ALLEGANY, N.Y. — Protecting farmland and ensuring that American agriculture has the government-policy support to keep producing is not just about helping farmers, it’s about food and economic security — and, ultimately, national security — panelists stated during Monday evening’s Right Thinkers discussion.
“(Agriculture) is the number one industry in New York, it’s the number one industry in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson, chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, said during discussion at The Hall. “But it’s got challenges.”
Thompson, whose 15th Congressional District abuts much of the U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy’s 23rd Congressional District in New York state, said the districts are much the same in regard to having many smaller and medium-size farms, as well as forestry and energy components as part of the economy. He said the diversity of smaller operations in agriculture are important.
“Because it spreads the risk across more farms, and risk is something that is inherent to agriculture,” he said. “So what are some of those risks right now? One is inflation, this inflation is just killing everyone, but it’s certainly hurting our farmers.”
He noted that workforce issues are a problem as well as increased regulations, which he called “green tape” as opposed to “red tape.” The average age of farmers is only increasing as well.
“What are the ultimate risks if we fail? Economic insecurity, food insecurity and national insecurity,” Thompson said, noting that’s why the latest farm bill that he ushered through his committee and then through the House is called the “Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024.”
New York State Sen. George Borrello, in answering moderator Nate Smith’s question about the state of farming in New York and Pennsylvania, was blunt in saying he sees “an attack on agriculture. The biggest threat of New York agriculture isn’t climate change, it’s not inflation, it’s not even the workforce. The biggest threat to New York agriculture is New York state government … and they prove that every single day in Albany.”
Borrello, R-Sunset Bay in Chautauqua County, the ranking member of the New York Senate Agriculture Committee, said downstate Democrats who control the state legislature “don’t truly know where their food comes from” and they’re willing to destabilize the industry with wage-increase legislation and energy policies that will raise farmers’ expenses. Borrello echoed Thompson in pointing out that making it harder for New York and Pennsylvania farmers to operate will only disrupt the food chain for every American, just as if it were disrupted by a foreign antagonist.
Yet, despite that, Borrello said farmers — 90% of New York state’s farms are owned by families — have persevered. “These are not these big ‘factory farms’ or corporate farms that you see in other states. And what I’ve tried to explain to my colleagues in the legislature, if you destroy New York agriculture, the demand is not going to go away. What’s going to happen is we’re going to rely on other states and other countries for the basic sustenance of life.”
Former New York state senator Catharine Young of Olean, who once chaired the Senate ag committee and now is the executive director of Center of Excellence in Food and Agriculture at Cornell University’s AgriTech campus in Geneva, agreed that wage requirements and regulation are heavier burdens on New York farmers “and we do have people in Albany who think that milk comes from the store … not from the cow.”
However, she said she does believe there are opportunities, particularly for Western New York dairy farmers, that bode well for the future. She noted that Great Lakes Cheese is working on the latter stages of building its new plant near Franklinville, an investment of more than $700 million that will greatly increase demand for milk production in the region.
Meanwhile, she noted that Fairlife recently broke ground on a $650 million dairy processing plant in Monroe County, which will also boost dairy production in the region. Fairlife, owned by Coca-Cola, produces dairy projects that are made through an “ultra-filtration” process that removes lactose and sugar, which leaves behind more protein and calcium. The process, Young noted, was developed at Cornell.
“So I think there’s going to be opportunities for dairy farmers in Western New York to add on cows and be able to expand, which I think would be good news,” Young, who was raised on a dairy farm, said, adding later that New York state — not least through the AgriTech campus she directs — is a leader in research and development on new techniques and processes that will add value and economic opportunities to the state’s ag industry.
Asked about the effect wind and solar energy developments could have on agriculture in New York — particularly the loss of viable farmland to development — Norm Ungermann, a longtime excavation business owner from Cuba and a former Allegany County legislator, cited an article he read recently in the Olean Times Herald about how much the April 8 eclipse reduced solar energy production.
Noting all the cloudy days in Upstate New York, he said, “None of it makes any sense,” adding that the clearcutting and building of roads and transmission lines for renewable energy development adds up to a lot of environmental degradation.
Borrello called solar and wind power developments “the perfect investment scam” in which there could be no profit without tax-payer funded subsidies. Meanwhile, he said, other more viable energy alternatives like nuclear power and hydrogen are ignored.
Thompson noted that the farm bill includes provisions that no funding in the legislation can be used for solar or wind energy development at the expense of quality farmland being lost.
Young added, “It’s taking good farmland out of production,” while pointing out that in 2019 the United States saw its first trade deficit in agriculture with fruits and vegetables coming from other countries.
“That’s a break in the food supply chain here at home,” she said.
