On Sunday, Hudson Valley farming advocates were expected to have the opportunity to address thousands of people nationwide about issues facing black-dirt farmers.
This scheduled news conference was prior to the national Farm Aid concert on Randall”™s Island. This was the first time the concert was held in New York. The benefit concert was started in 1985 by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young to raise money for family farmers in America.
Polka legend Jimmy Sturr, a lifelong resident of the Orange County village of Florida, was invited by Nelson to speak as part of the news conference. Sturr, in turn, invited Orange County onion farmer Chris Pawelski to join him and speak about some of the issues facing farmers in the Hudson Valley.
“I grew up with these farmers,” said Sturr, who has won 16 Grammy Awards in the polka category, and who spoke by phone prior to the event. “At one time we had over 200 farms here, now there”™s only thirty.”
Sturr graduated from high school with Pawelski”™s father, and knew that he had extensive knowledge of the problems facing local farmers.
“I knew Chris as very knowledgeable about many of the issues facing farmers and I asked him to join me,” said Sturr. “This should get full attention in the news media, it”™s what farmers need.”
Some of the priorities Pawelski was to address were the need to implement a conservation-based program tailored to muckland ”“ regional ”“ soils, a “green Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program” for specialty crops and a comprehensive solution regarding flooding as the Orange County Muckland Farmers have suffered three “50-year floods” over the past two growing seasons.
“I appreciated this opportunity because I usually think of Farm Aid as being for farmers in the Midwest,” said Pawelski. “But having it here shows that conventional fruit and vegetable growers in the Northeast are considered pretty important, as well.”
Pawelski said the flooding issues in the Orange County black-dirt region are perhaps the most important to solve.
“The (Nor”™easter of April 2007) was a 6-inch, 30-hour event that led to a 10-day flood of historic proportions,” said Pawelski.
Such a weather event should not have caused the level of flooding that occurred, he contended.
Some possible factors contributing to the excess flooding include increased housing development, poor run-off management, questionable source-point dam management and lack of maintenance of the Wallkill River, he said.
He also advocates for a program tailored to muckland soils, where growers would receive federal payments for protecting soil erosion on muckland while growing a crop.
Pawelski said U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, was able to include such a program in the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill.
“Hopefully Senators (Charles) Schumer and (Hilary) Clinton can work to get it into the Senate version before the legislation goes to conference,” he said.
Pawelski said he was able to have this opportunity because Sturr has been a longtime advocate for local farmers.
“He”™s been a great, great ambassador for the black-dirt region,” said Pawelski. “He always talks about the muck farms; he grew up around this.”
Sturr said the main objective of Farm Aid is so the voice of small family farmers, like Pawelski, can be heard on a national level.
“We must take every opportunity to support our farmers that have been the mainstay of our community for years,” said Sturr.
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