GREELEY, Colo. — Leaders of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association are expressing concerns over the decrease in the number of farms in Colorado.
According to the association, 98% of active farm operations in Colorado are family-owned and fewer than 35% see net-positive income.
During an upcoming episode of Real Talk with Micah Smith, farm industry leaders discuss the reasons behind the shrinking number of Colorado farms.
“According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, between 2017 and 2022, we lost 7.2% of our farms or over 2,800. That's huge!” said Marilyn Bay, the executive director of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Bay cited labor and overtime laws as growing concerns among farmers.
“In our states, there’s been a huge number of regulations that are just really hard and expensive to keep up with,” Bay said.
CEO of Hungenberg Produce, Jordan Hungenberg, said farmers must contend with a lot of challenges to remain profitable.
“Unpredictable weather, water regulation, but we also have some challenges with new regulation,” Hungenberg said. “At times, in our business, it can seem like the people making the rules have a disconnect with the people actually doing the work and it’s our job as farmers to bridge that gap so that they actually see what we’re going through and what we’re dealing with on a day-to-day.”
Denver7 took farmers concerns to Colorado representative Matthew Martinez, a Democrat who represents southern Colorado.
“This is the backbone of the Colorado economy and we really need to work together moving forward to really find these solutions and work together to be able to do better,” Martinez said.
You can watch this week's episode of Real Talk with Micah Smith covering the state of farming in Colorado on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on Denver7.
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