Chris Pawelski didn”™t stand on the muddy plot outside his Pine Island home for long before his boots sank in.
“These two major nor”™easters that hit us back to back have really put us in a bind,” said Pawelski, who has been farming the Black Dirt region of Orange County with his family for decades.
Pawelski usually starts preparation of the fields with his father and brother by mid-March. They have been waiting for conditions to improve. “We hoped to at least get the ground leveled off by this time so my dad can start plowing,” said the farmer. “But this last storm knocked us for a loop. We may not be able to begin getting the fields back into shape for another two weeks. Right now, weather reports look good, but they”™re predicting more rain.”
Pawelski and his neighbors have seen the cost of fertilizer and seed stabilize in 2010, but diesel fuel is going up. “Sadly, we are still getting the same price for our crops as we did almost 30 years ago,” said Pawelski. “There are 30 farms left here in the Black Dirt region. My family has always been frugal, and we live simply. This is the first year I”™ve gotten money back from the Internal Revenue Service. Right now, we live below the federal poverty level and, yes, it hurts. We never expected to become millionaires, but we didn”™t expect to be applying for food stamps, either.”
Hovering over farmers”™ heads across the state is the Farm Workers Fair Practices Act. “We are one of the most heavily regulated industries in New York State,” said Pawelski. “We have the New York State Department of Labor, OSHA and Workers”™ Compensation Board. When will it end? This latest legislation, in my opinion, will help drive farming and laborers out of New York.”
Though city dwellers might find it hard to comprehend, the agricultural industry is still one the main funding streams for New York State, contributing $4.4 billion to the economy in 2009. But Pawelski and other farmers from Westchester to western New York State worry that passage of the Farm Workers Fair Practices Act will find laborers looking in other states to find the work they want.
New York State Senators Catherine Young, R-Chatagua, and Darrell Aubertine, D-Jefferson, conducted a public hearing on the proposed legislation in mid-March, eliciting comments from farm worker advocates and farmers themselves.
Jim Bitner, who owns a 500-acre fruit farm in Niagara County, told the panel he would be “devastated financially if the bill were to pass. We pay our farm workers well,” said Bitner, “averaging between $9-10 an hour. If I had to pay overtime, I would not be able to exceed paying them for a 40 hour week. Yet, most of them will come and ask for more hours. If I can”™t provide them because of the cost, all they need to is go across the way to another farm and work. It doesn”™t seem to make any sense, and it is not going to help our farmers keep a stable workforce.”
Pawelski could not attend the hearing, but agreed with Bitner”™s assessment. “We work side by side with our workers. Right now, we have four that live with us from May through November. What will I do if I can”™t pay overtime? I”™m in the same situation as every farmer in the state.”
Besides concern for the Farm Act pending before the Legislature, Pawelski and the Black Dirt farmers are working with the Orange County Legislator Tom Pahucki, a former Black Dirt onion farmer, to mitigate flooding problems along the Wallkill River, where the waters from the Black Dirt farmland eventually lead.
“Right now, it is getting ready to crest,” said Pawelski. “We had the Army Corps of Engineers out here in 2007 with U.S. Congressman John Hall, and they saw what needed to be done, but the state is hurting, and the Department of Environmental Conservation has been skittish in making a commitment to fix the problems we are facing there.”
Pahucki and Black Dirt farmers plan to sit down with the Orange County Legislature in mid-April to discuss improvements to the Wallkill River.
“If the DEC can”™t help us, we”™re hoping the Orange County Legislature will, either through FEMA or some other means,” said Pahucki, who represents the district. “I”™ve gone through every state channel, but I”™m getting nowhere. I think if Gov. Paterson can find $6 million in the new budget to fund a road to Louis Cappelli”™s so-called ”˜Entertainment City”™ up in Sullivan county ”“ which many are calling a road to nowhere ”“someone can make time to help our farmers. They are a prime source of income for New York state. They don”™t need a hand out, just a hand up.”
