NY: Where’s the love for farmers? The Times – Herkimer

Sheryl Taylor owns and runs Tayl-Wind Farm in Cassville with her husband. According to the Agribusiness Friendliness Index, released early last year by three Colorado State University researchers, New York is one of the least friendly states in the country – ranked 49 out of 50 when it comes to agribusiness. GATEHOUSE NEW YORK PHOTO/MARK DIORIO

LISLE — Doreen Barker never wanted to leave New York.

Originally from Dryden, a dairy town near Ithaca, Barker, 40, and Richard Barrows, 53, decided in early 2009 to bring animals back to the 350-acre, 165-year-old Barrows Farm in Lisle.

They started with chickens, adding cows — and the watering system and other infrastructure necessary to have them — in the coming years. They invested in rotational grazing, raised calves for meat to be sold locally and dreamed of soon having a value-added dairy operation.

Then they realized they simply couldn’t afford to do so.

Barrows and Barker likely aren’t the only farmers to come to that conclusion. According to the Agribusiness Friendliness Index, released early last year by three Colorado State University researchers, New York is one of the least friendly states in the country — ranked 49 out of 50 — when it comes to agribusiness.

“It’s most of the measures dealing with government that really seem to knock New York down,” said researcher Gregory Perry, who also is the head of the university’s Agricultural and Resource Economics department.

Perry said New York is 41st in property taxes, 46th in infrastructure and dead last when it comes to ease of filing a lawsuit — in other words, it’s easy for neighbors to take farms to court over nuisance smells and the like, and it’s hard for farms to win.

Joe Morrissey, public information officer for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, doesn’t agree.

“We couldn’t disagree more with this report’s findings about New York, which we believe has a thriving agricultural sector thanks in great part to a strong partnership between state government and industry,” he said in an email. “In fact, New York farmers set a record in 2013 with $5.68 billion in cash receipts, which was more than $1 billion (more) than just three years earlier. New York is also a national leader in dairy, maple syrup and apple production, and we rank in the top 10 nationally in a number of fruit and vegetable categories.”

Morrissey said over the past four years, the state has set forth policies, passed laws and initiated marketing programs that have led to an all-time high interest in New York agriculture. They include:

• Launch of the Taste NY marketing program;

• Revamping of the farmland protection program;

•Legislation on the first-ever farm cidery and farm brewery license, as well as the Craft NY Act to further the growth of the farm-based beverage industry;

• Legislation to cap agricultural land assessments at 2 percent per year, ensuring a predictable tax climate for farmers; and…

go here ->Where’s the love for farmers?  The Times – Herkimer, NY.

National Association of Rural Landowners – www.NARLO.org

cool organization: click the pic to bounce to their site

USDA chief Vilsack: Rural America becoming less relevant | AP

… rural America’s biggest assets – the food supply, recreational areas and energy, for example – can be overlooked by people elsewhere as the U.S. population shifts more to cities, their suburbs and exurbs.

“Why is it that we don’t have a farm bill?” said Vilsack. “It isn’t just the differences of policy. It’s the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it.”

For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states…”  via Associated Press.

The Family Farm Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America | The ECB

An entire way of life is rapidly dying right in front of our eyes. The family farm is being systematically wiped out of existence in America, and big agribusiness and the federal government both have blood all over their hands. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today. That doesn’t mean that there is less farming going on. U.S. farms are producing more than ever. But what it does mean is that farming is increasingly becoming dominated by the big boys…

via The Family Farm

Land Prices Are Rising Uniformly Across The Cornbelt

Farmland values in the Cornbelt are rising as fast as anytime in the past 35 years, but may be showing some indication of deceleration. Bankers throughout the five-state region in the Chicago Federal Reserve District report a 22% increase in the value of good farmland over the course of 2011. But in the seven-state Kansas City Fed District, the value of farmland rose 25% in the past year, reports FarmGateBlog…

Higher prices for grain have spurred the most significant demand for land since the 1970’s.  Farm land, oil, grains…the price inflation is coming.

via EconomicPolicyJournal.com

The FDA Says You Have No Right to Freedom of Food | Gaia Health

I am posting this as an example of the myriad and oblique ways that threats to your freedoms and liberties are being eroded or trending in that direction.  You may or may not have followed the controversy regarding the sale and purchase of unpasteurized milk over the past year, I have only vaguely so.  Yet the trend and tone on the post referenced below is familiar and disturbing.  It relates to a lawsuit reportedly filed against FDA by a 501(c)(4) non-profit calling themselvesFarm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF.) Original Heidi Stevenson is here, excerpts follow.