{"id":66469,"date":"2019-09-17T12:24:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T18:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farm-bureau-marks-100-years-celebration-planned-for-friday\/"},"modified":"2019-09-17T18:24:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T18:24:30","slug":"farm-bureau-marks-100-years-celebration-planned-for-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farm-bureau-marks-100-years-celebration-planned-for-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Bureau marks 100 years; celebration planned for Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County Farm Bureau will mark its 100-year anniversary at 6 p.m. Friday at Sky Ute Casino.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The American Farm Bureau Federation is marking its 100th anniversary this year, with a celebration coming this week to La Plata County.<\/p>\n

Charly Minkler, president of the La Plata County Farm Bureau, said the national and Colorado farm bureaus were founded in 1919. He wasn\u2019t sure the exact date the La Plata County branch began, but he said it was probably around that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s been here for most of that 100 years,\u201d he said. \u201cAgriculture was very prominent and important during that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Farm Bureau is comprised of local community members who typically gather at the county level to talk about policies that affect agriculture. Those policies are often brought to the state or federal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very much an organization where all the members are involved,\u201d Minkler said. \u201cIt\u2019s ground up, not top down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Farm Bureau tracks all kinds of policies and issues. Some deal with the direct production of agriculture, such as drafting transportation regulations during harvest. But others can center on lifestyle issues, such as bringing broadband to rural areas or addressing opioid abuse.<\/p>\n

Envisioning the next 100 years for the Farm Bureau, Minkler said one of the biggest issues is that the average age of farmers and ranchers is approaching 60 years old, and it\u2019s increasingly difficult to find younger farmers to take their place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all concerned about who will be the next generation of people growing our food,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Farm Bureau will mark its 100-year anniversary at 6 p.m. Friday at Sky Ute Casino with its annual meeting and dinner.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the event is Colorado\u2019s new Department of Agriculture Director and Durango resident Kate Greenberg, who at 31 years old has made addressing the issue of a lack of young farmers one of her highest priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to bring more energy to agriculture in our state,\u201d Greenberg told The Durango Herald<\/em> in January. \u201cI have an inherent love of agriculture and a deep respect for people who work the land. In that way, I am carrying on that piece of the legacy that\u2019s been built.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minkler said agriculture sometimes isn\u2019t recognized for how important it is in Colorado. For starters, he said it\u2019s the No. 2 industry in the state. And, he said most of Colorado\u2019s beautiful views can be attributed to farm or ranch land.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn La Plata County, I think we take for granted the open space and wonderful vistas that agriculture provides,\u201d he said. \u201cIt provides the landscape we all cherish, and makes Colorado what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Farm Bureau\u2019s event theme is \u201cBoots and Blossoms.\u201d Tickets are available at Basin Coop or the Farm Bureau Insurance office at 2007 Main Ave., Unit B, and costs $18 for adults and $12 for children.<\/p>\n

There will also be a premier of the film \u201cPerspectives on Agriculture,\u201d produced by Will Witt, a national media personality. Witt is expected to be in attendance.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

local agriculture producers organize on a grassroots level<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,2547,1587,28,475,1263],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-arable-farming","tag-farms","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-ranching"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66469","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=66469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66469"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}