Colorado Department of Agriculture issued the following announcement on June 17.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) is pleased to announce the first businesses chosen for the new Agricultural Workforce Development Program, which provides financial incentives to agricultural businesses, including farms and ranches, to hire paid interns.
“This program invests in the future of Colorado’s agriculture and will help create a pathway for the next generation of farmers, ranchers, and ag leaders to access educational work opportunities in a real business setting,” said Kate Greenberg, Commissioner of Agriculture.
Business applications were reviewed and scored by a group of industry stakeholders including a vegetable grower, a human resources professional and representatives from Colorado Farm Bureau, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and Young Farmers Coalition. The application pool was extremely competitive, diverse and represented producers from across the state.
The Colorado agricultural businesses awarded internship incentives for use between April 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 are:
Altitude Mesa Hops Farms - Delta
Badger Creek Ranch - Canon City
Community Table Farm - Longmont
CSU Western Colorado Research Center - Grand Junction
Father Earth Organic Farm LLC - Lafayette
FLC-Old Fort at Hesperus - Durango
Green Valley Turf - Platteville
Gunnison Gardens - Gunnison
High Pine Produce - Durango
Hobbs and Meyer - Arkansas Valley
Indian Ridge Farm - Norwood
North Field Farm - Lafayette
Ollin Farms - Longmont
Raisin' Roots Farm - Fort Collins
Ring-a-Ding Farms - Salida
Rio Grande Farm Park - Alamosa
Round River Resource Management - Rush
San Juan Land & Livestock - Saguache
Sprout City Farms - Denver
Tierra Vida Farm - Durango
Internship opportunities include work with Community Supported Agriculture operations, regenerative ranching, livestock production and tree fruit, grape, and vegetable production research.
“As a new farm operation, having my first intern has allowed me to expand my farm and to learn about my own leadership capabilities,” said Andrew Nowak with Community Table Farm in Longmont. “Without this new help, my business would still be in its beginning stage.”
For more information, visit www.colorado.gov/agmain or contact Glenda Mostek at glenda.mostek@state.co.us or 303-869-9173.
Original source can be found here.