• Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Members
  • Sign in
Westfair Communications
  • HOME
    • WESTCHESTER
    • FAIRFIELD
  • E-EDITIONS
    • Business Journal
    • Podcasts
  • MEMBERS
  • BUSINESS LISTS
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Hudson Valley
    • Courts
    • Banking & Finance
    • Construction
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Food & Beverage
    • Government
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Nonprofits
    • Retail
    • Technology
    • Home & Design
    • Health & Fitness
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • SMALL BUSINESS
    • Small Business
    • Food & Restaurants
  • EVENTS
    • 2025 Real Estate
    • 2025 40 Under Forty
    • 2025 Women Innovators
    • 2025 C-Suite Awards
    • 2025 Doctors of Distinction
    • 2025 Hispanic Business Leaders
    • Events Calendar
    • Past Events
      • 2025
        • 2025 Women in Power
        • 2025 Millennial & Gen Z
      • 2024
        • 2024 Doctors of Distinction
        • 2024 Women Innovators
        • 2024 40 Under 40
        • 2024 Real Estate
        • 2024 Women In Power
      • 2023
        • 2023 Women In Power
        • Milli + Genz
        • Women Innovators
        • Forty Under 40
        • Doctors of Distinction
        • Real Estate
      • 2022
        • 2022 Millennial + GenZ Awards
        • 2022 C-Suite Awards
        • 2022 Doctors of Distinction
        • 2022 THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE
        • 2022 FORTY UNDER 40
      • 2021
        • 2021 FORTY UNDER 40 VIRTUAL EVENT
        • 2021 TOP WEALTH ADVISORS Virtual Event
        • 2021 Milli + GenZ Awards
        • 2021 C-SUITE
        • 2021 DOCTORS OF DISTINCTION
  • GOOD THINGS
  • VIDEOS
    • Our Starting Lineup
    • News Videos
  • PARTNERS
  • ADVERTISE
  • SUBSCRIBEACT NOW
    • NEWSLETTERS
    • DIGITAL ACCESS
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
    • WESTCHESTER
    • FAIRFIELD
  • E-EDITIONS
    • Business Journal
    • Podcasts
  • MEMBERS
  • BUSINESS LISTS
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Hudson Valley
    • Courts
    • Banking & Finance
    • Construction
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Food & Beverage
    • Government
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Nonprofits
    • Retail
    • Technology
    • Home & Design
    • Health & Fitness
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • SMALL BUSINESS
    • Small Business
    • Food & Restaurants
  • EVENTS
    • 2025 Real Estate
    • 2025 40 Under Forty
    • 2025 Women Innovators
    • 2025 C-Suite Awards
    • 2025 Doctors of Distinction
    • 2025 Hispanic Business Leaders
    • Events Calendar
    • Past Events
      • 2025
        • 2025 Women in Power
        • 2025 Millennial & Gen Z
      • 2024
        • 2024 Doctors of Distinction
        • 2024 Women Innovators
        • 2024 40 Under 40
        • 2024 Real Estate
        • 2024 Women In Power
      • 2023
        • 2023 Women In Power
        • Milli + Genz
        • Women Innovators
        • Forty Under 40
        • Doctors of Distinction
        • Real Estate
      • 2022
        • 2022 Millennial + GenZ Awards
        • 2022 C-Suite Awards
        • 2022 Doctors of Distinction
        • 2022 THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE
        • 2022 FORTY UNDER 40
      • 2021
        • 2021 FORTY UNDER 40 VIRTUAL EVENT
        • 2021 TOP WEALTH ADVISORS Virtual Event
        • 2021 Milli + GenZ Awards
        • 2021 C-SUITE
        • 2021 DOCTORS OF DISTINCTION
  • GOOD THINGS
  • VIDEOS
    • Our Starting Lineup
    • News Videos
  • PARTNERS
  • ADVERTISE
  • SUBSCRIBEACT NOW
    • NEWSLETTERS
    • DIGITAL ACCESS
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Agriculture

Farmers voice concerns

Jim Gordon by Jim Gordon
September 2, 2010
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn
Order your reprint PDF today
Print Full Article

Agricultural issues look much different in a barn than in the ornate conference rooms of the nation”™s capitol.

So U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand traveled to Orange County”™s Black Dirt region Aug. 26 and spent more than an hour listening to farmers tell her how federal policy affects their lives.?Farmers and their families far outnumbered reporters at the Pawelski Farm in Goshen as about 100 people gathered in the barn temporarily converted to a meeting hall. She was joined by Jerry Cosgrove, the deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. ?The listening tour is specifically aimed at helping write the federal Farm Bill, legislation passed every five years that greatly influences agriculture policy across the nation. The next farm bill will be passed in 2012.

Gillibrand is the first senator from New York state in more than 40 years to be a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. ?Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton, who owns The General”™s Garden nursery, asked Gillibrand to seek ways to separate the anxiety over immigration policy from the need for agricultural labor.

“We need a workable guest worker program for agriculture,” Sweeton said. “We need a champion in Washington to cut through all the nonsense.”?The farmers who were present voiced agreement and one told of farm families who had hired the same worker for 20 seasons in a row, only to learn that those individuals were suddenly not allowed entry, thus forcing a scramble for labor.

Gillibrand advocated a “holistic approach” that focuses on keeping immigrant families together. “We need to right-size immigration,” she said, suggesting working on a rational system that first determines how many visas are needed “and then build a system that works.”?Tunis Sweetman, a dairy farmer from Warwick, warned Gillibrand, “We have an industry that will not survive without a complete overhaul” of pricing mechanisms related to milk production and distribution.

Sweetman said that some national groups that claim to represent all dairy farmers do not allow input from actual dairy farmers. Over the last 30 years that he has been in business, the farmers”™ share of the consumer dollar spent on milk shrank from 50 cents to about 22 cents. ?He said that farmers, contrary to protests by national organizations, would willingly explore the idea of supply management to keep prices at levels that are profitable for farmers. Sweetman said that rather than use an archaic pricing system, officials should “find out what consumers are paying and work their way backwards from there” in setting prices.

Gillibrand engaged in a policy discussion with Sweetman and summarized her position.  “We”™re going to think outside the box on dairy pricing. I don”™t think we should use the current framework.”

Allowing farmers to garner income from energy production was another issue raised both by Gillibrand and farmers, who could use wind power, solar arrays and biofuels to produce energy. “It is a huge economic engine waiting to be turned on,” she said.

Noting New York farmers”™ national leadership in land stewardship and conservation programs, there were calls for funding to ensure that federal mandates on land preservation did not break the bank of farmers. There were also calls to reimburse farmers, perhaps through tax breaks, for undertaking voluntary stewardship efforts.

This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

Previous Post

Competitive market

Next Post

Three county companies growing fast

Jim Gordon

Jim Gordon

Related Posts

CIC welcomes extra state money for road repairs
Combined

CIC welcomes extra state money for road repairs

May 15, 2025
State moving ahead to send out 8.2 million inflation refund checks
Combined

State moving ahead to send out 8.2 million inflation refund checks

May 14, 2025
$54M senior living facility opens in Rockland
Combined

$54M senior living facility opens in Rockland

May 14, 2025
Next Post

Three county companies growing fast

Building owner sees ‘flight to quality'

Campus nears completion

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our newsletter

Lifestyle

  • Exclusives
  • Good Things Happening
  • Food & Restaurants
  • Travel
  • Health & Fitness
  • Home & Design

World News

CNN WIRE — Justice Sotomayor plans to remain on Supreme Court: VIDEO
World News

CNN WIRE — Takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions

by CNN Wire
May 15, 2025
0

By John Fritze, Tierney Sneed and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Thursday seemed open to lifting...

U.S. and world news for May 15

U.S. and world news for May 15

May 15, 2025
CNN WIRE — Lawyers cleared AG Bondi memo on legality of Trump accepting 747 from Qatar

CNN WIRE — Lawyers cleared AG Bondi memo on legality of Trump accepting 747 from Qatar

May 14, 2025
U.S. and world news for May 14

U.S. and world news for May 14

May 14, 2025
Biden approves flood aid for Westchester

U.S. and world news for May 13

May 13, 2025
CNN WIRE — Harvard professors sue Trump

CNN WIRE — Behind the attacks on Harvard by the Trump Administration: VIDEO

May 12, 2025
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

CNN WIRE — Justice Sotomayor plans to remain on Supreme Court: VIDEO
World News

CNN WIRE — Takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions

by CNN Wire
May 15, 2025
0

By John Fritze, Tierney Sneed and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Thursday seemed...

CIC welcomes extra state money for road repairs

CIC welcomes extra state money for road repairs

May 15, 2025
Apartment building proposed for Vineyard Avenue in Yonkers

Apartment building proposed for Vineyard Avenue in Yonkers

May 15, 2025
Owners of flood-prone Rye house sue developer for $1M

Owners of flood-prone Rye house sue developer for $1M

May 15, 2025
U.S. and world news for May 15

U.S. and world news for May 15

May 15, 2025
Logo Westfair Business Journal

Latest News

CNN WIRE — Takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions

CIC welcomes extra state money for road repairs

Apartment building proposed for Vineyard Avenue in Yonkers

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Sign in

Trending Westchester

Subscribe to our newsletter

© 2024 Westfair Business Publications. All rights reserved. Westfair Communications (Westfair), a privately held publishing firm based in Mount Kisco, N.Y., publishes the Westchester County Business Journal in New York state and the Fairfield County Business Journal in Connecticut.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
    • WESTCHESTER
    • FAIRFIELD
  • E-EDITIONS
    • Business Journal
    • Podcasts
  • MEMBERS
  • BUSINESS LISTS
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Hudson Valley
    • Courts
    • Banking & Finance
    • Construction
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Food & Beverage
    • Government
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Nonprofits
    • Retail
    • Technology
    • Home & Design
    • Health & Fitness
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • SMALL BUSINESS
    • Small Business
    • Food & Restaurants
  • EVENTS
    • 2025 Real Estate
    • 2025 40 Under Forty
    • 2025 Women Innovators
    • 2025 C-Suite Awards
    • 2025 Doctors of Distinction
    • 2025 Hispanic Business Leaders
    • Events Calendar
    • Past Events
      • 2025
      • 2024
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
  • GOOD THINGS
  • VIDEOS
    • Our Starting Lineup
    • News Videos
  • PARTNERS
  • ADVERTISE
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • NEWSLETTERS
    • DIGITAL ACCESS

© 2024 Westfair Business Journal. All rights reserved.

Notifications

  • My Account
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
  • Sign Out