Phyllis Snyder readily admits that visitors to the Snyder household are more likely to find Beef Today or Farm Journal on the coffee table than copies of the Ladies’ Home Journal or McCall’s.

"At our house almost of our magazines are ag — either ag journals, or ag newspapers," explained Snyder, who, along with her husband Sid, manages a farm and ranch 10 miles northwest of Cortez.

As a recently appointed director on the board of the Colorado Farm Bureau Phyllis Snyder currently represents the farming community in Montezuma, Dolores, Archuleta and La Plata counties.

Snyder said the Colorado Farm Bureau is currently focusing on lobbying the state legislature to protect the agricultural interests of its members. Managing Colorado’s rapid development of traditionally agricultural lands is one of the most controversial items on the legislature’s to-do list.

The Colorado Farm Bureau was instrumental in defeating a November ballot initiative, Amendment 24, that would have required each county to develop a voter-approved growth map identifying land impacts.

Now that growth is under consideration once again, the Farm Bureau says it will oppose any "top-down" approach to planning for growth across the state. The group also opposes bills with urban growth boundaries, and legislation that would "lock in" agricultural land in a long-term, comprehensive plan.

"There are a lot of growth bills and land-use bills out there right now, and we’ve still got quite a bit of concern over whether the (legislation) will protect private-property rights and not lock farmers onto their land forever," said Snyder.

Although there are many bills under consideration, two versions of the "Colorado Growth Management Act," sponsored by Rep. Joe Stengel (R-Littleton) and Sen. Ed Perlmutter (D-Arvada), are capturing the most attention.

The bills would require communities to adopt a comprehensive growth plan, with land classified outside of the growth boundary as "naturally productive," or "land available for non-urban uses," or "conservation and open space."

The Farm Bureau testified in opposition to the Senate version of the bill, citing "a dangerous nostalgia about rural areas and agricultural land," and complaining that the bill establishes "fairly hard growth boundaries."

However, Alan Foutz, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, said that the House bill is a more "measured approach" and "while no formula is perfect, the threshold set out in HB 1225 is a solid start."

Snyder said that farmers may consider selling to developers when "the guy next door is doing the same thing as you are and he is selling out ’cause he can’t make it."

In order to bridge the rural-urban gap, the Farm Bureau also works with urban legislators to identify rural concerns, but Snyder says that legislators are still tempted to over-regulate the farming industry.

"Legislators hear about a new problem so they think, ‘Let’s throw a regulation out to solve the problem,’ but the problem is in one little tiny area and that regulation just throws the whole rest of the industry into a loop."

Snyder believes that at the federal level, eliminating the estate tax and improving trade relations with other countries will significantly improve the business outlook for agricultural producers.