‘Red or Green Chile Month' proposal advances
Ristras hang at a roadside chile stand just outside of the 'Green Chile Capital,' Hatch, New Mexico. (Danielle Prokop / Source New Mexico)
What's your preference – red, green or Christmas?
You may soon have the whole month of August to decide as another legislative proposal dedicated to the beloved chile pepper moves forward in the Roundhouse.
Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences) presented House Bill 172 to lawmakers in the House Rural Development, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee Tuesday morning and received a unanimous do-pass vote. The bill proposes proclaiming August 'Red and Green Chile Month' annually.
The proclamation is intended to give a nod to the state's status as the 'Chile Capital of the World,' as well as the economic and cultural impacts the peppers bring to the state.
'It'll provide us the opportunity (in) all four corners of the state, all 33 counties, to celebrate chile and New Mexico,' Dow said during the meeting. 'We really want to have an opportunity to elevate awareness and celebrate our producers and what's unique to our state.'
Dow said the plan is to work with New Mexico True, a campaign of the Tourism Department, to create tours across the state.
In 1996 the New Mexico State Legislature passed a House Joint Memorial declaring 'Red or Green?' as the official state question. In 2023, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill into law declaring the smell of roasting green chile the state's official aroma. Chile is also one of the state's official vegetables.
Travis Day, executive director of the New Mexico Chile Association, joined Dow as her expert witness and noted for lawmakers that 8,800 acres of chile were harvested in the state in 2023, equating to about $41.5 million in value.
'I think as a state, we need to take advantage of every opportunity to promote and advocate for our New Mexico chile product, because we are a declining crop, unfortunately, and we want to do anything we can to help build that industry back up,' Day told committee members, noting that labor shortages
Lisa Franzoy, a 'lifelong' resident of Hatch and organizer of the annual Hatch Chile Festival, which is celebrated over Labor Day weekend, said she is proud that her family has long been involved in chile production in the valley and said she supports the bill.
'We've already got our license plates, we already have our billboards,' Franzoy told lawmakers, 'and chile is an important industry to New Mexico, to every New Mexican.'
Joe Wellborn, a member of the New Mexico Chile Association board, also voiced his support for the bill saying a month-long celebration of the crop might attract more people from out of state to take advantage of what New Mexico has to offer.
'We are trying to build an agricultural tourism industry in New Mexico, and this has to be part of it,' Dow said during the meeting.
Committee Chair Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) added that northern New Mexico has an old tradition of producing red chile while southern New Mexico claims green chile. 'I love how we mix it together,' she said.
HB 172 will be heard in the House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs Committee. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.
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