One of the things with which I have been most impressed about the state of Colorado is that although there has been a huge influx of people into the state, there is still a strong farming and ranching tradition in the state.  I had the opportunity to experience this first hand when my friend and his family hired me to work on their organic wheat farm the summer after my sophomore year in college.  It was a blast, not really.

I think that everyone has a beautiful picture of farming in their head when they think about the profession.  It is a very romantic notion to think of a farmer and his or her family raising the food that you eat.  It may be something that comes from our collective agricultural past or something with which I am not familiar, but I do have a strong sense that it exists.  Part of that sentiment is what drove me to working on my friend’s farm.  It was a great opportunity to make a buck before I went to study abroad and I enjoyed the opportunity to work outside.  In retrospect, I don’t think that his family would hire me back because I wasn’t exactly compliant with everything that was asked of me, but hey you never know.  As I worked this job though, I realized that many of the ranches around the farm were up for sale.

I thought that this was interesting, especially considering where we were in the state of Colorado.  Northern Colorado has a very strong tradition of farming and ranching, so being able to tap into that history was something that I enjoyed when I was doing the work.  Nevertheless, seeing many of the ranches for sale was kind of alarming.  My friend’s farm is an organic one so the most important thing for them is that none of the farms or ranches close to them start to use pesticides or herbicides for any reason.  They have a strong interest in protecting what is out there and I think a great way for them to do that was through purchasing some of the area around them.

There are things that are available through the government, I assume that it is the Bureau of Land Management or the Department of the Interior (I am not totally sure), that offer the chance to enroll your land into a trust so that it remains undeveloped, but the government will pay you money as if you were utilizing the money.  It is not an insignificant sum and I am pretty impressed with the foresight of my friend’s family to purchase the land, only to enroll it in the program.  It makes me consider looking at some of the ranches that may be for sale to only enroll them in the land trust as well.  That is something that I think could be a very good investment for my family and I and one that we can continue into the future.  At least as long as that government program lasts.