Colorado agriculture faces widening urban-rural divide

from 2021 Salute to Agriculture - Spring/Summer Edition

NJC student competes at National Collegiate Farm Bureau Competition

from 10 food trucks to residents experiencing food insecurity and others.

“We’re ecstatic to give back to Denver, in a huge way,” Timmerman said prior to the event. “Everybody is welcome here for the good eat, drink and conversation. Denver’s homeless population, the unemployed, first responders, meat lovers — really anybody hungry for real bonafide beef, pork, chicken, fresh vegetables, and tasty cheese.”

The outpouring of suppor t for the livestock industry across the state was welcomed by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association (CCA).

“While we saw rural Colorado turn out in record numbers and with record donations collected, we were also encouraged by the strengthening of a bond between metropolitan and rural voices around this effor t,” said Janie VanWinkle, CCA President. “We are appreciative of the support around the Meat In movement and look for ward to continuing to strengthen this partnership across the

Jack Harvel / Fort Morgan Times A hay auction at Livestock Exchange in Brush ran alongside its "Team Meat" barbecue to educate people about agriculture.

state and nation into the future.”

The organization recognized how organizers turned their events into opportunities to give back to their communities, as well.

“Many events emphasized supporting and feeding the food insecure. Donations were collected at var ying events to support their local communities and the broader beef industry,” said Terr y Fankhauser, CCA Executive Vice President. “The tally is ongoing, but as of late, over $300,000, supporting need-based causes, has been collected in the name of Meat In day.”

CCA called for the momentum from the Meat In movement to be used to build bridges between agriculture and urban audiences in hopes of protecting the industr y from harmful legislative and ballot proposals.

Polis himself also acknowledged the impact the MeatOut proclamation had, writing in an opinion column he shared with local newspapers that “I’m excited to see the grassroots movement that my recent proclamation helped generate in support and promotion of Colorado beef products. I’m hopeful that this renewed support helps our producers and all who earn a living in ranching and the livestock industry. ”

Journal-Advocate reporter Jeff Rice and Fort Morgan Times reporter Jack Harvel contributed to this report.

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POLITICS

Colorado agriculture faces widening urban-rural divide

Sen. Sonnenberg calls for producers to also be advocates for their industry and way of life

By Jeff Rice Journal-Advocate Staff Writer

There has always been something of a disconnect between town and country in Colorado, a divide between those who produce food and fiber and those who consume it. Recently, however, a lot of people in eastern Colorado feel like the rural-urban divide is widening.

Eastern Coloradans have long realized that they are woefully under-represented in the red marble corridors of the state Capitol. The problem has worsened as the plains have lost population while the Interstate 25 corridor has seen explosive growth. Only a handful of state senators and representatives are from the Eastern Plains and Western Slope, and of those the number actively engaged in agriculture can literally be counted on one hand.

There’s a political divide as well.

Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate Sen. Kerry Donovan, far left, listens during a roundtable discussion Jan. 19 at the Don Brown family farm near Yuma. Also pictured are former agriculture commissioner Don Brown, Brown's wife Peggy and their son Tyson.

Rural Colorado is over whelmingly conser vative and Republican while the metropolitan areas are decidedly liberal and Democratic. The strip of Colorado 50 miles wide and 100 miles long at the foot of the Rockies is a blue island in s sea of red.

The significance of that divide became startlingly clear in 2018 when Democrats won a majority in both houses of the Legislature, the governor’s office, and every major elected state department head: attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer.

Gov. Jared Polis made it clear that his agenda – fossil-fuel-free energy, farm-to-market food supply, and cultural diversity – didn’t include production agriculture. He appointed Kate Greenberg as his agriculture commissioner.

Greenberg’s appointment is historic; she’s the first woman appointed to the position since it was established in 1949, and that bodes well for the rapidly increasing number of women being involved in agriculture.

On the other hand, it’s a disturbing choice, too, because Greenberg is the first Colorado ag commissioner who has no production agriculture background. What she does have is a college degree in environmental studies and experience managing Western environmental policy field programs through Whitman College. She has worked on restoration of the ColoSee DIVIDE, pg. 31

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Polis’ appointments to state commissions and boards, especially ones that deal with agriculture, were severely lacking in eastern Colorado representation. Early in his administration he bought a stack of meatless hamburgers and served them to the Department of Agriculture staff, the clear implication being that Colorado should shift its focus away from the livestock industr y to crop farming.

There were other missteps as well: the appointment of an antilivestock activist to the state’s veterinar y board and the proclamation that Colorado, alone among major cattle producing states, would join the national MeatOut Day in March.

At the same time animal rights activists began working on a ballot issue for 2022, nicknamed PAUSE, that would, if passed, criminalize many widely accepted animal husbandry practices necessary for successful livestock production. And the Colorado Legislature began considering a bill that would load producers down with myriad new provisions for farm and ranch laborers, cutting even further into already-razor-thin profit margins.

Finally, in late March, Colorado agriculture had had enough. On the same Saturday other parts of the nation were shunning meat from their diets, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans flocked to “Meat-In” events all across the state. One of the largest was in Sterling, where more than 2,400 people feasted on beef and contributed nearly $130,000 to charities.

State Sen. Jerr y Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, appeared briefly at the Sterling celebration, following stops at similar events in Haxtun, Holyoke and Brush. In all, he had nearly a dozen appearances planned that day as he made a 550mile trek across eastern Colorado.

Sonnenberg repeated a clarion call he’s issued frequently over the past several years: It isn’t enough just to feed the world; producers must become advocates for their own cause.

“We in agriculture no longer can just keep our noses to the grindstone and do our work,” Sonnenberg said. “We have to be the activists to volunteer to work hard, not only for our farms and ranches but for our rural lifestyle. You have to be involved.”

The senator warned that Colorado agriculture faces multiple existential threats as the state becomes increasingly urbanized and state government leans increasingly to the left.

“This is just one aspect of the attack on rural Colorado and the attack on our livelihoods,” Sonnenberg said. “There is a ballot issue that’s going forward that’s absolutely going to destroy the livestock industr y in Colorado. We are all going to have to step forward, to represent and take back our state.”

For now, producers wait to see whether Denver is listening. In January, state Sen. Kerr y Donovan, chair of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, met with political and industr y representatives at the farm of former ag commissioner Don Brown near Yuma. Donovan listened and promised she would continue to listen as she tours rural Colorado when the Legislature is not in session. Commissioner Greenberg has promised to communicate more with eastern Colorado.

Gov. Polis did sign a follow-up proclamation making March 22 Livestock Proud Day. And a consortium of agriculture organizations, including Farm Bureau, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, and the Colorado Livestock Association, are fighting to keep the PAUSE initiative off of the 2022 ballot.

It is yet to be seen whether the Meat-In events will build into a fullblown agriculture movement reminiscent of the American Ag Movement of the late 1970s when tractors were driven across America to clog the streets of Washington, D.C. What is certain is that Colorado’s farmers and ranchers feel, for the first time in decades, a real threat to their existence. It’s a sure bet they won’t go down without a fight.