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Global demand for food and fuel is rising, and competition for resources has widespread ramifications. We all eat, so we all have a stake in how our food is produced. Our goal is to provide in-depth and unbiased reporting on things like climate change, food safety, biofuel production, animal welfare, water quality and sustainability.

Meet Don Brown, Colorado's New Agriculture Commissioner

Jessica Reeder
/
Flickr - Creative Commons

Colorado has a new agriculture commissioner: Don Brown, a Yuma County farmer who raises beef cattle and grows corn. Governor John Hickenlooper tapped Brown for the position following the retirement of former commissioner John Salazar.

Colorado is home to more than 35,000 farms and ranches which produce roughly $7 billion in crops and livestock each year. The state's Department of Agriculture is tasked with marketing that farm output overseas as well as monitoring animal health.

Credit Colorado Department of Agriculture
Yuma County farmer Don Brown is Colorado's new agriculture commissioner.

As commissioner, Brown will be in charge of the department's seven divisions including brand inspection, marketing and the Colorado State Fair.

Interview highlights

On Bringing Together The State's Ag Producers

"Typically we all have about the same issues. It's kind of interesting. It's finding good employees, it's finding a market for your products, and finding the right market. And so at the end of the day even though we raise different crops and products we share the same problems, same ultimate goals, same successes."

On Taking Over The Department

"I'm filling mighty big shoes. And that would be my predecessors Commissioner Salazar, Commissioner Stulp, Commissioner Ament and prior ones. And so I don't plan any universal changes immediately. I don't think they're necessary. Those of us in the production world primarily, and not always, but primarily view the Colorado Department of Ag a friendly organization, one that's there to help the producers."

On Priorities In The New Role

"Over the years the Colorado Department of Ag has branched from a regulatory agency to an educational agency also. One my primary focuses is this idea that we continue to educate our consumer, the consumer of our food, about the safety of our food. We're such a narrow sliver of society any more as producers and ag-oriented people, that we need to carry our message to people who are consuming at the end of the day."

On Helping Farmers Adapt To Climate Change

"By the very nature of the business they adapt very quickly to changing weather conditions no matter how they're perceived to be caused or otherwise. So they'll probably adjust first because they're growing things and they rely on adapting different crops, different water uses. They will adapt.

On Wearing A Cowboy Hat In His Official Photograph

"Boy, I don't know how to answer that question. Do you know I don't own a cowboy hat? I could never keep it on. It was so windy out where I grew up that we couldn't keep it on."

As KUNC’s managing editor and reporter covering the Colorado River Basin, I dig into stories that show how water issues can both unite and divide communities throughout the Western U.S. I edit and produce feature stories for KUNC and a network of public media stations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada.
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