Let’s Talk New Mexico 9/9 8 am:It's chile season, and many of us are celebrating the return of New Mexico’s favorite crop. Green chile lies at the heart of so much of our state’s culture and identity that it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without it. And yet, chile is by no means assured of a prosperous future. COVID and changing immigration policies have created a labor shortage of chile harvesters, and human-caused climate change has resulted in drought conditions that threaten the very existence of chile verde. On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll be digging into the issues facing this iconic New Mexican food.
And we want to hear from you: What’s your favorite variety of fresh-roasted green chile? What won’t you put it on? And what kind of sacrifices would you make to ensure that small farmers can continue growing chile into a bright green future? Email your comments to LetsTalk@KUNM.org, or call in live during the show, Thursday morning at 8.
Guests-
- Chantelle Wagner, Big Jim Farms
- Joram Robbs, New Mexico Chile Association
- Secretary Jeff Witte, New Mexico Department of Agriculture
- Andi Murphy, 2021 Civil Eats Foodway Fellow, Toasted Sister Podcast
Resources-
- Chile Labor Incentive Program (CLIP)- Provides funding to chile growers, labor contractors and processors to supplement worker wages.
