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Young Farmers plan film, workshops

The western organizer of the National Young Farmers Coalition is hosting three days of workshops, farm tours and a film to highlight the future of agriculture in an era of drier climate.

“Water scarcity in the West and particularly the Colorado River basin is a major challenge of our times,” Kate Greenberg, the Western organizer of Young Farmers said.

The three-day event, Monday through Wednesday will offer a look at how water-saving practices and time-honored techniques such as crop rotation and no-till farming are done.

The free, 9-minute film, “Resilient: Soil, Water & the New Stewards of the American West,” will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio, where a panel discussion by farmers and ranchers will follow.

Tours will take participants to the James Ranch in the north Animas Valley on Monday and to the Ute Mountain Ute tribal ranch near Towaoc on Tuesday.

Presentations by agriculturists and water managers are scheduled all three days.

Information on what events remain open to the public is available from Greenberg at (612) 889-6829.

Young farmers will be called upon to save agriculture as oldtimers retire, Greenberg said.

Indications are that 70 percent of farmland will change hands in the next 20 years, she said. The average age of farmers is 60, she said.

The National Young Farmers Coalition was formed 4½ years ago by three aspiring farmers in New York’s Hudson Valley when they found land prices unaffordable, Greenberg said.

Since then, the organization has grown to 1,000 dues-paying members and 30,000 subscribers to the newsletter, she said.

The organization’s main goal is to get more young farmers on land, Greenberg said.

Young Farmers works through the Farm Services Agency to make micro-loans available, and it trains people on how to get a conservation easement on working land.

Greenberg has been in Durango since last year.

daler@durangoherald.com



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