Celebrating Ag Awareness Week March 14th-24th

Long before Grand Junction had a modern business ecosystem, it had an industry that ignited the valley.

Agriculture.

During Ag Awareness Week, I find myself reflecting on that history and the role agriculture has played in shaping our community. As the CEO of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, I can’t help but see agriculture as far more than one of our region’s early economic drivers. It helped set the course for how this community grows, adapts and does business even today.

When people first began building lives in the Grand Valley in the early 1880s, they were working in a place defined by both promise and challenge. This was an arid landscape, far from major markets and separated from the Front Range by distance and mountains. Growth here was never going to happen by accident.

So, people got to work.

I’m often struck by what that must have required. Irrigation systems began transforming the valley, allowing orchards and farms to take root where little had grown before. With water came opportunity. Fruit plantings spread across the region, and within a few short decades Mesa County had established itself as a producer known well beyond Western Colorado.

But what was taking shape here was bigger than agriculture alone. It was the beginning of a regional economy.

By the late 1800s, the valley’s orchards were producing enough fruit to attract visitors from across the region to the Grand Valley Fruit Festival. By 1909, Mesa County growers were shipping 1,400 rail cars of apples. Just two years later, the value of the valley’s fruit crop surpassed the million-dollar mark. Grand Junction quickly became the place where those products were packed, marketed and shipped outward.

In other words, agriculture did not simply grow crops. It helped grow a business hub.

And when I look at the challenges those early producers faced, I can’t help but see the parallels to the qualities that continue to define our business community today.

Innovation was not optional. Early producers had to figure out how to move water, improve soil conditions and connect to markets hundreds of miles away.

Perseverance was essential. Farming and ranching in the high desert meant navigating drought, unpredictable weather and shifting markets.

Strong relationships became the backbone of success. Growers organized cooperatives like the Grand Junction Fruit Growers Association to market and ship products together, proving early on that collaboration would be one of the valley’s greatest strengths.

Those lessons didn’t disappear as our economy diversified. If anything, they became part of the character of this place.

Today, Mesa County’s economy includes healthcare, energy, advanced manufacturing, outdoor recreation, professional services and a growing entrepreneurial sector. Yet agriculture continues to play a meaningful role in both our economy and our identity.

A recent regional study conducted by Colorado Mesa University and the Business Incubator Center found agriculture supports more than 9,100 jobs across a five-county Western Colorado region and contributes nearly $282 million to regional GDP. Mesa County alone accounts for more than 3,500 of those jobs and nearly $100 million in GDP.

Those numbers represent far more than farm operations. Agriculture supports equipment dealers, veterinarians, trucking companies, agritourism and local retailers. It fuels a network of businesses that continues to ripple throughout the valley.

But perhaps its most lasting contribution is something harder to measure.

When I think about the business community we have today, I’m reminded that its roots were planted by people who had to be resourceful, determined and deeply connected to both the land and to each other. Those roots are what ground us today. They are what allow our business community to weather difficult seasons, adapt when markets change and continue growing new branches of opportunity across the valley.

I see it in the entrepreneur launching a new company. In the employer investing in their workforce. In the partnerships that continue to define how business gets done in Mesa County.

Agriculture may have ignited this valley’s economy, but its influence continues to shape how we grow.

During Ag Awareness Week, I invite our community to pause and appreciate the growers and producers who continue to shape life in the Grand Valley. Their work nourishes more than our tables. It strengthens our economy, preserves the character of our landscape, and carries forward a legacy of perseverance, innovation and pride in place. Every orchard, ranch and field reflects a commitment to this valley that enhances our quality of life and continues to contribute to the economic identity we share.