U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand crop insurance for barley in all counties in New York where production is possible. The Democrat wrote the USDA and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to make the request, Gillibrand’s office said in a Feb. 16 news release. Crop insurance […]
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand crop insurance for barley in all counties in New York where production is possible.
The Democrat wrote the USDA and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to make the request, Gillibrand’s office said in a Feb. 16 news release.
Crop insurance would afford additional protection to growers of barley and help farmers meet the current demands of local breweries and distilleries, according to Gillibrand’s office.
The number of farm-based breweries, cideries, and distilleries in New York has increased 72 percent since 2011. The increase has created “significant” demand for barley and other small grains.
New York currently has 28 counties that have barley crop insurance. The Central New York counties include Onondaga, Cayuga, Cortland, Madison Oneida, Herkimer, Jefferson, Tioga, Seneca, and Delaware.
The remaining counties include Albany, Dutchess, Monroe, Orleans, Allegany, Erie, Montgomery, Otsego, Cattaraugus, Genesee, Niagara, Chautauqua, Steuben, Livingston, Ontario, Wyoming, Orange, and Yates.
In her letter to the USDA, Gillibrand explained that New York also has many producers outside those counties who would also benefit from crop insurance for barley.
By expanding the current barley crop and developing a production history, insurers would have the data they need to create coverage for valuable malting barley that already covers nearly 2,000 acres of New York farmland.
“Expanding crop insurance for barley is a crucial first step to sustain and improve the viability of our farms and connected industries,” Gillibrand said in the news release. “A key to encouraging producers to plant these crops is to ensure that they can manage their risk with appropriate crop-protection programs. Also expanding crop insurance would help meet the growing demand of the brewery and distillery industries here in New York.”
Gillibrand is the first New York senator to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years, her office said.
The Democrat has supported the idea of expanding barley crop insurance to all of New York’s counties, providing “expanded opportunity” for the Empire State’s farmers to meet the “growing demand” of New York breweries looking for local grains of “exceptional quality,” Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, said in the Gillibrand news release. “This vital step in risk management dovetails perfectly with the pioneering work being done by the college’s School of Integrative Plant Science’s faculty in the development of new strains of malting barley that thrive in our state’s climate and novel pathogen mitigation techniques, providing our farmers with the tools they need to thrive,” said Boor.