Vol. 1 No. 6
AUGUST 26, 2022
CHILE & FRIJOLES 6 | FOOTBALL PREVIEW 8 | PUEBLO PRIDE 12 | CROSSWORD 15 | EVENTS 20
• DIG DEEPER •
Mike Sweeney, Special to The Pueblo Star Journal
| COMMUNITY | ACCOUNTABILITY | CURIOSITY | CONNECTION |
‘A massive issue’ In Colorado, farming is a multibillion dollar industry. So why are so many residents going hungry?
T
Workers harvest bell peppers Aug. 19 in Vineland in eastern Pueblo County.
By Regan Foster Special to the Star Journal
o head east on U.S. 50 is to enter a verdant realm of lush fields and towering trees. It’s a greenbelt that meanders along the length of the lower Arkansas River from the city’s eastern edge to Rocky Ford and beyond – a Nile Valley-esque landscape in the midst of the Southwest drylands. Rows of chiles, corn and squash march in straight lines to the horizon — or at least to the edges of their fields. Mile after mile, rustling leaves and ripening produce stand as summer sentinels, creating a sea of green interrupted by homes, livestock pastures and the occasional local business. “Since I was 3 or 4 years old, I’ve always been interested (in farming),” said Dalton Milberger, the president of the Pueblo Chile Growers Association. “At 5 years old, I was driving tractors in the field. “I don’t know why,” he added with a laugh. “It’s quite rewarding. It’s a lot of work, but quite rewarding.” Colorado is home to 31.8 million operational acres of agricultural land and in 2021 it generated nearly $2.8 billion in crop revenues alone, according to the 2021 State Agriculture Overview. The state’s farms and ranches raised 5.73 million cows, goats, sheep
and hogs, and dairy production accounted for 5.27 million pounds of milk, according to the survey. From Rocky Ford’s iconic melons to Pueblo’s beloved mirasol chiles and everything in between, local growers along the Arkansas nurture a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables every year.
A breakdown in access
This wealth of nutrition is located just a few miles east of the Pueblo city limits; nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Access Research Atlas found that, in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, more than half of Pueblo County and huge chunks of the city proper are considered food deserts. The atlas reports data based on census tracts and weighs income and access to fresh, healthful foods when assigning the designation. A tract is considered low income if 20 percent or more of its residents fall at or below the U.S. poverty rate; its median family income is no more than 80 percent of the statewide median family income; or the tract is in a metropolitan area and has a median family income less than or equal to 80 percent of the area’s median family income. FOOD continued on page 3