Harvesting Opportunities in New York, November 20, Albany The second annual Harvesting Opportunities in New York: Growing Local Food Economies and Protecting Farmland conference will be held on November 20 in Albany. The business of growing and selling food is a major contributor to New York’s economy. Farms annually sell billions of dollars in products [...]
New Bill Introduced to Help Beginning Farmers Find Land Finding new ways to help farmers, particularly beginning farmers, find a farm at an affordable price was a priority issue at American Farmland Trust’s No Farms No Food Rally. Assemblyman Bill Magee, Chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and Senator Patty Ritchie, Chair of the Senate [...]
Seven working farms in the Hudson Valley are now protected from development thanks to combined support from the federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, Scenic Hudson, Dutchess County, the Town of Red Hook, the Columbia Land Conservancy and the Dutchess Land Conservancy. 1,265 acres of farmland have been protected with conservation easements at a cost [...]
Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the 2013-14 State Budget yesterday at the University at Buffalo. The budget passed both houses of the New York State Legislature on March 29. The budget provides $13 million, an increase of $1 million, for the state’s Farmland Protection Program, which funds the purchase of agricultural conservation easements on farmland and [...]
The No Farms No Food Rally took place during heated budget negotiations between Governor Cuomo and the Legislature. Sixteen lobby teams met with over seventy state legislators. “We were joined by young farmers, mature farmers, land trusts and conservation organizations, hunger relief and public health advocates and local food groups to tell our elected officials [...]
