Our beef industry is too important for Weld County and for Colorado to become yet another victim of the divisive, partisan politics that plague our nation.

After recent struggles with drought and wildfires, damaging tariffs, and the disastrous fire at the Tyson facility in Kansas that processes more than five percent of all American beef, we should come together to support an industry that is essential to our state, and a critical part of our identity as westerners.

Colorado’s beef industry is vital to our state. It’s our numberone agricultural export, totaling about $1 billion annually, and Weld County isa top producer. It’s the backbone of many of our rural communities, helpingdrive local economies and supporting jobs.

It’s also key to our state’s sustainability efforts: Colorado’s cattle ranchers provide day-to-day stewardship for the vast majority of our state’s land, both public and private.

I’m proud of the hard work our entire administration undertakesevery day on behalf of our ag producers, including our Commissioner ofAgriculture Kate Greenberg from Durango and former Congresswomen Betsy Markey,who represented the Eastern Plains and Greeley, and is now serving as head ofour office of our Economic Development and International Trade.

Our state programs such as our Rural Prosperity Tours, AgWorkforce Development, Colorado Centennial Farms and Ranches designation, ruralmental health outreach initiative, and Farm and Ranch Succession Planningprogram are helping our rural communities grow and prosper. We’re also workinghard to serve our ranchers by opening new markets for Colorado products.

Just three weeks ago I touted and sampled Colorado beef with thePresident of Taiwan, and will be meeting with a follow up delegation thisSeptember with the goal of expanding our beef exports.

When President Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue,visited a facility where they make meatless burgers and ate one in front of thepress, The North American MeatInstitutesaid it was pleased to see Perdue visiting an alternative protein facility and”He is a veterinarian who has long understood consumers benefit from a varietyof protein products in the marketplace, including meat which has environmental,nutritional and economic benefits.”

Yet somehow that wasn’t quite the reaction I got from those whoare more interested in partisan gain than supporting Colorado’s beefindustry.

While I’m not a veterinarian like Sec. Purdue,I have produced Alfalfa for feed for most of twenty years at my farm here inWeld County, Istarted the online steak company Uptown Prime (an online flower, lobster andsteak retailer) and my brother runs a small cattle operation in westernVirginia. So having been in and around production agriculture much of myprofessional career, I was truly surprised to be attacked by those seekingpartisan gain.

We need to say it over and over, believe it, and live it everyday: COLORADO BEEF IS ABOVE PARTISAN POLITICS. By all means disagree with myefforts for full-day kindergarten or our reinsurance plan which will reduce thecost of medical insurance by 18.2% in the individual market next year, butlet’s lay off fighting over something that is critical to our way of life andthat we are all on the same side of: Colorado beef.

When you’re attacking beef producers, it also gets personal forme as a consumer; you’re also attacking my own favorite snack, beef jerky,which I keep dozens of bags of tucked away in the Governor’s office.

You won’t hear me attacking Secretary Purdue for publicizingmeatless burgers, because I have full confidence that he can walk and chew gumat the same time, and I ask the same confidence of you.

Meatless burgers are a fascinating technology. If they take off,I would love to see Colorado corn, potato and sunflower farmers and processorsparticipate and benefit from potential jobs and market growth, but pursuingevery possible future opportunity in agriculture will never stand in the way ofour work to expand markets for Colorado beef.

My administration is focused on the future of agriculture, andWeld County will play a key role in that future. When my time serving our greatstate is over, I want to look back and make sure I played a major role inensuring that farming and ranching aren’t just a storied part of our past andpresent, but an exciting and dynamic part of our future.

That means constantly trying to make sure that new technologiesand changes in the marketplace work for Colorado producers and consumers.

Agriculture, in one way or another, is at the foundation ofevery human and animal life. It’s critical to Colorado, and far too valuable tohave any place in partisan politics.

– Jared Polis is thegovernor of Colorado and a landowner in Weld County