Kyler Brown & Emily Elliot Brown
Potato farmers
Del Norte, CO
October 23rd, 2025
As we pulled into the farm, the rain was about to come. In a place that only receives less than 6 inches of rain per year, this is a magical moment. We took shelter in the potato storage room while the rain came for half an hour, bringing some wind and thunderstorm, but most importantly, ample flow in the Rio Grande. Kyler and Emily’s stage was a giant bin full of seed potatoes, with a humidifier fan blowing in the background to preserve them throughout winter. Emily received her master degree in Public Health, but eventually moved back with Kyler to her family farm while raising their kids.
Potatoes is 80% water, and for Kyler whether it is potato or beef, they are exporting water out of the valley. But when water is so rare, why do we have to export them? We learnt about how the Good Agricultural Practices discourages small, commercial farms like the Elliot farm to sell locally because of the extra auditing process required. It’s also hard for their food to enter the grocery system like Safeway, because their potatoes have to go to the distribution center in Denver and come back. Only a few who grow organic potatoes for a niche market (e.g. Whole Foods) can afford this costly process. For the majority of farmers, they have to compete in an economy of scale, where giant producers in Idaho with a third share of the national production dominate the market. That’s why Emily’s family started a co-op together with 8 other farmers to benefit from their shipping advantage in the Southwest.
As the sun came out, we were able to take a tour to the field. We stood in a transition place where potatoes meet malting bailey in a wide open space, that is, according to Kyler, a tiny farm of 640 acres. Kyler also took us to where his ditch meets the Rio Grande, now teeming with water. It is flowing now, but earlier this summer the river is recorded to run dry for hundreds of miles in New Mexico and Texas. The situation is dire for the land and for the farmers, who are hanging there day by day. The group left with the question of governance in our mind, about how we can make the system better for the land and the people involved.
by Linh Che