BOARD00191

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2002
• Description: WSP Section - Agricultural Water Policy Discussion
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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DRAFT

sale, all the land were tenant farmers. We formed a co-op to purchase American Crystal,
and needed 25,000 acres to make a sugar factory viable. In 5 years processed about
23,000 acres of beets. We got the million asking price. But, didn't purchase the factory,
an investment group out of Denver bought the factory, land and water. They got a
contract to sell water to Aurora, We, the remaining farmers couldn't get larger, we were
locked in, but not large enough to irrigate on a large scale, Two years ago, we sold the
rest to Aurora. Since 1973 we've lost a lot of crops. We have tried tomatoes, cucumbers,
pearl onions, lettuce and several other crops. Processors are no longer there. We can't
compete, Ag will be in the Valley, they won't take all the water, we need to build some
giant facilities. So much animosity, it's not quite there. We have no 401 K. With
technology today, we could dryland farm, but we don't have a need in this county for any
more food. I've been working for years trying to work this out. We have lots of absentee
landowners.

Don Schwindt - you know, when I was down there looking at some processing plants,
one was kind of new, a fast/freeze.. .why did they pull out?

Ron Aschermann - I understand tomato processors have moved out of state, down to
Mexico. Labor is the big issue, One of the processors who did tomatoes also processed
cucumbers, Hand harvested cucumbers are too expensive for labor, didn't have right
seed for machine harvested. Pulling out, grow them in Texas and other states. We can
grow anything, But, they can out yield us, but what do you do when you've got a binful
without processors? It's the bonafide farmers who are selling today. About 50 of them.
We gave it the best shot.

Greg Hoskin - it almost sounds like marketing, Could Colorado have done something
about that?

Ron Aschermann - Had ABC programs, and all those things, but it all goes back to
we're growing too much of everything. (talk about potatoes, cantaloupes). The Farm
Bill- Washington doesn't support it, we can't support it. There's not a lot of
groundswell for a Farm Bill.

Ray Wright - Walmart doesn't want to deal with you unless you can supply year round.

Ron Aschermann - We have to go east to sell our 800 acres of cantaloupe,

Ray Wright. - so little of the state is in sustainable farming. When the water leaves, it
might as well be rocks.

Ron Aschermann - you could dryland in NE Colorado. We could feed a lot of folks.

Harold Miskel- any other questions or comments. Ben Way, American Farmland Trust.

Ben Way - We focus on working with landowners and local governments to protect
farmlands and Ag areas. There are a lot offorces in play. The basic position of my

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