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Colorado’s Grant Family Farms Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

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Colorado’s first Certified Organic Farm—Grant Family Farms—has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, The Denver Post reports.

“Grant Family Farms is confident that some things are worth saving and believes that this community-supported farm is one of them,” the farm said in a statement. “The Farm is working hard and is hopeful that it will emerge from this disappointing situation better than it went in.”

The operation on Dec. 28 declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, also described as “straight bankruptcy” or “liquidation,” according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Colorado’s website. The process involves a trustee collecting and selling “all property that is not exempt and to use any proceeds to pay creditors.”

Records indicate assets for this filing are classified between $500,001 and $1 million. Liabilities are listed between $1 million and $10 million.

The farm has witnessed turmoil in the past, including a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006 followed by a labor dispute that was later settled, the Post says.

Farm officials did not offer specifics in the news release. They did urge caution about discussing the move so as not to “churn the cogs in the rumor mill,” according to the Post.

The farm covers more than 2,000 acres near Wellington and was started in 1953 by Lewis Grant—a former professor at Colorado State University. He and his son, Andy, worked throughout the 1960s growing vegetables and expanding the operation from the ground up. Land that was previously used for livestock was transformed into vegetable fields that supply produce to restaurants, stores and consumers across Colorado.

The Post reports that a focus on sustainability moved to the forefront in 1974 when it spearheaded a then-revolutionary idea of farm-to-table food production and organic operations. It was the first Certified Organic Farm in the state and helped craft the process for organic certification both locally and nationally.

The operation is also home to the largest CSA in Colorado, made up of more than 4,500 people who buy into the food production at the start of the year and then are supplied crops at harvest.

Despite the risk of lackluster agriculture years, the farm said CSA members have been and continue to be the “life and breath of this farm.”

“The Farm recognizes these distinctions as being a direct result of the amazing support it’s received, and continues to receive, from this amazing community,” it said in the statement. “It is eternally grateful to the community for that.”

 

 

 

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