Natural products task force will push for tax incentives, favorable policies

BOULDER ? A task force formed by the city of Boulder to guide city officials on matters concerning the natural products industry here will be asking for tax incentives and policies that will favor natural products and organic food companies in Boulder.

Linnea Simons, chairwoman of the Boulder Economic Vitality Advisory Board?s Natural Products Task Force, said the group?s mission is to ?create a thriving natural foods business community able to support business interests along the product chain.?

Simons made the statement during a ?Keep Boulder Natural? reception May 18 at the Fresh Ideas Group?s offices in Boulder. City officials, and executives and employees of natural and organic foods companies attended the event.

Simons, an attorney at Caplan and Earnest LLC in Boulder, has a number of clients in the natural foods industry.

One task force effort, spearheaded by Sean Maher, directory of the Boulder Economic Council and interim economic vitality coordinator for the city of Boulder, and Doug Collier, executive director of the Boulder Innovation Center, is to build a 40,000-square-foot kitchen incubator that includes a kitchen, co-packing, storage, office and retail space along with room for product development. The kitchen incubator would offer services as part of the Boulder Innovation Center, Simons said.

Another effort, headed by Jim Schott, owner of Longmont-based Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, is to work on developing policies and tax incentives to remove obstacles to growth and keep natural foods companies in Boulder, Simon said.

Other projects include providing financial assistance through public/private partnerships, grants and fundraising; providing test market support for local businesses; and creating links between the city, University of Colorado and established businesses to support growing mid-size businesses.

Simons said two more immediate ?deliverables? the task force is working on are converting the annual Boulder Fall Festival into a Natural and Organic Foods Festival and having the city of Boulder represent its natural products businesses at national trade shows like Expo West, the annual natural products convention in Anaheim, Calif.

?I think that people are energized about the possibility that we might be able to do this,? Simons said. ?If you don?t try you?ll never know.

Natural Products Task Force
Members of the Boulder Economic Vitality Advisory Board?s Natural Products Task Force are: Larry Bangs and Karen Barela, Culinary School of the Rockies; Ira Barron, American Pacific Communications; Doug Collier, Boulder Innovation Center; Kyla Duffy, Nutballz!; Gretchen Fapore, Wells Fargo; Sandi Garcia, Marr Barr Communications; Lyla Hamilton, Center for Business and Society, University of Colorado; Steve Hoffman, Compass Natural Marketing; Linda Iggi, Amazing Grains; Sean Maher, Boulder Economic Council; Terry Morreale, Kalos Strategy Group; Mark Retzloff, Aurora Organic Dairy; Sheila Rosen, Sterling-Rice Group; Jim Schott, Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy; Fiona Simon, Fiona?s Natural Foods; Linnea Simons, Caplan and Earnest; Sylvia Tawse, Fresh Ideas Group; Paul Turley, Turley?s Restaurant; Ray Wilson, Kalos Strategy Group.

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