wildfire carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from 2020 (~127 mmt CO2e ) are approximately two times higher ...

President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it would hold the first ever sale of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California on Dec. 6, a big step forward in expanding the nascent U.S. industry to Pacific waters.

PUBLISHED ON SACRAMENTO - The California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) Pest Exclusion Branch is announcing a vacancy on the California Fruit Tree, Nut Tree and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board. The board is composed of 11 voting members that represent all areas of the state involved in the production of pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, olive trees and grapevines.

By Ching Lee An ongoing debate within the organic farming community is anything but settled after two legal battles in which courts sided with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that crops grown in hydroponic systems can be certified organic.

By California Farm Bureau - Signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 28, Assembly Bill 2183 dramatically rewrote California law governing how labor unions can become certified to represent agricultural employees for collective bargaining purposes. Effective Jan.

U.S. farmers who would like to hire temporary foreign workers through the H-2A visa program usually work with a third party (such as an agent, association, or lawyer) to make the application; employers themselves filed applications for only 15 percent of all jobs requested.

October 18th - SONOMA, CA - The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $54,935 in lost wages for 14 farmworkers after an investigation found that a California grape grower gave workers employed under the H-2A agricultural worker program more hours and better wages than those provided to U.S. workers, in violation of federal law.

Public speakers during Tuesday's TRUTH Act Forum urged the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff's Office to stop communicating and cooperating with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Drought and wildfire risks will remain elevated in the western states while warmer than average temperatures will greet the Southwest, Gulf Coast and East Coast this winter, federal weather officials said Thursday. La Niña, a weather pattern characterized by cold ocean temperatures in ...

Wildfires in the western United States are getting bigger, stronger, and worse as climate-fueled drought and unprecedented heat push them to new extremes.

But their impact isn't just confined to the West. A new study shows that the fires can influence weather far beyond the burns' bounds.

California will become the first state in the nation to require insurance premium discounts for owners of homes and businesses that are made safer from wildfires. New rules mandate that insurance companies reward consumers who take wildfire safety and mitigation actions under the state's Safer From Wildfires framework, ..

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday proposed sweeping changes in the way chicken and turkey meat is processed that are intended to reduce illnesses from food contamination but could require meat companies to make extensive changes to their operations.

Scottsdale Progress reports - 23 local wineries will pour at The McCormick Scottsdale Resort - After an 8-year absence from the Arizona wine scene, [...]

Fall is crush time for California's wine industry. In San Luis Obispo County, the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance celebrates Harvest Wine Month throughout October, while its rising-star sister, the San Luis Obispo Coast Wine Collective, rolls out Harvest on the Coast in November.

Little relief is expected for farmers, ranchers and reservoirs this winter in the Western U.S., as extreme drought is forecast to continue plaguing the region. That's according to forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who predict "widespread extreme drought to persist across much of the West," according to Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

While it's not yet formal policy, those who manage California's vast water system are edging toward a historic reallocation of the state's shrinking supply that could have a life-altering impact on its largest-in-the-nation agricultural industry.

Environment Operators of Twitchell Reservoir near Santa Maria Ordered to Comply with Endangered Species Act - The federally endangered steelhead trout of Southern California and its champions - Los Padres Forest Watch and San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper - won a major legal victory...