Every year the leaders of the New York Farm Bureau outline their priorities for the legislative session in Albany. While pleased with some proposals in the executive budget, the group has some concerns about other proposals and the potential impact on family farms.
Governor Kathy Hochul presented her $233 billion budget on January 16th and New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher says there is “a lot of positive momentum” for agriculture in her fiscal proposal.
“This budget funds dozens of critical environmental, animal health and research programs that farmers use and depend on to improve our best management practices," says Fisher. "This includes significant funding for ag programs in the Environmental Protection Fund that will help with water quality. There’s also money budgeted to support workforce development and farm safety including increased funding for New York Center for Ag Medicine and Health. And there’s new funding to modernize dairy infrastructure. The New York state budget also promotes New York grown products across the state and world. Bottom line the state budget is an investment into our state’s farms and food system.”
The Farm Bureau supports increased or full funding of the Nourish New York program, which gets locally grown food into regional food banks, and the Healthy School Meals for All.
Concerns expressed by the agricultural advocates include electrification to meet climate action goals. Fisher said the reliable, affordable and easily charged battery-powered equipment needed does not yet exist on farms.
“And until then exemptions must be made for vehicles and machines where batteries don’t supply enough power for the task at hand," asserts Fisher. "Plus we need assurances that New York’s grid has the capacity to support the level of our electrical production and consumption that will be needed.”
There are a couple of ongoing concerns that the Farm Bureau hopes can be resolved during the session.The first is legislation pertaining to the Extended Producer Responsibility Act requirements, which reverses recycling responsibility to those who create the packaging. Farm Bureau Director of Public Policy Jeff Williams says that may be workable for huge corporations, but not most of New York agriculture.
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Categories: New York, Equipment & Machinery