(Elliott) Three members of the Ron Mardesen family and two others from the Silver City area experienced a thrill of a lifetime at the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California.
Maddy, Anna, and Dr. Michael Mardesen, of Elliott, and Dane and Kelsi Kruse, of Silver City were invited to ride the award winning “Cultivate a Better World” Chipotle float.
Ron Mardensen, father of Maddy, Michael and Anna, raise pigs for Niman Ranch a niche market. The pigs are raised outside in deeply bedded pens with no antibiotics, and no animal by-products, and sold to the Chipotle Mexican Grill Corporation.
One of the unique things about Niman Ranch is they’ve developed numerous programs to help bring young people back to the farm. One of the programs is the Niman Ranch Next Generation scholarship program awarded to Niman Ranch Farmers children who are coming back to the farm, or have some type of farming interest in their college degree program.
Chipolte management made several trips to the Mardesen farm to meet with the young farmers and get their views in regards to the challenges facing beginning farmers.
As the result of those visits, and after two days of filming in November at the Mardesen farm, Chipotle launched a “Cultivating a Better World” campaign and donated $250,000 to the National Young Farmer’s Coalition to help start the new Seed Grants Program for young farmers.
Mardesen said watching his children on that float, made all of the hard work, worthwhile.
The Mardesen Family Farm has been in the family for five generations, and currently three generations still work at the farm. The Mardensen’s have been with the Niman Ranch since April of 2002.
