To date we have been able to send out 1200 boxes of food to Paonia, Crawford, Cedaredge, Hotchkiss and Delta. We are still distributing from the schools in each of these 5 towns and will continue to do so until the district’s final day of free and reduced lunch on May 29th.

Thus far we have raised $19,875 from 250 donors. We have had over 24 volunteers help us distribute the boxes over the past 10 weeks. And we have had so many parents call to say thank you for the fresh food! Those calls make it all worthwhile.

We have supported 29 farmers/producers in our area by purchasing their local veggies, fruit and value-added products. With the summer crops starting to come in, the number of local farmers we will be able to support will only grow.

In the coming weeks we will continue these donation boxes to families in our county. Our plan is to weekly distribute to the Elementary Schools in Paonia, Hotchkiss, and Cedaredge. We may add Delta if things go well.

We will be working with the Food Bank of the Rockies to distribute meals from them along with our fresh boxes once a week on Fridays from 11am-1pm. The Food Bank of the Rockies will be handing out 5 meals to each family on Fridays, and the families will also get our fresh produce on top of that. We will be starting with 20 boxes per location and scaling up from there if needed. This program will start on June 5th and continue each week until Friday August 14th.

Fourth-generation rancher Cory Carman holistically manages 5,000-acres which serve as a model for sustainable meat operations in the Pacific Northwest.

Photo © John Valls

Saying that grass-fed beef is an important catalyst that brings farmers and ranchers together, Carman feels that it’s a place to start the conversation about regenerative agriculture and rebuilding the food system.

“The push is always for any brand to go national,” she said. “Instead, we need to think about production on a regional basis and build out and support appropriately scaled infrastructure. That’s where you can really have the magic.

“Those are all the things we’re trying to prove out with our little model.”

How many of you have driven to the Western Slope to buy Paonia cherries or West Elks wines? How many have spent the night at one of our bed and breakfasts or guest ranches, fished the Gunnison, or biked the scenic loop? Maybe you’re a chef who has featured the North Fork Valley’s heritage pork, grass-fed beef, Avalanche cheese, Peak Spirits’ eau de vie, Ela Family Farm peaches, Thistle Whistle Farm vegetables, or purchased Big B’s ciders and juices at Whole Foods?

If you have been to the North Fork Valley or enjoyed its distinctive foods, I’m glad.

Because if the natural gas industry has its way on November 1, a deceptively routine process called a Resource Management Plan will start the industrialization of this special place.

The North Fork Valley, which includes the towns of Paonia, Hotchkiss, and Crawford, is home to the largest concentration of organic farms in the state. It’s also a designated Colorado Creative District and an American Viticulture Area. The region is a checkerboard of private farms and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels laced with a web of irrigation ditches, many of which run through or by BLM land. And almost all the BLM spaces have been targeted for fracking, according to Natasha Leger, interim executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community, a grassroots organization established in 2009 by residents concerned about the risks of large-scale oil and gas development in the community.

The Uncompahgre field office, which manages more than 900,000 acres of BLM land, has proposed opening 95 percent of the area above and below ground, including split estate leases under organic farms, to oil and gas extraction, Leger says. What does industrialization mean to our farms and vineyards? Drinking water contamination; health problems from methane pollution, ozone smog, and soot; well pads, roads, pipelines, and other infrastructure; heavy truck traffic on our two-lane country highway and subsequent road damage; water source depletion; increased demands on public services like 911 and police; and the plugging and cleanup costs of orphaned wells.