Ollin Farms receives climate grant

Ollin Farms was awarded a $90,000 grant by Boulder County's Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience. The award was part of over $500,000 in grants awarded by the Climate Innovation Fund to local businesses on Dec. 7, 2022, "to encourage innovation to fight climate change through nature-based solutions, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and landscape restoration and resilience," the Boulder County website states.

Ollin Farms, located on 95th Street on the south edge of Longmont, has been practicing regenerative farming in Boulder County since 2007. Regenerative agriculture is the practice of increasing biodiversity and conservation, eliminating pesticides and herbicides, improving the water cycle, and building resilience to climate change. Its Project 95 is committed to ongoing research involving restoring ecosystems, storing carbon and building community resilience.

"Ollin Farms will use their grant to expand carbon farming and regenerative practices on the 135-acre Henry Laber Open Space parcel," according to the website. "This project will broaden carbon farming and agroforestry research efforts onto additional fields, expand composting operations, and facilitate detailed carbon analysis over a 5-year research period. This project will stack regenerative farming practices on irrigated and dryland agricultural fields with the goal of increasing topsoil. One focus area of this project's on-farm research is carbon cycling, which converts waste streams into inputs that can quickly revert into soil.

"'It is exciting to see Boulder County utilize this new fund to invest in farmers and land stewards leading the way in soil restoration locally,' said Mark Guttridge of Ollin Farms.' While there is a lot of talk about carbon sequestration and regenerative farming, and plenty of conferences and academic research, our experience has been funding does not often trickle down to benefit the farmers or impact local soil. Investing directly in land stewards who are pushing the envelope in perennial plantings, composting, and growing biodiversity, and providing the means to scientifically track impacts in the field puts Boulder County on the cutting edge of public support for climate solutions.'"

Ollin Farms is now enrolling customers in CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) where in exchange for financial support in advance, shareholders receive a weekly share of produce during the growing season. CSAs allow shareholders to participate in the farm's sustainability and foster regenerative farming practices. Ollin Farms' commitment to the community also includes offering farm field trips and youth summer classes.