OPINION: Protecting New York’s Farmland Benefits Us All

New York farms have been a building block for our communities and our state for generations. Unfortunately, a number of conditions have threatened our farmland and put enormous pressure on hardworking farmers and the agricultural sector. A recent report from New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli confirms the severity of the concerns that members of the Assembly minority conference have expressed for several years. According to the report, between 2012 and 2022, New York state lost about 14 percent of all farms, accounting for 9 percent of the total farmland in the state. Further, we are losing both farmland and farms faster than the nation as a whole and nearly all our neighboring states. DiNapoli pointed to labor, commodity prices, and unpredictable weather as major contributing factors to these losses. “The overall decline of farmland is troubling, as conversion to other uses, particularly residential, commercial or industrial, may prevent its use for farming in the future. This includes 1,728 acres located in agricultural districts classified as solar electric generation facilities,” DiNapoli’s report said. Thankfully, despite this alarming trend, output and production have remained stable, and there are some highlights to note. New York state ranked top three among the states in the production of apples, milk, beets, maple syrup, and cabbage, and overall, our farms took in $8.5 billion in 2022. That represents a 47 percent increase from 2017. We have also seen a large spike in agritourism income. Our farms continue to face significant headwinds, however. In 2022, farm expenses reached $6.2 billion, a $1.9 billion increase compared to 2017. Labor costs jumped 68 percent during that period, by far the largest increase of any category. Making matters worse, the number of hours farm employees need to work before being eligible to earn overtime has already been reduced from 60 to 56, and that number will be cut all the way down to 40 by 2032. For these reasons, our conference has fought hard to protect New York’s farms, and we will continue to do so in light of the comptroller’s report. In recent years, we have proposed policies like the “Food Insecurity, Farm Resiliency and Rural Poverty Initiative” to assist farmers struggling during the pandemic. We have also introduced legislation to give our dairy industry a boost by allowing state schools to buy improperly maligned whole milk and 2 percent milk produced here. Our conference also wholeheartedly supports continued funding for locally sourced food reimbursement to reimburse school-lunch programs that have purchased at least 30 percent of their food products from New York state farmers, growers, producers, and processors. New York’s farms are a huge part of our state’s proud tradition of producing some of the nation’s best agricultural products. Preserving our farmland and ensuring valuable farm acreage isn’t needlessly hijacked by ineffective green-energy initiatives is in everyone’s best interest. We must find a way to reverse this troubling trend before it’s too late.      

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William (Will) A. Barclay, 55, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.