Sustainable agriculture is so important to New York and the Hudson Valley that all state agencies must take steps to buy supplies from area farms, under an executive order issued by Gov. David Paterson as one of his last official decrees before leaving office. But, says one authority on the topic, it is only a start of what needs to be done.
“The protection of New York”™s agricultural lands is a fundamental principle enshrined in our state Constitution,” Paterson said in releasing Executive Order No. 39, establishing state policies for the promotion of sustainable local farms and the protection of agricultural lands. And the first week of October is officially decreed Agriculture Week.
Currently, there are 7 million acres devoted to agriculture throughout the state and there are 36,000 family farms that generate $4.4 billion in annual sales.
There is a clear-cut reason for the executive order. “Agriculture is a bedrock of New York”™s economy,” Paterson said. The order will “aid in the protection of agricultural lands for our state”™s long-term economic and environmental prosperity.”
“There are two benefits from this executive order, one kind of intangible and one a lot more tangible,” said Frederic C. Rich, chairman of Scenic Hudson and head of the New York State Environmental Leaders Group.
“The intangible aspect is that the order points out that the Constitution of the state has a requirement to support farming in New York,” Rich said. “It”™s very useful because it”™s binding on all the state agencies and departments. They are supposed to act accordingly. All things being equal, they will point to this executive order as why they must support local farming.”
“And of course the tangible thing is potentially very important; when a state agency is procuring food, they will buy from local farms,” Rich said. He cited state prisons and psychiatric hospitals, which, for example, are buying canned peaches during the local harvest, even though such canned goods are more expensive and less healthy than the fresh peaches. Under the executive order, he said, officials must take steps to correct that situation.
Rich said that the order needs to be coupled with resumption of programs to buy and protect farmland in the Hudson Valley particularly, as well as  statewide.  “This is a crucial priority for the next administration,” he said. “We are losing 18,000 acres of farmland to development every year in the Hudson Valley.”
Many elderly farmers are now seeking to cash out and retire, he said, but are loathe to sell their farms for housing. But programs to buy development rights, which would allow farmers to be rewarded for their stewardship while keeping the land as agricultural acreage, are not being funded and even farmers who have signed up in past years have not seen their agreed upon deals close.
Young farmers often can”™t afford to buy land in the Hudson Valley, unless it has been protected and thus is available at a much reduced price. Absent programs, Rich said, a prime Hudson Valley industry is at risk.
“The only thing that stands between the preservation and the loss of our farmland base is these programs.”
