| dc.description.abstract | This study presents the story of how farmers and agriculture survive in the upper Grand Valley, the eastern end of a 30-mile stretch of the Colorado River Valley—known as the Grand Valley—located on Colorado’s Western Slope. Home to over 2,000 acres of peaches, 1,000 acres of grapes, and around one-fifth of the state’s wineries, the upper Grand Valley has a unique microclimate that is ideal for growing premium peaches and grapes. Still, the valley neighbors the world’s largest deposits of kerogen (in particular, oil shale). The extraction of kerogen, as well as other natural resources, has led to population growth and urban sprawl throughout the Grand Valley. The story is one of tensions, primarily between farmers and developers. Agricultural interests persist, however, despite pressures to subdivide prime, irrigated agricultural land—whether that division is for housing to support the extractive industries or, as has been the case more recently, to support growth associated with the region’s service industries and amenities. As the world around them develops at a furious rate, farmers in the Upper Valley hold true to their way of life through use of efficient irrigation technologies, conservation easements and land trusts, and agritourism. The two versions of progress shaping Colorado’s Grand Valley are examples of the changes that are taking place in areas of irrigated agriculture elsewhere in the American West. | en_US |
