Ad
Featured
Bernalillo County codifies a commitment to local agriculture
Acequias in the valley are opened during the spring to allow water from the river to flow through and provide irrigation, including this one at Bernalillo County’s Bachechi Open Space.
Published
Modified
The Bernalillo County Commission codified its commitment to local agriculture and food Tuesday with a “Cultivating Bernalillo County” resolution.
The resolution was passed in response to community members who were worried about losing irrigated farmland in the North Valley and South Valley, according to a staff summary.
“Having a resolution in place helps to solidify our position as an anchor in our food system and local agriculture through our properties, programs and policies,” Open Space manager Mari Simbaña told commissioners.
Some of the policy ideas in the resolution are already part of how the county’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space department operates, but the policy framework should benefit federal and state grant applications, according to the staff summary.
Open Space operates programs like Grow the Growers, to train people in growing produce, but other county departments like zoning and economic development are also involved in stewarding agricultural properties and educating the public. The resolution solidifies that collaboration, according to Simbaña.
The resolution commits to increasing the capacity for year-round food production on county agricultural land and securing sufficient water rights to facilitate year-round food production. Bernalillo County owns agricultural land in the Middle Rio Grande Valley and near the bosque.
It also commits the county to preserving the acequia system, improving the agricultural lease program so it’s more accessible to local growers, educating the community on growing and buying local food and providing underserved communities with better options and education on local produce.
“What we are doing with this resolution also is teaching the next generation and building that next generation of stewards of the land, farmers and those of us who willingly pay our (Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District) taxes so that we can continue that ribbon of green and that acequia system,” Commission Chair Barbara Baca said.
According to the resolution, the county will also use conservation easements to preserve land for agricultural use. Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements — in this case between a private agricultural land owner and a government agency — to limit the use of a piece of land.
