About Us
Our Mission
The Flatirons Young Farmers Coalition (FYFC) is a growing group of farmers and ranchers: beginning, aspiring, established, young and old alike, committed to tending the land and cultivating community.
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FYFC provides educational and social opportunities for growers to learn and network, and is united as one strong voice in local, state, and national policy work to ensure the future of agriculture.
Our Vision
FYFC envisions a burgeoning community of successful farms of all sizes and farmers of all experience levels and acts as a unifying body for those who wish to support local and regenerative agriculture.
The Flatirons:
If you can see them, you belong!
What We Do
Policy
Get Young Farmers on the Land
Development
Fundraising and Grants for Chapter Impact
Education
Farm Tours, Workshops, & More
Community
Pot-lucks, Parties, & Connection
Equity
Organizational Development and Inclusion
FYFC's Policy Committee informs changes in policy at the city and county level so that young and beginning farmers can more easily win public land leases, create private partnerships with landowners, add vital infrastructure to their farms, and access markets.
In previous seasons, the committee made a handbook to demystify and clarify the process by which local farmers access public land. The committee also surveyed members in 2020 to create a policy platform that unified chapter members voices in local policy.
All our committees are supported by the Development Committee, which builds partnerships with public and private donors, pursues grant opportunities, and helps ensure the chapter's success and financial well being.
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In 2022, the Development Committee began to help FYFC transition into our own independent nonprofit.
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We depend on our community for financial support, so we can continue to offer services into the future. If you can support us today, get in touch or click to donate. We are a fiscally sponsored chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, a 501 (c) 3, so your donation is tax-deductible.
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FYFC's Education Committee organizes multiple educational events per year, from workshops to farm tours to lectures. Every event subject is chosen to meet our members' and community's expressed needs. To help us decide what to plan, we reference the results of our 2020 membership survey.
The education committee is currently creating an educational curriculum for 2022, including Small-Scale Grains, Business Fundamentals, and
Animal Husbandry/Soil Health.
FYFC's Community Committee organizes purely social events, like parties and pot-lucks, where farmers, aspiring farmers, and community members can gather to network, share successes and hardships, and support one another with laughter and connection.
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We believe that we should all have the chance to know our farmers, and that we have much to learn from each other.
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We are also hosting a racial equity discussion group to build community and inspire change in response to systemic inequities. See our Facebook for information regarding our next meeting
FYFC's Equity Collective works to support inclusion within our chapter and the broader farming community. This group formed out of the chapter's desire to have an Equity and Organizational Change Manager. This role was daunting to fill; how could one person's singular experience inform the chapter on how to be more inclusive to all identities in our community, including gender, race, age, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and experience? Thus, a whole group of dedicated individuals has self organized, sharing leadership over the direction of the Equity Collective. Click below to learn about our Inclusion Framework!
Organization History and Top Accomplishments
Our chapter was founded in the fall of 2016. Since then, we have continued to grow and are increasingly impactful within the farming community of the Flatirons region.
Support Our Work
All our committees are supported by the Development Committee, which builds partnerships with public and private donors, pursues grant opportunities, and helps ensure the chapter's success and financial well being.
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We depend on our community for financial support, so we can continue to offer services into the future. If you can support us today, get in touch or click to donate. We are a fiscally sponsored chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, a 501 (c) 3, so your donation is tax-deductible.
The Leadership Board
Eric Knutson
President, 2022-2023
Eric grew up in sub-burbs of Louisville CO. He has always enjoyed being outside, snowboarding, mountain biking, and walking about in the foothills. Eric moved to Hawaii shortly after high school where he helped start a community school garden which marked the beginning of his journey growing food in community. Since then, Eric graduated from CSU where he studied soil and crop science. For the past 3 years, Eric has been working at Caribou Ranch helping to run cattle and work with horses. This experience has really inspired and helped him to grow as a young farmer and rancher. Recently Eric has started his own transportation logistics company and is in the planning process of buying his own livestock. Eric encourages connection. Please get in touch to “talk story.”
Andie Young
Education Chair, 2023-2024
Andie lives and farms in Boulder Colorado with his partner and baby. Andie has been farming for over 15 years raising rare heritage livestock and open pollinated veggies and bees. Most recently Andie was the farm manager and charcuterie director for a local 425 acre certified Organic Biodynamic farm in Boulder, raising pork and lamb for local customers, two downtown restaurants, and the Boulder farmers market. Andie loves teaching whole animal butchery and on farm slaughter classes, and is committed to soil fertility as well as adapting and strengthening systems of resiliency within our farming communities.
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Chris Borke
Treasurer, 2022-2023
While growing up in Colorado, Chris had a lifelong passion of bees and beekeeping. In 2018, after five years of maintaining apiaries across the county, he began growing his operation as a honey producer. Chris is currently focused on expanding the operation to over a hundred beehives in the county by rearing resilient local stock while simultaneously acting as head beekeeper for CU's Biofrontiers Institute.
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Lauren Kelso
Policy Chair, 2022-2023
Lauren is the Site Director at Growing Gardens, where she helps to manage their growing and propagation team. Lauren also has 5 chickens, 1 4 year old kiddo, and her husband. Prior to becoming the policy chair, Lauren participated on the Policy Committee and really enjoyed the focus of the work. She likes helping keep her community informed about things that could impact them, and giving them a voice in those matters.
Annaliese Danckers
Community Chair, 2022-2023
Annaliese co-manages Bluebird Sky Farmstead with her fiance, Daniel Dunlap. They started the farm in 2019, raising layer hens and ducks, meat chickens, ducks and turkeys, pastured pigs, and a homestead garden. Before Colorado, Annaliese grew up in Ohio then lived in Tennessee and Alabama. When she's not helping FYFC coordinate a social event, she enjoys sitting back at the end of the day with a beer and watching her doggos run around. Her favorite part of FYFC has been all of the community-oriented events.
Lauren Dunteman
Chapter Coordinator
Having grown up on a farm herself, Lauren is very passionate about supporting her local ag community. She completed her masters degree through the Masters of the Environment program at CU. Lauren chose to specialize in Sustainable Food Systems to lift up regeneration in agriculture and empower more farmers and brands to take care of themselves, their land, and their communities. Lauren now works as the coordinator to support systems level change in her local community, and she also works as a consultant connecting farmers with markets that will support their transition and commitment to ecological and social regeneration.
Brian De Corte
Development Chair, 2023-2024
Brian is the owner of Ver De Terre Compost, a local vermicompost business located at the Treehouse Farm Collective, and also a freelance grant writer for local and sustainable agriculture nonprofits and farms. He serves as the grant writer for GoFarm, a Golden-based nonprofit working to strengthen the local food system through farmer training, community food access, and local food distribution. Brian has been involved with FFC since joining the Development Committee as a volunteer in 2020 and is passionate about the organization’s work to support the needs of our community’s local food producers