Posted inBusiness, Economy, News

Farmers hit with most disruptive price hikes, supply shortages in decades as pandemic slowdowns catch up to Colorado

From being nestled under soil, piled into trucks, sent down conveyor belts and driven on to Walmart, Kroger and Aldi stores, the potatoes from Reid Mattive’s San Luis Valley farm have never been more expensive to grow.  Tires and machinery are hard to locate. The prices for fertilizer, fuel and fungicides are spiking. Mattive, a […]

Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water

Farmers on Rio Grande in New Mexico face early water cutoff for second straight year

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Hundreds of farmers along central New Mexico’s stretch of the Rio Grande face a second straight year of having their irrigation supplies cut off early. The board that oversees the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District voted Friday to end deliveries for irrigation a month early because of low water availability. The Oct. […]

Posted inNews, Politics and Government

Colorado agricultural workers will get expanded rights, more pay. Here are the details.

Colorado lawmakers have approved a major expansion of labor rights for the state’s nearly 40,000 agricultural workers through a measure Gov. Jared Polis appears eager to sign. Senate Bill 87 would give farm workers the right to organize or join labor unions, earn state minimum wage and overtime pay. It would also protect workers and […]

Posted inClimate, Culture, Food and Restaurants, News

Colorado restaurants are funding farming and ranching projects that suck carbon from the atmosphere

By Michael Elizabeth Sakas, Colorado Public Radio On an early weekday morning in Longmont, the co-owners of the boutique catering company Whistling Boar are busy in the kitchen getting their weekly meal boxes ready for delivery. David Pitula and Debbie Seaford-Pitula moved to Colorado from Brooklyn five years ago with dreams of living closer to […]