Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other

By Cory Gaines | Guest Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Whether you run cattle on the Western Slope of Colorado or you grow forage on the Plains, there are precious few people in Colorado in Production Ag, while there seems a never-ending list of advocates — paid, volunteer, and sometimes from out of state — who are speaking up in support of things that either have the potential to harm producers or that will most assuredly harm them.

Listen to any CPW commissioners meeting and you’ll have no trouble at all seeing what I mean.

I have heard from people in the past that testifying is a challenge because of jobs, lack of technology, and lack of know how. I understand the constraints and so I made this quick guide to help ease some of those problems, to help you find ways to make speaking up work around the other constraints you have in life.

Testifying at CPW, speaking up for yourself and for your neighbors, needn’t be as complicated as it seems. It needn’t put you a day behind. To give you an example, the last CPW meeting I spoke at, I was speaking into an ordinary flip phone while sitting on the treatment table at the physical therapist’s office.

You can call in from any touch tone phone and get involved. You can call in from the cab of your pickup as you drive around. You can call from your desk. You can get a group together and support each other, each one of you calling in.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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