{"id":23061,"date":"2025-03-19T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ag-is-hard-local-producers-convene-in-cortez-to-discuss-concerns-and-solutions\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:24:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:24:31","slug":"ag-is-hard-local-producers-convene-in-cortez-to-discuss-concerns-and-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ag-is-hard-local-producers-convene-in-cortez-to-discuss-concerns-and-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ag is hard\u2019: Local producers convene in Cortez to discuss concerns and solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Armondo
Armondo Dominguez and Grace Smith, both students at Wolverine Academy, water the newly planted trees Tuesday in the Pine River Shares garden in Bayfield. The garden uses sustainable, closed-loop permaculture growing techniques.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A group of local producers, big and small, met over lunch at the Cortez Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, March 13 at noon to identify the many challenges they face and to find solutions to overcome those challenges.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma Leadership Network<\/a> hosted the event \u2013 and brought in sandwiches, veggies and even desserts for its attendees \u2013 because they\u2019re hoping to position themselves as a \u201ccivic hub\u201d for people to connect with resources in the community, said Mary Jo Standard, the Network\u2019s community involvement coordinator.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the goal of the workshop was for producers to leave with new, useful tools in their belt to overcome whatever challenges they might be facing on their farm.<\/p>\n

Because, as they agreed, \u201cAg is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion took a top-down approach, meaning they began by defining a vision and ended with identifying available resources to realize that vision.<\/p>\n

Standard mediated the conversation, keeping notes on a whiteboard at the front of the room as producers bounced ideas off one another, brainstorming.<\/p>\n

She encouraged them to imagine a \u201cbig, beautiful, idealistic vision\u201d of what local agriculture could be, because \u201cif you don\u2019t have a \u2018why,\u2019 if you don\u2019t have a vision, you have nothing you\u2019re working towards,\u201d said Standard.<\/p>\n

Producers in the room imagined community-based labor trade and equitable food access, so people who need healthy food can \u201cget it, afford it and grow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also mentioned the need to maintain open spaces, keeping water here and farming sustainably \u201cinstead of massive monocropping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Rowan, a co-founder of Four Corners Women in Agriculture<\/a>, brought up gender equality and educational opportunities, which is a focus of her organization.<\/p>\n

Some of that equality comes with a willingness to change, which happens when things are normalized and also taught, said Standard.<\/p>\n

Education also might disband fears of large-scale production, a point that a producer with well over 1,000 productive acres made.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve plowed in 10 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Someone who raises beef cattle underscored how \u201cit\u2019s more expensive to buy from a farmer or rancher, but it\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gave an example of buying a $4 shirt at Walmart versus wearing a shirt your mom sewed at home that cost her $20 to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be cheaper at Walmart, but there\u2019s an environmental cost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s the aging population,\u201d another producer chimed in. \u201cWhat can be learned from them, and how can we support them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentorship programs, they suggested, are a good way to both capture that knowledge while fulfilling a much-needed educational piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys have created this beautiful, sustainable vision, where local food feeds the community,\u201d said Standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions\u201d came next, which is \u201ca state that must be met for that vision to be achieved,\u201d said Standard.<\/p>\n

Education was a highlight, as was \u201cpatience, time and grace because change won\u2019t happen overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

When someone mentioned water and the lack of it, Standard challenged the group to try not to think from a place of scarcity \u201cbecause when we come together, we do have abundance. We just need to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone suggested permaculture as a way to pivot in dry conditions. They explained it as \u201cis using the land the way it ought to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, permaculture \u201cis a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature,\u201d said Bill Mollison, an Australian researcher, who coined the term back in 1978 with David Holmgren.<\/p>\n

As one producer put it, \u201cWe need to change our thinking about water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a temporary drought we\u2019re in, it\u2019s the new norm,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes me want to do things differently based on the presumption there\u2019s less water that will fall from the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the \u201caction\u201d piece.<\/p>\n

The producers agreed that knowledgeable people should come forward and help others, especially newcomers who buy land and don\u2019t know what to do with it.<\/p>\n

Finding qualified labor is hard, plus it\u2019s expensive, which is where the labor trade comes in.<\/p>\n

In regards to drought, increasing the use of permaculture is important, and so is trying to change the \u201cuse it or lose it attitude\u201d to mitigate water waste.<\/p>\n

The hour-and-a-half window quickly came to a close that afternoon, and the group agreed to meet again in the future, on another Thursday afternoon over lunch, to continue the conversation.<\/p>\n

\"The
The vision board, from an idealistic vision to actionable items (and community resources) that producers brainstormed the afternoon of Thursday, March 13. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s not a temporary drought we\u2019re in, it\u2019s the new norm,\u2019 producer says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77960,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23061\/revisions\/77960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23061"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}