US (NY): Getting local food to more local people key agriculture issue in 2012

New York state farmers produce a lot of fresh food and this year, officials want more of it to end up on New Yorkers’ plates. Increasing the marketing of New York grown and produced foods throughout the state is one of the key issues for agriculture in 2012. Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his State of the State speech last week said he wants to expand the “FreshConnect” farmers’ market program to get New York grown food to more New York residents. Assemblyman William Magee, D-Nelson, chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said he hears often from people who want New York foods, but can’t find them.

Diane Eggert, executive director of the Farmers Market Federation of New York headquartered in Fayetteville, said key issues to look at this year are creating more farmers markets in certain areas, starting different types of markets and creating a larger distribution network for Upstate farmers to sell their products Downstate.
“The whole local food movement has really taken off,” she said. Another issue to be tackled involves funding for agriculture programs. Magee said this is a big issue and the New York Farm Bureau ranked it high on its list of items to be dealt with this year. Magee and Matt Nelligan, a spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau, both said agriculture programs such as maple producers, apple association, wine and grape foundation, New York FarmNet and others have had their funding slashed in the governor’s proposed budget. Often some funding is restored during legislature debates. Magee wants the programs fully funded because these organization help the economy.

“It’s critical that the ag funding be maintained,” Nelligan said. “It is $5.4 million out of a $134 billion budget — it’s not a huge piece, but a vital piece.” Nelligan said while funding in 2011 stayed the same as 2010, there was four times more money for agriculture programs just five years ago in 2007. Other issues mentioned by Magee, Nelligan and state Sen. Patricia Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, are:

Agriculture districts: Allow farms that have no changes in their agriculture district information to automatically renew their status each year instead of having to fill out forms each year to renew whether their information has changed or not.
Blue cards: Eliminating the requirement that farmers carry “blue cards” with them that note all the roads where they operate their farm equipment because it duplicates information already issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Mandate relief: Mandate relief for local municipalities and school districts will help farmers by keeping their taxes at a reasonable level and keeping locally run agriculture programs from being cut so municipalities stay within the 2 percent tax cap.
Pesticide use: Allow farmers and growers to use pesticides that have been approved by the federal government. Currently the state also wants to approve new pesticides. Ritchie said this takes too much time and money when instead, farmers could be using the newest and most effective pesticides already approved by federal officials.

Source: syracuse.com