When it comes to what’s cool and happening in New York right now, you can forget clothes, hairstyles and celebrities, because local, farm-fresh foods are part of a trend that has a lot of people talking.
Agriculture is very trendy right now, and we’re happy about that, said Julie Suarez, director of relations at the New York Farm Bureau, a non-governmental, volunteer organization financed and controlled by families who are looking to address economic and public policy issues
in the agricultural industry.
Suarez and several other agriculture and environmental advocates, including several members from the state Department of Agriculture, attended the Farm Aid press event and tour at Indian Ladder Farms on Thursday, Sept. 6.
Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization that supports the maintenance and sustainability of farmland throughout the country, aims to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and the decline of agriculture. Started by recording artists John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Neil Young in 1985, the organization is known for putting on the country’s longest-running benefit concert, accumulating high-profile followers like Dave Mathews, who joined the board of directors in 2001 and performs at the concert.
Last Thursday, before making its way to New York City’s Randall’s Island for the 2007 Homegrown Festival concert on Sunday, Farm Aid’s Upstate-Downstate Food and Farm Caravan made a stop at Indian Ladder Farms as part of their state farm tour, which also included stops at farms in Ithaca, Rochester and the Hudson Valley area. The group picked up fresh food from Indian Ladder and the other farms along the way to feed the hundreds of artists and crew at this year’s festival.
Farm Aid campaign director Mark Smith said the caravan visited about 14 farms statewide, including poultry farms, hog farms and dairy and beef farms.
`We wanted to make sure those workers get to experience the wonders and pleasures of eating fresh foods,` he said.
Key speakers at the Indian Ladder Farms press event included New York State Agricultural Commissioner Patrick Hooker, City Harvest director of program development and policy Kate Mackenzi, and Indian Ladder Farms President Peter Ten Eyck.
The press event was followed by a tour of Indian Ladder Farms, where the commissioner got to pick the season’s most-anticipated apple, the Honey Crisp, and a lunch buffet featuring several dishes made with all locally grown ingredients donated from farms in the area.
Also at the event Hooker announced that, for the first time, towns and cities in the state will be able to apply for farmland protection planning grants.
Previously, only counties were eligible, but with the new legislation, interested municipalities that are located within a county that has an agricultural and farmland protection board can apply for grants up to $25,000, or 75 percent of the cost of developing a local protection plan.
According to a press release sent out by the state Department of Agriculture, the purpose of the grant program is to provide an economic incentive to municipalities to develop local agricultural and farmland protection plans that will maintain the economic viability of the state’s agricultural industry and its supporting land base, and to protect the environmental and landscape preservation values associated with agriculture.
`One of the most important duties granted by the legislature to a municipal government is the authority to undertake comprehensive
planning and to regulate land use, ` Hooker said. `Local government
can play a vital role in farmland protection by creating a supportive business environment for agriculture by ensuring that comprehensive plans and land-use regulations contain clear language and explicit policies that are supportive of the local agriculture industry.`
Hooker, who has been commissioner for six months, has kept strong ties with Indian Ladder Farms, supporting its mission to educate the public about the economic and nutritional benefits of purchasing organic, locally grown produce.
Ten Eyck, like many local food advocates, said he believes that Americans are relying too much on food products that are shipped from thousands of miles away before making it into grocery stores. `The agenda is now pretty much that Americans feed themselves by waving money in the air, and somebody comes from four corners of the world and gives them something to eat,` he said, referring to imported foods.
At the event, advocates said that during times of a national food crisis, such as the E. coli spinach scare of last year, people should have their own food sources to fall back on. A good way to keep local agriculture thriving is if more people shop at farmer’s markets and organic food stores and continue to grow their own food.
Hooker said the Municipal Farmland Protection planning grant program should be a big help when it comes to keeping local farms in business.
`What we see out there is communities wanting to do the right thing for agriculture, but they don’t have the staff of 50 people behind them. Our department is a resource for them when they make that decision,` he said.
For information on local farmers’ markets go to www.nyfarmersmarket.com. The Regional Farm and Food Bank Web site also lists area farms and more at www.farmandfood.org.
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