On today’s KVNF Farm Friday Senior Reporter Lisa Young talks with Nicole Didero, Colorado State University Regional Specialist for Food & Agriculture. The discussion centers on the so-called ag winter 'slump time'. Didero says winter is still a busy time for farmers and ranchers as they attend informative conferences, get vital food safety training and focus on mental health challenges.
Nicole Didero: We had the Western Colorado Soil Health Food and Farm Forum which was hosted in Montrose. We also had the Western Colorado Hort Society meeting that happens at the same time as VINCO which is the Colorado wine industry's meetup time. Those happen in the same place in Grand Junction. And then we also had these really cool regional ag and food convenings, and we actually still have one left. But there will be total four after early April. I was just going to mention too, there's been farmers flying into DC and policy advocacy groups doing a lot of work.
Lisa Young: Nicole, I understand that a lot of producers get more training during the winter time as they get ready to roll into the spring.
Didero: Whether you're a consumer or producer, food safety is a big topic. Consumers want to be sure they can trust the food they're eating and then producers are increasingly having to demonstrate how they are making sure that the food is safe when they're selling it.
So it's really nice for consumers to know that producers are doing a lot of work in the background. In terms of what we're doing in our state, we're super lucky in that the Colorado Department of Ag with a produce safety representative that's Sarah Musick. She does a lot of outreach and education as well as the inspections on farms for produce safety. But in addition to that, we have a really cool non-regulatory group called the Produce Safety, the Colorado Produce Safety Collaborative. And it's a group of, I don't know, maybe seven of us. Part of it's led by folks from Colorado State University, but also Fort Lewis College. Anyone can collaborate with us across the state and we're just a group of individuals who can provide research-based and reliable information about produce safety.
Didero: One of the biggest things we've been doing this winter is really pushing out getting growers certified and understanding the produce safety rule. And for certain farms that grow produce that is covered by the produce safety rule, they have to take this, but for producers who don't, and I'm trying not to use too many words here that are confusing, but basically whether or not you have to show the government that you are doing what you need to be doing, we teach about really good on-farm practices for handling produce so that it's safe for the consumer to eat. And so we had online trainings. The Department of Ag has offered some too, which is really cool because as you can imagine. Making time even during the winter can be hard, so just being able to join online is really important. And then we also have an in-person one coming up here in Hotchkiss, which I'm excited about on April 10th.
Young: Who should producers contact if they want more information?
Didero: After this week, I'll be a certified trainer officially. So, you could contact me. And then if you have other questions, you can go to the to the Colorado Department of Ag and contact Sarah Musick. Or there's a Colorado Produce Safety Collaborative website and there's a inquiry button there too and it goes to a real person who will help you.
Young: We were talking about coming out of the winter season and we know that there's winter time and seasonal depression. But there's also just the added pressures that are going on with the ag community. A lot of the uncertainty with the federal funds being frozen and some of the programs that our producers are dependent upon. Some of those programs, they've already spent money in looking for reimbursements. I'm just wondering, Nicole, what is the status of the mental health of farmers today? What is Colorado State University Extension doing for Those farmers and producers are really feeling stressed out at this time?
Didero: Yeah, thanks for asking, Lisa. We always strive to just be a phone call away. We're really lucky in that a couple years ago the CSU AgrAbility Project was able to hire many specialists across the state who can be contacted. Julie Elliott is who you would contact and she can help, you know, she can help organizations provide whatever behavioral health information. She can come join you at a meeting. And also a really cool thing she's been doing is doing a tour of the film Legacy, which is about forty-five minutes. And it's, it's a really beautiful, it's heartbreaking, but hopeful film about mental health and ag.
We've been doing this tour and I was able to go to the one that was hosted in Paonia, but in addition to hosting the film, the discussion afterwards is led by trained behavioral specialists, the ones that I work with through AgrAbility. They were therapists before who worked in crisis and know how to help people. So we've been having those discussions on the film tours and we're always able to show that if anyone else is interested in seeing that. And that's just like a nice way to get together, have a meal, watch a film and have a discussion.
I think right now as you mentioned the funding cuts and the uncertainty that what we're really trying to do is one, be available to answer questions, two, send out information as we find out what's going on, of course it's really hard to balance that we still don't know what's going on and answer with, 'hey, I'm here for you.' Because sometimes people are like, I don't need the vague answer. I need like a clear answer. And when you don't have a clear answer, that's hard.
We don't want to pretend like we do. So one really cool thing that recently happened is I just send out a kind of periodic email a couple times a month and I just because of my ability to connect with people across the state at different levels of Ag and food industry, I asked Brian Coppom from the Department of Ag, who manages a lot of grants for farmers, if he could help send a table that summarizes what grants are funded federally and what grants are funded by the state. And so we could just send that table out to producers so they can look at that and say, okay, this grant's federally funded. I need to be, you know, keeping my eye out that maybe the funding will get frozen, even if we didn't know yet. And then for those that were funded by the state, they might feel a little bit better about knowing what might be coming down the pipe.
Here's a list of important links related to today's KVNF Farm Friday topic:
West Slope Ag & Food Industry Gatherings:
Western CO Soil Health Food & Farm Forum - https://www.soilfoodfarm.org/
Western CO Horticultural Society - https://www.coloradofruits.org/
VINCO Conference & Trade Show - https://www.winecolorado.org/vinco-conference-trade-show/
2025 Regional Convenings, The Colorado Food Summit - Produce Safety Outreach & Education in CO
CO Produce Safety Collaborative - https://coproducesafety.org/
In-person PSA grower training on April 10th in Hotchkiss, more information & register here https://col.st/gxBIS
CO Dept. of Ag Produce Safety Program - https://ag.colorado.gov/ics/colorado-produce-safety-program
One last online PSA training April 15-16, register here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-IzNYDGlObIAhAp0m2zt5d69mhgrUsKpb4HbgI-YLmGMejQ/viewform
CO Ag Water Field Day - April 30th, 10-2pm at CSU Western Campus 3170 B 1/2 Road, Grand Junction, more information & register here - https://ag.colorado.gov/ics/colorado-produce-safety-program
Behavioral Health & Wellness for Ag Producers
National: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call 988 for help 24 hours/day, 7 days a week
National: AgriStress Helpline: Call or text (833)897-2474
State: Colorado Crisis Services, available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. Call 1-844-493-8255 or Text: "Talk" to 38255. Veterans can hit option "1" for a Vet Specialist.
State: Members of agricultural & rural communities can access six free counseling sessions with a licensed, ag-friendly counselor. Go to www.caamhpforhealth.org to access that via the "I need help" button which takes you to a Google Form. They ask for an email which is to be used to send the vouchers after form submission. You may receive a survey directly from CAAMHP about your experience, but this information will not be connected to any services rendered by the provider. Your personal information will not be sold or provided to any third party for any reason.
Regional (West Slope): For any questions/needs, don't hesitate to contact Julie Elliot, Behavioral Health Specialist-AgrAbility, julie.elliott@colostate.edu (970)241-3346
For more information about how CSU Extension can support your community, contact Nicole Didero: Nicole.Didero@colostate.edu, (970) 495-2217
