Agriculture is essential to families, communities and our state; show it the respect it deserves

The relentless assault on rural Colorado, including the constant attacks on agriculture and the oil and gas industry, are making me wonder: What is it going to take to get the people of the Front Range and Boulder to offer the respect agriculture deserves?

The rural-urban divide has never been greater, and it continues to widen. With harmful bills coming out of the Capitol, like those that impose regulations from the various regulatory agencies, to ballot initiatives that are an attack on the way we make a living and our way of life in rural Colorado, we have had enough.

When Gov. Jared Polis came out with his “Meat-Out” proclamation, it ignited outrage across House District 65 and all of rural Colorado. If this had been his first attack on agriculture, Coloradans might have let it slide, but this was not the first time. Ironically Polis, as a result of this proclamation, might go down in history as being the best meat salesman in Colorado as many were planning on a “Meat-In” Day last weekend.

Another setback agriculture in Colorado is facing is a ballot initiative called Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation, which is working its way to get on the ballot as Proposition 16 that would end animal agriculture for all practical purposes in Colorado.

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