Tuesday, August 15, 2017 

Food and agriculture industries are core components of New Mexico’s food system. This system’s strength is vital to any resident who cares about individual health, viable rural and tribal communities, as well as regional economic stability. Our state’s food and agriculture systems benefit from many diverse stakeholders who share a common goal: to support agriculture sectors with staying power in New Mexico. These stakeholders believe a strong food system can serve the needs of all residents in our state – but only if it is truly resilient.

Following a successful presentation to the New Mexico Legislature’s Water & Natural Resources Interim Committee, New Mexico First and New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service are proud to share the New Mexico Agriculture Plan. This plan is the culmination of input from 600 stakeholders in 13 regional meetings across the state, deliberations of 35 member task force over six months, and public comment.

Resilience in New Mexico Agriculture is a project that began in 2016 to address unprecedented challenges to the health of the industry – issues no one farmer, rancher or businessman could tackle alone. At 13 regional meetings across the state, over 600 stakeholders identified major issues such as:

An aging population of farmers and ranchers
Increasing pressure on water and other natural resources
Rising costs for land, energy, equipment and other production needs
Challenges accessing or understanding farm loans, grants and repayment programs
Unsustainable farmer and rancher incomes
Insufficient processing, storage and market access
Complex regulations
Public health needs regarding nutrition and food access
Food waste
Following the completion of these regional meetings, and the compilation of their findings in a published background report, a 35-member task force of industry leaders and experts assembled to develop solutions. The taskforce worked in committees to develop recommendations and strategies in the following subject areas:

Next generation of farmers and ranchers
Water and land use
Agricultural supply chain
Agricultural economic viability
To ownload the plan: The Resilience in New Mexico Agriculture Strategic Plan, visit https://nmfirst.worldsecuresystems.com/legislative_updates/new-mexico-agriculture-plan-released 

The task force looks forward to pursuing implementation of this plan over the next several months and, potentially, years.

The project is funded by grants from:

Thornburg Foundation
New Mexico Department of Agriculture
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
McCune Charitable Foundation
Santa Fe Community Foundation