A Note from Pete

The Colorado Farm & Food Alliance emerged – originally in 2015 – from an engaged community that stood up. Which is really how it always is. That is how things sprout. Organic material is - after all - what came before. And that’s what we grow out of. 

Over the next decade, the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance was able to do many things. And in all those things - from community fairs to workshops, story circles and national solar prizes, strong rural leadership and rooted place-based conservation - its success rested always on the ground, on the vibrancy of community. Because, we can do this. 

At some point the vessel is no longer the purpose - but its utility was always in the space and opening. So, for me, as the founder of the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance, it could have had no greater cause than to do good in its time, and then to be the chrysalis for new things.  

On a personal level my own work isn’t complete. But at this moment, I am deeply grateful to everyone who supported the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance and the work that I do - even though many of you probably don’t know who you are. A strong community is like that. 

Mariposa Ascendente is a manifestation of many people’s work and vision which the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance was very honored to nurture and contain for a time. I am eager to see it emerge, watch it dry then flap its wings, to do great things.