The farm has collapsed despite receiving $1.7 million in COVID aid -- mired in debt, environmental disputes and a federal lawsuit — marooning Guatemalan workers without pay
A Colorado mushroom magnate’s mega-farm that for decades infused fresh fungi into the Rocky Mountain West has collapsed despite receiving $1.7 million in COVID aid — mired in debt, environmental disputes and a federal lawsuit — marooning Guatemalan workers without pay.
But 77-year-old Baljit Nanda, the celebrated entrepreneur who began running the farm in 1985, said he is determined to revive it — and pay off workers, contingent on a loan coming through. Nanda blamed the pandemic, which caused a sudden drop-off of sales to restaurants that provided 70% of revenues, and problems with failing equipment used to make compost.
Many had worked at the farm for more than 10 years when it shut down in June. Workers recalled good times harvesting up to 13 million pounds a year, encouraged by steady pay, holiday gifts, food delivered to crews working overtime, and visits by Nanda — even as burdens of relying on aging equipment increased.
“These people are getting really disappointed. They haven’t heard anything. People are just, like, ‘When am I going to get my money? Am I ever going to get my money?’ Those are the questions we hear. And I don’t have any answers.” Alamosa County records show the company also is delinquent on property taxes, owing more than $260,000 from the past three years, a debt that a tax lien investor has purchased, Treasurer Amy McKinley said.
The owners of the farm are unidentified investors who in recent years infused more than $4 million for modernization, he said. Those owners include Baljit Nanda’s son, Jaspreet Nanda, who was listed as the registered agent on state documents.
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