Gov. Jared Polis’ actions point to an administration more friendly to anti-agriculture activists and extremists than the industry that carried the state’s economy through crazy times. Unlike any prior administration, he has cultivated an environment that is inviting, if not supportive, of misguided attempts to dismantle the state’s agriculture industry. All of this is done at the expense of the consumer.

At an annual meeting of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, and after months of demonstrating his disdain for the industry, Polis told the group of cattle producers before him that he is the best governor for agriculture that the state has ever seen or ever will see.

When Polis purchased Impossible Whoppers for the staff of the Department of Agriculture in 2019 and encouraged staffers to look beyond beef for ways to capitalize on the plant-based protein trend, it surprised the state’s agriculture community. With young and green Commissioner Kate Greenberg at the helm of the Department, it appeared that pushing back on the governor wasn’t in the cards.

The comments came days after a Kansas Tyson beef processing plant was shuttered by a fire, causing major market disruptions and a backlog of cattle from the ranch gate to the plate. Polis lunched with Colorado Politics’ Joey Bunch and, over an Impossible Whopper, told Bunch that adapting to the market is critical, saying between bites, “Today’s Walmart is tomorrow’s Sears.”

That was followed by an appearance at the Colorado State Fair where he told me that specialty agriculture can offer producers greater margins, offering an example of a water buffalo dairy known for their artisan mozzarella cheese. His agriculture department continued to encourage hemp production while aspiring hemp growers drove farmland rental prices through the roof, only to later abandon the farms, covered in weeds with black plastic sheets flapping in the wind.

As 2019 drew to a close, voters were asked to decide whether to forcibly introduce wolves into Colorado and, because land and cattle don’t get a vote, it was passed by a narrow margin by voters who have no skin in the game. After the passage, Gov. Polis urged the Colorado Wildlife Commission to ignore the process prescribed in Prop 114 and get wolves on the ground by the middle of 2022.

Shawn Martini, vice president of advocacy for Colorado Farm Bureau, said Polis’ anxiousness was “a sleight of hand and moving the goal post, saying there’s nothing that says we can’t do it faster… other than good sense and prudence and responsible public policy making.”

Just prior to the arrival of the pandemic, First Gentleman Marlon Reis offered his support to a pair of activist-driven bills. This was about the same time that the First Gentleman’s pal Ellen Kessler was appointed to the Colorado Board of Veterinary Medicine.

Kessler arrived on the scene in time to support a bill backed by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) that passed and will require all eggs sold in the state to be produced in a cage-free environment. While this may sound like happy hens, it’s a bio-security nightmare that will cost the state’s egg producers millions and leave fewer, more expensive choices for consumers.

Weeks after Polis called agriculture the “cornerstone to the foundation of our state” in an open letter aimed at preserving the National Western Stock Show’s future in Colorado, he signed a proclamation promoting a Meat Out Day to promote the removal of animal products from the diet. Although former Gov. John Hickenlooper signed something similar during his administration, it was a shot heard ’round rural Colorado.

Some criticized the industry’s response to the Meat Out proclamation as overreaction. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a rancher from Sterling, said it simply roused a sleeping giant, adding insult to injury. In response, Meat In Day events around the state raised more than $300,000 for local charities, food banks, youth agriculture programs. More than 25,000 meals, including to Denver’s food insecure groups, were served.

Mere days after the Meat Out proclamation, Initiative 16 launched. If passed, it would outlaw timely slaughter of livestock and make ranchers who utilize common practices – like artificial insemination or assisting a cow in delivering a live calf – into sex offenders. The language in the title was approved and made its way to the State Supreme Court, which ultimately reversed the decision, keeping it off the ballot.

Most recently, Gov. Polis passed over the four candidates selected by his agriculture commissioner and deputy commissioner and hand-selected Dr. Rebecca Niemiec, a professor at Colorado State University, to lead the Bureau of Animal Protection. With no experience in the field, Niemiec is also working in cooperation with the City of Boulder and Mercy for Animals to promote a vegan diet in addition to her work to bring wolves to the state. Allowing a surrogate for Mercy for Animals, an organization described by some as extremist, to lead a portion of the Department of Agriculture is ludicrous. For their part, coincidentally, CSU is obstructing open records requests with regard to Niemiec, while the state’s land grant university squanders an opportunity to stand up for the industry that built it.

I can’t help but think voters further removed from agriculture will see this list of slights and recognize that the sum is more than incidental friction. That said, I’m confident that the consumers who depend upon families like mine at mealtime will take back their food choices and allow common sense to return to the table.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this column mistakenly stated that Mercy for Animals had been dubbed a “domestic terrorist organization.”  It has not.  We apologize for the error.