Make Your Farm Stronger by Being the Voice in the Storm
April 18, 2025 
Joe Petrocco, VP of Petrocco Farms (right), is the current President of the Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association and an advisor on the Agricultural Labor Committee for Colorado. He’s found visiting his members of Congress in Washington and meeting with lawmakers at the state capitol is just the first step in educating lawmakers. If you want them to truly understand how their laws impact you, you need to keep the conversation going.
Photo courtesy of Petrocco Farms
One of my favorite movies is Apollo 13 (and its close twin, The Martian). Just about the worst thing that can happen, does. The oxygen tank explodes on the vessel’s journey to the moon, leaving the crew’s chances of surviving in question.
In both movies, one based on real life and one fictional, solving one problem at a time slowly but steadily gets them back home. Jim Lovell, Apollo 13’s commander, once compared it to playing solitaire. So long as another card presented itself, they could play it. They just kept playing each card until they were back home.
I strongly believe action can equal hope. So long as you can make the next move, at some level you believe you’ll reach your goal.
When the pandemic hit, our team got together to determine what we could do to help the industry. We’re not a bank, so we can’t offer money. We’re not medical researchers, so we couldn’t end covid.
But we are story tellers. So, we decided to focus on sharing the wise actions growers across the country were taking to make their farms stronger. No grower has all the answers. But when you share what you do well, it gives everyone hope.
The Trump administration is moving at lightning speed to shake up how government works. A nurse practitioner who sat next to me on a flight to Fresno spoke eloquently about how relieved she was to see someone taking action. It gave her hope that the intractable problems our country faces would finally get some solutions.
I’m checking in regularly with growers, suppliers, Extension agents, associations, and other allies to the industry. The way the new policies are being put in place has created some painful chaos, with funding disappearing for approved research mid-stream, with funding cuts to food banks and local food for schools, and ARS staff being dismissed.
When I interviewed Joe Petrocco, Vice President at Petrocco Farms, for this month’s cover story, he said how important he believes talking to politicians is. Those making laws about labor, water, and other issues vital to farming do not understand how a modern growing operation works. If growers don’t speak up, then how will they understand?
Petrocco has been busy talking to state and national public servants about issues important to farming.
We’re in a time of change. To oversimply things, those who speak up will be the ones with the best chances of being heard. Make sure your voice is one of the loudest.
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