Economy
Congressional candidate supports farm owner concerns with overtime pay expansion
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“The workers don’t like it. It’s not going to be good for the farmers and it could potentially close a lot of our farms.”
Economy
Zeldin, farm owners push back against state wage board proposal for 40-hour week for farmworkers
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“Our farmers, our farmworkers are all getting collectively screwed right now by one-party Democratic rule.”
agriculture
New York officials: Spotted Lanternfly in Broome, Tompkins counties
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The biggest concern is the pest’s potential economic impact on New York’s $300 million dollar wine and grape industry.
Food and Farms
New York farmers concerned about potential change in overtime rules
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Advocates for the change said farm workers should have the same overtime standard as other workers.
Food and Farms
Hochul announces $38 million awarded to conserve farmland across New York
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The grant will protect nearly 12,000 acres of land, and 40 farms across the state were awarded funding.
App NEWS
Farm Bureau asks Hochul for reversal of 40-hour workweek decision
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“To drop the threshold to 40 hours over the next decade will be extremely difficult for farmers and farmworkers alike to absorb.”
agriculture
Penn State researchers aim to debunk myths surrounding spotted lanternfly
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While lanternflies can stress trees, it appears they only kill grapevines and tree of heaven, also an invasive species, directly by feeding on them.
Food and Farms
Farmers say a 40 hour overtime threshold could end their businesses
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“When the threshold is at 60, many farms can make minor adjustments, pay a little overtime, get a few more workers, it works out.”
Food and Farms
Report Recommends Ways To Make New York Farming More Diverse
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Agriculture is one of biggest sectors of New York State’s economy. Yet people of color are largely left out of it.
Environment
New York State Moves To Halt The Migration Of Lanternflies
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Possessing a voracious appetite, the biggest concerns with the spotted lanternfly are their impacts on fruit trees, maples, and especially on vineyards.
Food and Farms
In The Age Of COVID-19, Farmers Markets Are All Business
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“A good farmers market is like a weekly fair or festival. People are wanting that back, but it won’t be the same.”
Cortland Groups Plan Drive-Thru Dairy Giveaway
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“The plan is for us to continue to get dairy into the county through the food pantries and other food programs as long as the donations keep flowing.”
Finger Lakes Cheesemaker Buys Excess Milk, Donates Dairy Products To Food Banks
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“That’s awful, awful, heart breaking when you watch your milk go down the drain when it’s a perfectly good, sellable product,”
Featured in Category
Farmers Have Too Much Food to Sell. New York Might Buy It
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The New York Farm Bureau has asked the state, in recent days, to ramp up testing for COVID-19 in rural areas of the state, particularly at farms.
agriculture
Warmer, Wetter Weather Will Bring More Chicken Farms To Pennsylvania, Report Says
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DEP’s Climate Change Impact Assessment report focuses on livestock and watershed
Food and Farms
Small Farms And Markets Rethink How To Get Local Food To Customers
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“One of the questions about markets is, will we be able to provide enough…safety measures for people to feel comfortable in those spaces?”
Economy
Study Shows New York Wineries Have A Major Economic Impact
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The study found the wine and grape industry in New York directly creates 71,950 jobs, generating $2.79 billion in wages and $6.65 billion in direct economic impact.
App NEWS
New York State Fair Expands To 18 Days This Summer
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There will be new features. Organizers envision sensory friendly days. They may program a health care worker or school employee day.
Food and Farms
Some PA Farmers Have Trouble Budgeting Money From New State Grant
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Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Secretary says several grant recipients were taken by surprise that they had to pay contracted workers prevailing wages.
Food and Farms
Butter Gritty (And Friends) Take The PA Farm Show
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“There were skeptics who didn’t think that Butter Gritty would ever come. But today is triumphant.”
Farm Groups Sue To Clarify Language In New York’s Revised Labor Law
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Farm workers would be entitled to overtime pay, a guaranteed rest day each week, disability and Paid Family Leave coverage, unemployment benefits and the right to collective bargaining.
agriculture
Seneca Nation Enters The Hemp Industry
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It’s going to be open for our people to apply and try their hand at it. Whether that means they’re putting it in the ground or they’re growing it indoors, we’ll definitely help facilitate that and we’ll see where it goes,”
Congress To Consider Bill That May Help New York Dairy Workers
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The new bill will allow visas for year-round workers and it provides a path to legal status for current farm workers already in the U.S.
Food and Farms
‘It’s Just Baffling: Apple Growers Face An Unknown Threat That’s Killing Trees
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“You have a beautiful crop on, especially August-September. And then, all of a sudden, you’d come back a week later, and it would be dead.”
PA Vineyards Facing An Insect Invasion May Turn To Aliens For Help
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A stowaway from China, the spotted lanternfly, is eating its way across Pennsylvania, killing trees and grapevines. Scientists are considering importing the bug’s natural enemies from back home.
App NEWS
Cornell’s Dairy Barn Offers A Look At The Modern Dairy Farm
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These cows don’t go out on pastures. That’s becoming more common, unless the farm is certified organic.
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.
agriculture
How To Make Farming More Stable? The PA Senate Has Seven Ideas.
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“One of the reasons why young people aren’t going into it (farming) is, they can’t make a dollar, can’t make a living.”
agriculture
Farmworkers’ Bill Of Rights Stands Good Chance Of Clearing New York Assembly
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“We haven’t really prioritized them as the workforce and the backbone of the agricultural industry that they are.”
Cornell Scientists Find Natural Fungi That Kill Invasive Spotted Lanternfly
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The spotted lanternfly eats away at the bark of trees. It’s a threat to some commercial crops that are big in New York like grapes and apples.
Farmworkers Can’t Get Overtime, Collectively Bargain. NYS Lawmakers Considers Changing Labor Law.
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Crispin Hernandez used to work on a North Country dairy farm. He and others workers tried to organize and were fired. Now he works for a workers’ rights group.
Farmers Concerned With Proposed Changes To New York Labor Law
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“Farm workers are excluded from labor laws that protect all other workers. So, do we want to level the playing field and ensure that those protections are in place?”
Landowners, Farmers Oppose Zoning Plan For Tompkins County Town
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A group of landowners and farmers are trying to stop some zoning changes designed to preserve open space in the Town of Ulysses. Some say agricultural needs haven’t been considered. The town disagrees.
Food and Farms
Hemp Looks Like A Bright Spot For PA’s Farm Advocates
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Pennsylvania’s farming industry is changing. And the challenges—from falling dairy prices to young people leaving the industry to climate change—were front and center at a recent Agriculture Department budget hearing before a state House committee.
New York State Senator Resigns For Cornell Position
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A New York State Senator from Olean is resigning her seat to take a job with Cornell University. State Senator Cathy Young has been a leading voice for Republicans and upstate communities.
Food and Farms
Pennsylvania ‘Fake Milk’ Concerns Get A (Minor) Spotlight In DC
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Pennsylvania’s dairy industry woes are finding their way to a national stage. Milk sales are down. And in Pennsylvania and other major dairy states, the situation is getting difficult for farmers.
Food and Farms
With Backlog Affecting New York Brewers, Schumer Urges Action
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A backlog on the federal level is hurting local brewers. Sen. Chuck Schumer brought that message to Rochester’s Genesee Brewery on Monday. Schumer said brewers are heavily regulated and must file applications with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in order to release new flavors, update labels or change the size of a bottle.
Food and Farms
Advocates Want More Protections For New York Farmworkers
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Workers rights advocates are planning rallies across the state for a bill that would give farmworkers access to labor protections they don’t have.
agriculture
PA Plans To Open Industrial Hemp Program To Commercial Growers
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Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Department is opening up its hemp program, pending approval from the federal government. The commonwealth has run a pilot program for industrial hemp over the past two years, but it was only open to entities growing the crop for research.
Food and Farms
Industrial Hemp Could Become Common Sight In PA Once Again
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Industrial hemp used to be grown across the commonwealth and used for things like clothing, rope, and animal feed. Its popularity started to decline with the rise of cotton about 150 years ago, but the industry really suffered a setback when Congress outlawed it in the 1930s because of its similarities to marijuana.
Food and Farms
Schumer Predicts Hemp Investments Could Bring Hundreds Of Jobs To The Southern Tier
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A Canadian cannabis company could be bringing hundreds of jobs to the Southern Tier. The company is Canopy Growth; that’s the business that locally-based Constellation Brands has taken a major stake in.
Food and Farms
At PA Farm Show (And Beyond), Women Cut Their Own Paths Into Agriculture
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Women are finding their own, nontraditional routes into the agriculture business.
Lupardo, Lifton Will Have Leadership Positions in New York State Assembly
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New leadership positions in the state assembly were announced late last year and a pair of Southern Tier legislators will take charge of important committees.
Food and Farms
Proposed Changes To Military Milk Deliveries Could Hurt New York’s Dairy Industry
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A new federal proposal would change the way New York’s military installations get milk, and could hurt local dairy farmers. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is trying to stop it.
agriculture
Farm Bill Includes Some Relief For Struggling New York Dairy Farms
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President Donald Trump this week is expected to sign the 2018 Farm Bill that passed Congress last week. The bill includes some relief for struggling dairy farmers.
Thanks To Science, You Can Eat A New York Grown Apple Every Day
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After harvest, New York apples can be stored for months in controlled atmosphere storage rooms where the temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and humidity levels are adjusted to put them into hibernation.
agriculture
‘Farming While Black’: Cultivating Food And Racial Justice In Upstate New York
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In her new book, “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land,” Leah Penniman describes her journey as a woman of color reclaiming space in the agricultural world while providing a comprehensive guide for others who want to follow her path.
Food and Farms
Research In PA Could Inform Future Hemp Production In Mid-Atlantic
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Rapho Township, PA (WITF) — Farmers and researchers in 23 counties have been studying industrial hemp in trial crops this year. The former cash crop could see a resurgence if a U.S. Senate version of the federal Farm Bill is passed later this year.
agricultural trade
Economist Says Cutting Trade Deals With China, Mexico More Important To Region’s Dairy Farmers
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“It’s way, way more important what we do with Mexico and China and what our general trade posture is,” he said. “Trade is important to us, but trade with Canada is not the biggest worrier.”
Food and Farms
New Seedless Concord Grape From Cornell Available This Fall
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GENEVA, N.Y. (AP) New York grape breeders have produced a fruit that’s so big and flavorful they’ve named it after Mount Everest.
All-Time Attendance Record Set At The New York State Fair For 3rd Straight Year
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SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – 2018 was another record-breaking year for the New York State Fair near Syracuse. 1,279,010 people visited the Fair this year, smashing last year’s record by 10 percent.
agriculture
NY Dairy Farmers To Ag Secretary: ‘We Go To Work Every Day Losing Money’
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SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) hosted U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in Cortland to hear the concerns of dairy farmers in the region. Dairy farmers told Perdue about the dire situation the industry is facing.
agriculture
Ahead Of Climate Change Projections, PA Farmers Adapt To New Weather Patterns
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STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Last month, Pennsylvania saw the most recorded rainfall in a July. For many farmers in the state, the intense precipitation is part of a pattern of weather changes to which they hope to adapt.
Food and Farms
To Help Dairy Farmers, Researchers Suggest Raising Calves For Beef
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HARRISBURG, PA (WITF) — This year has been tough for midstate dairy farmers. Deans Foods ended contracts with dozens of producers in March, while demand and prices for milk are at a low point. Now researchers are suggesting another way of generating income for dairy farmers.
Environment
A Missing Gene Could Make Marine Mammals More Vulnerable To Common Pesticides
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Organophosphates drain off farms and make their way to the ocean, where they could be harming sea creatures like whales, dolphins and manatees
Food and Farms
Just How Accurate Are Those Expiration Dates On The Milk Carton?
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – “Maybe the cows tip ‘em off when they’re milking them…” That’s how comedian Jerry Seinfeld explores the question of who determines the expiration dates on milk cartons in one of his better known routines.
Food and Farms
Dairy Crisis Taking A Toll On New York’s Rural Economy
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SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – The Trump Administration’s plans to provide direct support to dairy farms as part of a $12 billion package to offset the impacts of its trade policies is welcome news to many in New York, which is the third-highest milk producing state in the country.
Food and Farms
Trade, Not Aid, Say New York Farmers
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – Farmers in the Rochester-Finger Lakes region are nervous about President Trump’s so-called trade wars.
agriculture
Food Stamp Services At New York Farmers Markets Are Safe…For Now
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – A national farmers market association announced Thursday that it’s staving off the closure of the company that processes food stamp benefits at 40 percent of the farmers markets across the country, including hundreds in New York state.
Food and Farms
Food Stamp Benefits In Peril At New York’s Farmers Markets
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – The company behind the software that turns SNAP benefits into the tokens used at the Rochester Public Market has announced that it’s going out of business.
Why President Trump Hates Canadian Dairy — And Wants To Protect New York’s Milk Producers
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Trump is trying to protect dairy farmers in states like Wisconsin and New York, who have been hard-hit by low prices and overproduction.
How Highly Focused Sound Waves Steadied A Pennsylvania Farmer’s Trembling Hand
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PA tree farmer Alan Dambach’s tremor got so bad he couldn’t read his own signature. Then he tried a new procedure that uses sound waves to destroy specific brain cells.
Energy
Report: Attracting Solar Farms Vital To Bolstering Renewable Energy
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STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Clean energy advocates and environmental officials say bringing solar farms to Pennsylvania needs to happen if the state wants to significantly boost how much energy it gets from the sun.
agriculture
Retaliatory Mexico Tariff Could Leave New York, PA Apples Rotting On Trees
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On May 31, President Donald Trump announced that the 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs that had been temporarily exempt for the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect in June. Mexico answered with some counter-tariffs, including one on U.S. apples.
Food and Farms
New York Beekeepers Fear Sting Of Proposed State Regulations
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – Some local beekeepers are concerned about a bill making its way through the New York Legislature. It would require all beekeepers both commercial and hobbyist, to register with the state.
Food and Farms
In PA, Right-to-Farm Means Plaintiffs Are Often Out Of Luck
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SALEM TOWNSHIP, PA (WSKG) — For several years, a hog farm in Luzerne County has been under legal fire for emitting a stench that people say can make the surrounding area almost unlivable.
agriculture
Dairy Farmers Have Until Friday To Sign Up For Safety Net Program
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The USDA is offering an extension to dairy farmers who want to sign up for a special insurance program.
Economy
New York’s Dairy Industry Paying Price For Immigration Policies, Advocate Says
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – Current U.S. immigration policies pose an economic threat to New York’s struggling dairy industry, according to the director of a farmworker program at Cornell University.
agriculture
New York Senator Wants To Renegotiate Dairy Trade With Canada
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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – Senator Chuck Schumer visited a farm in Avon to call on US trade officials to fix trade between Canada and the US regarding dairy products during upcoming NAFTA negotiations.
Food and Farms
Senator Schumer Calls For End To Canadian Program That Hurts New York Dairy Farmers
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SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Monday that now is the time to get Canada to end a program hurting upstate’s dairy industry, as President Donald Trump’s administration renegotiates the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA.
agriculture
PA Farmer Files Federal Lawsuit Over Definition Of ‘Skim Milk’
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HARRISBURG, PA (WITF) — A dairy farmer looking to sell his products in Pennsylvania is suing the federal Food and Drug Administration over what he says is a free speech violation.
agriculture
Chinese Tariffs May Be Bad News For PA’s Pig Farmers
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HARRISBURG, PA (WVTF) — China is retaliating against tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration and Pennsylvania farmers could get caught in the crossfire.
Food and Farms
Harsh Words In Harrisburg Over PA Governor’s Farm Show Deal
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HARRISBURG, PA (WSKG) — Republican state lawmakers wrapped up three weeks of annual budget hearings by tearing into Governor Tom Wolf’s administration for several hours straight.
Food and Farms
New York’s Farm Bureau Prioritizes Fight Against Tick-Borne Diseases
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ROCHESTER (WXXI) – The New York Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural lobbying and trade organization has released its annual list of budget priorities.
Food and Farms
Trump Administration Rolls Out Farm Bill Vision In PA
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HARRISBURG (WSKG) — The US Agriculture Department is laying out its preferences for a new farm bill–a massive plan that accounts for almost a half-trillion dollars in spending over five years.
Food and Farms
Need For High-Speed Internet Tops Lawmakers’ Agriculture Agenda
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HARRISBURG (WSKG) — State lawmakers on the Agriculture Committee took advantage of the Farm Show’s presence in Harrisburg this week, and convened in a back room of the complex to discuss their top priorities with Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. One of their primary focuses didn’t have to do with farming, exactly; rather, with making sure rural communities aren’t held back by bad internet access. In cities and suburbs, high speed broadband internet is typically a given. But Representative Pam Snyder said in her rural district in Pennsylvania’s southwestern corner, it’s often a luxury — and that can profoundly affect the people living there. “I have all or part of eight school districts.
agriculture
Diversity-Themed Butter Sculpture Unveiled At The PA Farm Show
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HARRISBURG (WSKG) — The Pennsylvania Farm Show opens this weekend and after months of planning, its centerpiece has been revealed — a sculpture made from 1,200 pounds of butter. Like every year, dairy farmers, state officials, and dairy princess pageant winners stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the cavernous Farm Show complex in Harrisburg as it was unveiled. The 2018 version shows a farmer, milk processor, agronomist, consumer, and a cow, figures designed to represent the theme “Strength in Diversity.”
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said people often have a very specific image in mind when they think of Pennsylvania agriculture—say, a rural farm in the midstate. But he said this is meant to show that the industry’s impact is much bigger. “It’s the men and women, it’s the rural and urban, it’s the folks who have beehives on their rooftops in Philadelphia, as well as farms in Lancaster County,” Redding said.
News
New York Farm Worker Suit Examines The Meaning Of ‘Employee’
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There’s a lawsuit now in New York that could expand the rights of farm workers. Under state law, farm workers aren’t allowed to bargain collectively, but the state Constitution may say something different. The complaint The part of the New York State Constitution that matters is Article 1, Section 17. Here’s the relevant portion: Employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Aadhithi Padmanabhan of the New York Civil Liberties Union called the text crystal clear.
History
Going for a Ride | #tbt
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In today’s vintage throwback Thursday photograph, a farmer gives his daughter a ride in a wheelbarrow while a group of cows look on. The photo was taken in Chenango County probably around the late 19th or early 20th century and represents an interesting snapshot of farm life during this time period. Tune in for the premiere of “Harvest,” WSKG’s new original documentary chronicling the history of agriculture in our region, on November 19th at 8PM to learn more about family farm life.
Photograph courtesy of the Chenango County Historical Society.