Forward in 2024 from CDA Commissioner, Kate Greenberg

Kate Greenberg

In this new year, CDA remains more committed than ever to delivering programs and services to the people of Colorado from a place of respect, service, professionalism, and partnership, and with a proactive approach to tackling challenges early and taking advantage of opportunities for Colorado ag. These are our core values and we strive to live up to them each day.

Through CDA’s Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office (ADCRO), we finalized the award of $500k in agrivoltaic grant funds to seven recipients across the state. These projects will focus on data collection, research, and on the ground implementation of climate smart agriculture in diverse sectors, which you can read more about below.

To help our agricultural communities further build climate resilience, we welcomed lifelong farmer Robert Sakata to our team as CDA’s first-ever Agricultural Water Policy Advisor. In December, Amanda Laban joined our team as Markets Division Director. And in early February, Todd Inglee will join our team as the next Brands Commissioner. You can read about these incredible new members of CDA’s leadership team in the links above and in the press release below.

CDA is now seeking two additional Regional Assistant Commissioners (RACs) to join ranchers Jo Stanko and George Whitten in these part-time positions built for working farmers, ranchers, and ag workers. We are looking for folks to represent CDA in their communities, and are particularly interested in representation from the Eastern Plains and urban agriculture.

Food access across urban and rural Colorado is another top priority for CDA. We just closed our first round of grantmaking for CDA’s Community Food Access Program (CFAP), which will distribute up to $2.5 million to successful small retail businesses and small farm applicants. We will be opening another round of grant applications soon. In addition, we will soon accept letters of interest for the $4 million Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant program. Please sign up at our website for more information and to receive notifications of upcoming webinars and timelines.

CDA is also expanding our partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) as both of our agencies move forward with ways to support ranchers with the recent wolf reintroduction. CDA will now be better able to work alongside CPW in supporting livestock producers in non-lethal management, and providing technical assistance, outreach and education.

And with the legislative session just getting started, you’ll find CDA at the Capitol advocating for our historic budget package and legislative agenda. As Governor Polis mentioned in his State of the State address, we are continuing to support our agricultural workforce through leadership programs, business development, and community food access, as well as increasing support for rural mental health.

I look forward to seeing many of you out and about over the coming weeks.

Our best to you as we begin 2024,
Commissioner Kate Greenberg