Robert Sakata: Our family has a farm in Brighton, Colorado. That's where I grew up, actually , but now recently, let's say a year ago in January, I was hired by the Department of Ag to be the first ever Ag Water Policy Advisor for the state of Colorado. So really excited by that. We joke between us my acronym is AWPAW.
Brody Wilson: That implies to me that maybe you've got some background in water.
Sakata: Yeah, I was really fortunate. Well, I mean, growing up on the farm, our farm was an irrigated farm . And my dad growing up, just his whole life, he just invested in good land with good water. I mean, that's what he knew was going to be the basis of our continuation was having that, that resource. I just grew up on the farm, irrigated farm, with an understanding the value of water. I was really fortunate too. My parents were both really involved civically. My dad served on the school board and my mom was on the bank board and they really encouraged me to do that as well. And I had the opportunity to serve on numerous boards and commissions in the state and it seemed like it was mostly focused on water.
Sakata: There was a law passed it back way back in 1990 called the Agricultural Groundwater Protection Act. And so it was really a big step because so many people were pointing at agriculture going, you know what, saying that nutrient pollution is caused by agriculture. But we didn't have any data to really verify if that was true. And so a group of us farmers got together and we put a proposal into the state legislature saying, okay, we're willing to tax ourselves. So we actually set up this bill that taxed farmers. Commercial fertilizer use and then also was a tax on any kind of registered pesticide in the state and then those funds would go to split between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment , the Colorado Department of Agriculture and CSU. So this trifecta would then manage this groundwater monitoring program. So we could actually start to take tests and to see the sources of contamination in the water and then try to verify where they're coming from. So that was my first dive into the water arena.
Wilson: I love that. I love that. And I understand you were on CWCB?
Sakata: That was my last actual kind of appointment was on the Colorado Water Conservation Board. I was to served for one term, which was three years, but then this position opened up. So it was a tough decision. I really enjoyed serving on the CWCB, but gosh, just the opportunity to serve the citizens and agriculture in the state of Colorado in this new role was just one that I couldn't pass up.
Wilson: That's great. Robert, you were the very first keynote speaker of this conference and you shared some really interesting information about agricultural land loss in Colorado. Can you talk about some of the data you shared? And why that matters, why that's something you're keeping track of ?
Sakata: Yeah, another really fantastic opportunity in my role is to be able to do that kind of research to figure out what data is out there. And one of the sources that I looked at was the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Ag Census. So every five years, the Department of Ag sends out a form to all farmers and ranchers. And we fill it out saying what crops we grow, how much, how many acres we're farming. And one of the questions is how many acres you're actually irrigating. This is just a snapshot in time. So it's every five years. And so the last twenty-five year reporting period was from 1997. And the most recent one was 2022. So over that twenty-five year reporting period, if you look at the state of Colorado, there's been a really substantial decline in irrigated acres across the state.
Sakata: If you look at that, we've really had a reduction of over 32%. That means over a million acres less of irrigated land in Colorado. Now it's, I have to qualify that, that, you know, we, there's no confirmation that that land is permanently dried up. Some of that land could be irrigated pastures. That it was a drought season. You know, we, we don't, you know, the snowpack here. Some years were blessed with plenty of snow and some years were not. And so in those dry years, a lot of times people that have pastures will just not irrigate them. So they may have reported to the. USDA at that season, well, I didn't irrigate those pastures so they can come back the next season. But a lot of that acreage is really acres that have been retired and taken out of production.
Wilson: Is having your finger on the, that kind of statistic and understanding that, it seems like that's part of your new job.
Sakata: It really is. It's a really different role for me. It's kind of funny being, growing up and farming. I was always on the defensive of any type of new legislation. You know, it was like, 'oh, no, what is this bill going to do to me?' I got to be on the defensive. But now it's just such a wonderful feeling and I'm really trying to have to adjust to have the opportunity to say, okay, this is what's going on. What kind of policies can I propose to benefit Colorado agriculture? So it's a totally different mindset. One that I'm trying to get used to and it's, it's actually more challenging than I expected.
Wilson: Robert, I've been really struck, we've had a lot of conversations at this table today with farmers and ranchers who are doing things a lot differently than standard practice.
Sakata: Yeah. Isn't that exciting?
Wilson: We were talking with some ranchers who aren't just a cow-calf operation earlier, but they're out in the West End, the Nucla-Naturita area. They are really almost entirely a closed loop. They grow all their own own feed. From insemination to slaughter, do everything all in the same a couple hundred acres. Or even doing things where they're not tilling the ground anymore. They're planting a mix of sixteen different species of plants that then the cows graze on all winter long.
Sakata: Right, right. They don't need any supplemental feed. They're using that winter grazing.
Wilson: I'm curious about what your job is advising on this level of policy? Is that just kind of a hippie thing we're seeing here on the Western Slope? Or is there a movement of
Sakata: Well, I love hippie things. I don't admit this too often, but I'll do it here publicly... I went to CU Boulder. But I love it. I think that's what it takes. Sometimes, you know, changing agriculture is hard and slow. Yeah. You know, that, uh, us old farmers, we can be pretty stubborn and stuck in our ways. And sometimes it takes another next generation. Somebody is willing to risk it to try something new. And then also there's just that financial risk. So many farmers and ranchers are. Such tight margins, they really don't feel comfortable taking on additional risk.
Sakata: You know, when I graduated high school, the last thing I wanted to be was a farmer. Our family operation had grown quite a bit. You know, we're growing, um, probably 7,000 acres of vegetables irrigated. We had 450 employees seasonally to help our operation. We had seventy full-time employees year-round and I think when I look back, part of the reasons that I was intimidated in really staying on the farm operation was that I was going to be responsible for all these people's livelihood. I felt like decisions that I could make. Could cost their jobs. And I had grown up with these families. And so to me, they weren't employees, they were family. And that was too scary for me. That's really, really scary. So that's, I think another barrier hurdle for change is that, gosh, we have a lot of responsibility. As proprietors of farm organization, farming and ranching operations. So it's, it's tough to make changes sometimes.
Wilson: That's a great segue to a question. I've asked a number of folks here today. We were talking with some people from land trust. We talked with people about this generational shift that is happening. Lots of people are aging out of the business and there's pressure on next generation to not keep the land in Ag. You could sell it and make a bundle of money or work yourself to the bone for not a lot of money and keep the land in Ag. Yet it seems like they're, everyone, there's universal recognition that, that there is benefit. We want to live in places where there are ag and we want quality ag to feed us. Are you starting to think about things like that from a policy perspective? What's your view on this kind of moment of transition when there's so many people aging out of the business?
Sakata: Yeah, definitely. That silver tsunami, as they call it. Silver tsunami that's coming along and, and really is threatening to really change what we think about agriculture and, You know, in my new role, I've told people that because they've often asked me, you know, what are you doing in your role? And I think part of it is really at first right now I've been traveling the state a lot and really looking at seeing what's going on out there like that operation that you described. The, all the different land trusts, the conservation easements, the other water sharing agreements that are going on. Cause I think a big part of my role is really then to connect the dots to figure out where the need are is. And then what are, where are possible solutions that are coming in? To be honest with you, I'm not smart enough to come up with these answers on my own. You know, I'm going to take people out there that are smarter and I'm going to be the connector for it. And I really think that's really crucial and critical.
Sakata: So really to get back to your answer, one of the neat things that I've been seeing is that, and this is part of my role is really educating rural - urban development and say urban development, ' You really need to be thinking about agriculture.' You know, in the past, a developer would come up to you and say, 'here, I've got this plot of land. We're going to develop it. 'But now we really need to identify what is that good farmland, you know, that has good water infrastructure. Do we really need to preserve it? And then we have some tools like conservation easements to do that. But I really emphasize to them that really that's the easy step. Putting a conservation easement on the line is the easy part and I think some municipalities are finding this out now because they can't find the people to manage it then. We have to find the ways to make sure that people that are managing these properties can earn a decent living. You know maybe it's things like the, the food partnership here that again, provide a market to these growers that are managing this property.
In Chafee County, they have actually a property tax, a mill levy, that's going to projects that are wildlife, wildfire protection, watershed protection, but also in preserving agriculture. So if they identify a piece of land that they feel like they want to keep in production, if that landowner doesn't necessarily, doesn't feel comfortable with a conservation easement because perpetuity is an awful long time, right? People don't feel comfortable with that. They don't know what the next generation is going to want to do. And so they're, they're hesitant to go into conservation easements. They're coming up with this idea of actually paying this farmer or this landowner an eco services payment, an annual payment because they are managing that open space that everybody's enjoying. And not getting compensated for.
Wilson: This is one of the more fascinating things that is honestly, um, as a industry outsider I've learned about today. It started with the talk this morning about, being compensated for the carbon sequestration that she's documented is happening on her ranches. And now you're, you're bringing up a similar concept. It's not the same thing. It's not traded on a carbon market, but about compensating people who are willing to work on a piece of land in a conservation easement to make it a viable business. Just be able to make a living. I wonder if there are other avenues in ag where this might, this might take foot because it's such, such tight margins that people have such a hard time earning a living.
Sakata: Yeah, exactly.. As I said this morning, you know, we built our economy on a cheap food supply. But in doing so, we really endangered our farmers and ranchers and that's a problem. So we really have to turn that around and figure out. And the other scary thing is, too, is by doing so, by going just for cheap food, our food supply is becoming so centralized that it scares me. You know, that if there is ever a problem now, because our food supply is so centralized, it's going to impact a huge number of people.
Wilson: I mean it's not if it's, it's when there is a recall. When there's a recall, it's now millions and millions of pounds of beef that have to be recalled instead of one ranch's worth. What do you think we can do to move in the opposite direction?
Sakata: I think we need great radio stations to get the word out there.
Wilson: We're doing our best, man.
Sakata: I mean, I'm joking but not joking because I think really reaching out to the general public so they understand this. I think you'll probably agree with this that most people want to support agriculture. You know, they really respect farmers and ranchers, but they just don't know how to. You know, so we have to get the word out there and, and, and explain to them how important it is to support local. That, you know what? ' I'm sorry, you may have to pay a little bit more for local because it is more expensive to grow stuff here locally.'
When I was a vegetable farmer, I was competing with farms in California. I can only grow one crop of broccoli a season in California. They can grow three. So, you know, so our, our overhead costs were extremely high compared to those. And our season is so short. I couldn't hire a quote unquote food safety expert for a year round just for a couple months where they can because they're almost year round. So again, figuring out ways that we can support local is so important and education plays a big role in that.
Wilson: Mr. Sakata, we really appreciate your taking the time to meet with us today and to share your passions and insights with our audience. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that we share?
Sakata: I guess just reiterate again, maybe hug a farmer and rancher, right? We need to get out there and do that. But really supporting and looking out for local products is always important. Figuring out ways. I mean, there's even another exciting model, if I can. This is a farming operation in the Los Angeles area. And what he's done now is he's taking bare ground in the middle of the city and he starts starting to grow vegetables there. Then he contracts with a food bank and the food bank not only has a contract to buy the food from that open piece of ground, but they provide the labor. So they get volunteers- To the food bank that come out and do the weeding and harvesting. It's like, what a great partnership. Isn't that using that open space and then also, uh, their help them helping them solve the labor issue.
I think that's critical too as I travel around and talking to the urban planners that we're finding how important agriculture is in mitigating the heat island effect that we're feeling as well. You know, you go into downtown Denver and all that concrete and pavement, it is hot. You know, agriculture plays a hugely important role in mitigating heat island effects. So sorry, as you can tell, I'm just passionate about this topic and I could go on and on. But thank you, Brody. Thank you so much for having me on your program.
Wilson: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Sakata: My pleasure.
