Boulder County Sustainable Food and Ag Fund
Boulder County says the second round of grants through its Sustainable Food and Ag Fund will be available with the new year.
Tim Broderick, Senior Sustainability Strategist with the Office of Sustainability, Climate Action, and Resilience says farmers, producers, private and nonprofits are eligible to receive grants.
In year one priority was given to farm production.
Broderick: “ These are the farms that have been the backbone of regenerative and sustainable agriculture in Boulder County. So those were the organizations we knew could carry forward what they were putting out. The majority of the projects were focused on on-farm infrastructure, solar shades, water trailers, all kinds of systems needed for regenerative ranching. Several projects that focused on cover-cropping and soil health at the same time.”
Funds are available in four areas: on-farm regenerative ag and soil health practices; farmer/producer education, conferences and workshops that focus on sustainable and regenerative demonstrations; on-farm and farmers market infrastructure and sustainable local food and crop production.
The first round of grants included funding for a cover cropping project at Aspen Moon Farm in Longmont, a soil health project for the Cottonwood Farm in Layfayette, and a regenerative grazing project at Sky Pilot Farms Longmont to name just a few.
The fund is supported by the county’s Sustainability Tax passed by voters in 2016.
Broderick says to his knowledge no other county is doing something quite like this to support ag professionals who want to increase sustainable practices.
A total of $305-thousand will be allocated to projects at a minimum of $40-thousand and a maximum of $150-thousand per project. This year there is a new small project fund for projects between $2 and $5-thousand. Applications are being accepted through January 6th.
