Tag: agriculture
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Colorado GOP has lost its sense of what’s best for the people | Rachel Gabel
The Republican Party I grew up knowing was the party of small business, big business, and job creation. It was the party that signed paychecks and built economies and legacies. In 1980, Ronald Reagan swept Colorado in nearly every county, including Denver and Boulder. By 1988, Michael Dukakis, a Democrat who lost to George H.W. Bush, won…
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Processing plants are an important piece of the ag puzzle | Rachel Gabel
Concrete barricades blocked the entrance to the Cargill beef plant in Ft. Morgan, Colo., on May 20. About 1,700 workers had been locked out by the company after months of contract negotiations ended with workers voting to reject the company’s last and best offer by a large margin. The workers who couldn’t report to work reported to…
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Fire changes everything for rural communities | Rachel Gabel
The Nebraska Sandhills are made for cattle grazing, and that is, in large part, what keeps the area thriving and supports the small communities throughout western Nebraska. In Arthur County, most operations are cow/calf producers with a few operators who run yearlings on grass during the summer. On a good year, the grass is dense with nutrition…
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Colorado House passed a bill raising threshold for agriculture overtime by one vote
The bill that would raise the overtime threshold for overtime pay for certain agricultural workers won the narrowest of votes Thursday in the Colorado House. Senate Bill 121 won a 33-32 vote, a dramatic difference from votes cast Wednesday on nearly three dozen amendments offered by progressive Democrats. Most of those recorded votes, taken late…
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Gov. Polis signs bill targeting ‘counterfeit produce’ in Colorado
Colorado shoppers will soon have stronger protections against misleading food labels after Gov. Jared Polis signed a bipartisan bill outlawing the sale of “counterfeit produce.” Under House Bill 1031, advertising an agricultural product as produced in Colorado if it was grown elsewhere or using the Colorado Proud logo without authorization from the Department of Agriculture…
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Senate-passed farmworkers overtime bill easily clears Colorado House committee
A proposal to ease Colorado’s overtime requirements for agricultural employers cleared a key House committee Monday, setting up a broader fight over whether the state should scale back a labor policy adopted just five years ago. The House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill Monday to raise the threshold for overtime pay…
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Colorado farmers begin spring planting season with soaring fertilizer costs and price-gouging fears
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As Colorado farmers prepare their fields for spring planting, many are sounding the alarm over fertilizer prices that have surged far beyond what they say global supply disruptions can explain. With nitrogen costs up 30% in a matter of days, growers and lawmakers are questioning whether the industry is using geopolitical conflict as cover for…
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Colorado Senate committee advances bill increasing overtime threshold for farmworkers
The struggle to balance farmworker protections with the survival of Colorado’s family farms took center stage Thursday as senators debated two competing overtime bills. The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee held a rare double-bill hearing that led to a 3-2 vote rejecting a measure that was supported by unions and sponsored by the committee…
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Colorado plans to slash interim committee work amid budget woes
In a tight-budget year, the work of interim committees — those off-session groups that look at transportation, agriculture, water, healthcare, wildfires, pensions, and anything else lawmakers want to look at — is on the chopping block. And this year, no committee is considered sacrosanct. A bill introduced Thursday by the legislative leadership from both parties…
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Department of Agriculture warns of packages holding potentially invasive seeds
Spring planting is around the corner, and the Colorado Department of Agriculture wants residents to know where their seeds are coming from. Officials with the department warned Tuesday that they received reports of unsolicited packages containing plant seeds mailed internationally to Coloradans, according to a news release. While small, the contents of the package are…