Restore Colorado

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Using one of the USDA’s first-ever urban agriculture grants, Boulder County teamed up with Mad Agriculture and James Beard Award-winning Zero Foodprint to launch Restore Colorado, a revolutionary public/private/non-profit partnership that connects consumers, restaurants, and food businesses to local farms and ranches. Restore Colorado is a “table-to-farm” movement, mobilizing Coloradans around agricultural climate solutions. Built on the Zero Foodprint model launched in California, Restore Colorado has created a public-private collaboration to raise private capital for local compost application and soil regeneration projects. Participating food businesses collect a 1% fee from the cost of customer meals. This fee goes towards Restore Colorado grants, managed by Zero Foodprint, that fund regenerative agriculture projects on regional farms and ranches that improve soil health and sequester carbon- these projects are overseen by external partner Mad Agriculture. During its two-year pilot phase, more than 40 Colorado food businesses have raised over $300,000 to fund projects on 12 Colorado farms.