What a difference a year makes, at least with the weather. So far a beautiful spring, the weather has allowed great growing conditions for all commodities. The different sectors, flowers, nursery, sod, vegetables, potatoes and fruit are all optimistic that the economy and consumers are back in a buying mode.
It has been unusually warm with strawberries and vegetables at least 10 days to 2 weeks ahead of schedule. It looks like sweet corn will be in early, maybe even before 4th of July which is the normal start-up date. I was by Andersons the other day and corn was already tasselin up.
There is also a lot of activity here at LIFB with issues, meetings, tours and general craziness. Last Friday LI Wine Council Ron Goerler and Steve Bate, Steve Searle (PLT) and I had an excellent meeting with Jerry Cosgrove, Deputy Commissioner of NY Ag & Mkts with officials from Southold, Southampton, Riverhead and Suffolk County. The meeting was hosted by Dawn Thomas, Riverhead Town Attorney to discuss a number of issues related to the LI Wine and agri-tourism activities at both wineries and farms. As the east end is a tourism related economy, the region has and continues to grow presenting challenges to local government and the industry. One thing is for sure, we have cautioned the government to not kill the goose that laid the golden egg, don’t over react by becoming “unreasonably restrictive” as to regulation. Some of the issues we are working on together are private and public events, parking and traffic concerns, neighbor complaints from noise to name just a few. Jerry Cosgrove weighed in from the state ag perspective and reminded us all that as long as we communicate and try to balance the issues, we are getting there together.
Two weeks from now the New York Farm Bureau Board of Directors will be meeting here in Riverhead for several days. We have set up a tour of the east end so they can see firsthand the diversity of LI agriculture. Later this year (December) the NYFB will be holding their annual meeting in Melville. So it is tradition for the board to visit the region where the meeting will be held. We are looking forward to their visit.
Next week I’m heading to Washington, DC to the American Farm Bureau’s National Affairs Conference. State Farm Bureaus staff from across the country get together to get updated on all the public policy issues affecting agriculture as it relates to the current Congress. We get briefings from various congressional leaders as well as agency staffers to inform us where things stand. Then we do “Hill visits” to our representatives on both the Senate and House sides.
Another activity LIFB is working on is setting up a farm tour for Senator Gillibrand and officials from USDA and FDA on food safety legislation and rulemaking. Bob Nolan is heading up the effort to make sure small farmers are not burdened by unreasonable regulations that could literally translate into putting farmers out of business. The best way for the regulators to really understand is to get them into the fields in real life to see how our farmers operate and the farming practices we do here. More to come on this subject later.
Anyhow time marches on, quickly, especially when everyone is so busy, farmers in the fields and us in the office addressing public policy.