Author: By Rachel Gabel
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GABEL | State-run hemp hypocrisy kills farms
Rachel Gabel The little farm in Montrose County has been her home for decades. This is where she and her late husband raised their children, their cow herd, a lush field of alfalfa and an abundant garden. Neighboring farmers raise fields of sweet corn, pinto beans and onions in straight rows. The farm above hers…
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GABEL | An eye roll at Polis on ‘Cow Appreciation Day’
Rachel Gabel I do not like citing social media posts made by anyone in my coverage in print or on radio. It feels akin to citing Wikipedia or repeating gossip. Last night, when a dear friend who is also a Denver radio host and commentator who has his thumb on the pulse of rural Colorado,…
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GABEL | Who on Cap Hill will carry ag torch into future?
There will be a void when the legislative session gavels back in without Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, Sen. Don Coram, and Sen. Kerry Donovan. Sonnenberg, a farmer and rancher from Sterling, served 16 consecutive years, beginning in the House and moving to the Senate when former Sen. Greg Brophy was term limited. I’ve long known Sonnenberg…
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GABEL | The selfless spirit of our state’s sheep men
Lamia, a village in Greece, bears resemblance to Meeker, or at least that’s how the story goes. A number of Greek immigrants followed the promise of a better life to America, leaving impoverished Greece behind. Many of them found work in the coal mines around Price, Utah, including a man named Regis Halandras. Halandras left…
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GABEL | State policy puts farm biosecurity at risk
Biosecurity is top of mind in agriculture every day. As defined by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), biosecurity reduces the risk of people, animals, equipment, or vehicles carrying infectious diseases onto a property — either accidentally or otherwise. With the high-pathogen avian influenza (HPAI) affecting wild and domestic…
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GABEL | Prairie dogs and progressive politics
I’m considering writing a novel. In it, an area will experience explosive growth that will threaten to displace prairie dogs. Now, the prairie dogs cause damage to the land in a couple of ways and they carry diseases and fleas, but it doesn’t matter in this novel. Prairie dogs are also listed by state wildlife professionals as…
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GABEL | A bill to empower smaller livestock markets
The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 was designed to ensure competition and integrity in livestock, meat and poultry markets. It was penned in an era when ranchers brought cattle on a railcar to a terminal market, like the Denver Union Stockyards Company. The cattle were sold by commission men to the various packers that…
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GABEL | Ag-worker suit bites hand that feeds us
Bruce Talbott is a peach grower in Palisade. He has been hiring seasonal harvest workers through the H-2A program, the federal guest worker program, for years. Peach harvest is fast and furious and it is hard work. Peaches, like many crops grown in Colorado, have a small window to harvest. And weather — which no one has one iota of control over — drives…
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GABEL | Don’t legislate what’s on our dinner plate
Years ago, the agriculture trade organization group I was a part of had a booth at a food festival in the shadow of the City and County Building in Denver. We were there just to share information and meet consumers so we could talk about food and agriculture with producers who obviously cared enough about…
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GABEL | Ag officials face-up to state’s protein producers
Last year, in response to Gov. Jared Polis’s signing of the “MeatOut” Day Proclamation — a generic proclamation circulated by an anti-agriculture group — ag producers around the state hosted the first “Meat In” Day. This year the day coincided with National Agriculture Week, so ag producers and groups were able to host a number of…