Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Initiative
A link to Boulder County’s request for proposals from qualified companies, organizations and vendors interested in a county contract for establishing and operating a sustainable-agriculture research project farmland is available on the Parks and Open Space Department’s Cropland Policy web page: bit.ly/1Kvbws8
What are the viable alternatives, on publicly and privately owned farmland in Boulder County, to genetically engineered crops?
That’s one of the questions that Boulder County officials say might be explored by whoever gets a multiple-year contract to establish and manage a sustainable-agriculture research project on irrigated, county-owned farmland south of Longmont.
Boulder County announced Monday that it has formally published a request for proposals from qualified companies, organizations and vendors interested in such a project, which the county is calling its Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Initiative.
The county-funded research will compare current and proposed agricultural production practices for their relative environmental and economic benefits. It will be on at least part of 150-acre county-owned property, called the Haley Farm, southeast of U.S. 287 and Colo. 52.
The sustainable farming initiative is part of a plan Boulder County commissioners approved in a 2-1 vote on Nov. 30 for phasing out the growing of genetically modified corn and sugar beets crops on land the county owns and leases to tenant farmers.
The project will look into what non-GMO crops can be grown on public and privately owned Boulder County farms that could produce a net farm income comparable to that of GMO crops.
Eric Lane, director of the county’s Parks and Open Space Department, said on Tuesday that the county is not ruling out any proposals from would-be contractors that might include for comparison testing of genetically engineered crops as well as organic and conventional non-GMO crops.
Among other questions the project will explore, according to the request for proposals, are:
• How farmers can gain “effective insect and disease control” with methods that incorporate “the least toxic solutions” of pesticides and herbicides while achieving “optimal marketable crop yield.”
• How farmers can use no-till practices in organic crop production while maintaining effective weed control.
• What irrigation-scheduling technology makes sense for local growers.
• How farmers can reduce electricity demand with their irrigation water pumping and their use of diesel in tractors and other equipment.
• How farmers can best “participate and practice climate-smart agriculture with regard to sustainability increasing agricultural productivity and incomes in the face of climate change,” in “adapting and building resilience to climate change” and in “reducing and-or removing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Boulder County previously had leased the land southeast of U.S. 287 and Colo. 52 to Tanaka Farms, a longtime local family vegetable farming operation that ended its Boulder County presence there last November after its final season of growing vegetables and other crops on the property.
Most recently, Parks and Open Space Department staffers said on Tuesday, the crops grown on that land included cabbage, squash and some genetically engineered corn.
Lane said this week’s formal request for proposals incorporated some of the suggestions the county received in December after inviting comments about a draft version of the project description.
Parks and Open Space Department spokeswoman Vivienne Jannatpour said on Tuesday that the department hasn’t yet identified a specific budget amount for the research project and the multiple-year contract for establishing and managing the project. She said that will depend in part on the proposals received and the amounts sought by bidders seeking the contract.
The successful bidder will be required to enter into a contract for services for three years, with an option to renew annually for additional years.
Would-be research project contractors have until March 28 to submit proposals for county consideration. Under the county’s tentative timetable, Parks and Open Space staff plans to interview bidders on April 5 and submit its recommendations to county commissioners on April 11, with a contract expected to be awarded on April 25.
John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
