Regional, state and international leaders gathered amid Palisade peach orchards Saturday, Aug. 15, for a behind-the-scenes tour of Grand Valley agriculture and a conversation about the value of and ability to expand the region\u2019s varying economic industries.<\/p>\n
Attendees ranged from first-time visitors, including Canadian and Taiwanese delegates and Front Range state representatives, to familiar faces, such as House District 55 Rep. Rick Taggart and Mesa County Commissioner JJ Fletcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international relationship does not just happen in Washington; it also happens in the state and the Palisade community here,\u201d said Debby Huang, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cI so cherish this (opportunity) to see what\u2019s happening here and (enjoy) the best peaches I can have,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd I hope in the future my fellows in Taiwan can taste the Palisade peaches as well \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Outgoing House District 54 Rep. Matt Soper (R-Delta) coordinated the agricultural education tour, which he said stemmed from a partnership with the Palisade Chamber of Commerce roughly four years ago to provide influential figures with insight into the region, its economic strengths and how to nourish those sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously work with the state government, so that\u2019s why we have the lieutenant governor, who was acting governor, here today; then, the consul generals of Taiwan and Canada because they are top trading partners (for western Colorado),\u201d Soper said.<\/p>\n
According to him, Taiwan is a major purchaser of Colorado beef, and the country signed a memorandum of understanding in 2019 to further boost beef exports.<\/p>\n
Canada, on the other hand, provides and manufactures various imports tied to western Colorado business, such as oil and gas implements.<\/p>\n
Additional attendees were:<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Colorado Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 State Representatives Jennifer Bacon (D-Denver), Anthony Hartsook (R-Parker), Cecilia Espenoza (D-Denver) and Lori Garcia Sander (R-Eaton).<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Canada Consul General for the U.S. Mountain West Sarah Quigley.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Executive leadership from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Colorado Tourism Office.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 U.S. House District 3 Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Grand Junction).<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Business Incubator Center CEO Dalida Bolig.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Colorado Association for Viticulture & Enology (CAVE) Executive Director Cassidee Shull.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, (this exposes) Front Range legislators to our style of agriculture because it is so much different than the Front Range,\u201d Soper added. \u201cAnd for some of them, they had actually never been to the Western Slope.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tour comprised several stops, including one of North America\u2019s first two agrivoltaic plants \u2014 permanent solar panel installations co-mingled with agricultural fields \u2014 at Talbott Farms, 3801 F\u00bc Road.<\/p>\n
That infrastructure, as well as the Colorado State University Western Colorado Research Center, 3170 B\u00bd Road, was made possible by state legislation passed in 2023.<\/p>\n
Additional stops included the East Orchard Mesa Irrigation District and its pump house (roughly one mile south of Palisade), as well as a look at the Colorado River flows. Soper said the river was of special interest to state legislators concerned about the future of river water levels and rights.<\/p>\n
Another notable stop was Peachfork Orchards & Vineyards, 281 33 Road, where attendees received a farm-to-table lunch and learned from local industry leaders, who spoke about the importance of their work, opportunities for mutually beneficial growth and challenges they have faced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to note for the legislators who are here: please feel free to reach out to ag producers,\u201d local rancher Janie VanWinkle said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re voting on something that is important to ag, talk to ag. That\u2019s my ask of you. Talk to us, whether we\u2019re peach producers, row crop farmers or livestock caretakers. Ask us the hard questions. We\u2019re more than happy to help you with those answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to \u2026 continue to serve the growing population here, and the growing visitation,\u201d Grand Junction Regional Airport Chief Executive Officer Angela Padalecki said. \u201cThe economic impact that I described \u2014 close to $820 million annually \u2014 that is direct. That does not take into account all those businesses that couldn\u2019t operate here in the current form if not for an airport with the type of commercial service we have, so we know everyone\u2019s counting on us for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day proceeded with tours of agricultural properties including the orchards at Peachfork, shortly before attendees began their return to the Front Range.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so great to show off this well-kept secret of Palisade,\u201d District 7 Sen. Janice Rich (R-Grand Junction) said.<\/p>\n
Soper added that he looks forward to planning similar recurring opportunities in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say this has been an incredible success,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gets people in leadership positions thinking \u2026 and I believe we owe it to the people of western Colorado to continue to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regional, state and international leaders gathered amid Palisade peach orchards Saturday, Aug. 15, for a behind-the-scenes tour of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2879,10301,17,1135,54375,29140,54374,54373,54376,10557],"class_list":["post-169819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-agriculture","tag-beef","tag-canada","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-western-slope","tag-front-range","tag-matt-soper","tag-palisade","tag-peach","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}