Economy
Hemp Farmers Struggle With Rejection From Banks, Social Media Ads
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“It was really difficult because when you’re trying to run a business and you can’t have a bank account, it doesn’t really work.”
Finger Lakes Farms Offer A Variety Of Public Tours This Weekend
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Residents and visitors to the Finger Lakes have the opportunity this weekend to visit working farms.
Food and Farms
New York Governor Signs Farmworkers Rights Bill
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Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a farmworkers’ rights bill into law Wednesday that will for the first time give the workers benefits other employees get, including time off and overtime pay.
Economy
Researchers Rush To Answer Questions About Newly-Legal Hemp Crops
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HARRISBURG, PA (WITF) – Alyssa Collins said she has been fielding around five phone calls every day from people with questions about hemp–and that’s not even counting the emails. Collins directs Penn State’s Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Lancaster County, where researchers are part of a multi-state, USDA-supported study into different varieties of hemp that can be used for food and fiber. Pennsylvania approved more than 300 permits to farm industrial hemp this growing season, after Congress loosened restrictions on the crop last year. Hemp was long banned because of its relationship to marijuana, but it does not have enough of the psychoactive compound THC to produce a high. So now, researchers like Collins are trying to clear up uncertainties about the crop.
agriculture
New York Legislature And Governor Agree To New Protections For Farm Workers
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Assemblyman Stephen Hawley, a Republican from Western New York, comes from a long line of farmers. He predicts the new requirements will be too onerous and that farms will close.
Food and Farms
PA Congressmen Bring Their Milk Crusade To State Capitol
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“If you look at the decline in milk consumption in our schools over the past nine years as a result of that misguided legislation, it actually tracks with the financial decline within the dairy industry.”
Food and Farms
Workers Center Of Central New York Wins Lawsuit Allowing Farm Workers To Organize
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“To all the workers – this is a tool for you that you can use this to have a voice, to improve your working conditions, to fight against wage theft, bad housing, discrimination in the workplace. This is something you can use to change that.”
agriculture
Upstate Hosts Ag Secretary; Pushed For Immigration, North American Trade Deals
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“China (has) used the American consumer and producer for many years by creating barriers to letting our products in their country, while they want to overwhelm us with their products.”
agriculture
If You Spot A Swarm, Here’s What You Can Do To Help Honeybees
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“If a beekeeper is able to take a honeybee swarm, they can care for them and manage them if they need it, instead of having these colonies kind of inhabit people’s homes.”
agriculture
Farmers Find Little Help In Trump’s New Immigration Plan
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The New York Farm Bureau said farmers need more workers and it wants the President to consider an expansion of a visa program.