Many farmers across the East End of Long Island are hoping their congressman will push for immigration reform in order to stabilize the local agricultural industry’s workforce and allow them to hire enough workers.
Tag: Long Island Farm Bureau
More than a dozen farmers, most from the East End, spoke at a Tuesday public hearing in Hauppauge in support of a proposed Suffolk County law that would sidestep a New York State Supreme Court ruling that deems development on protected farmland illegal.
The Riverhead Town Planning Board decided in a split vote Thursday to require an environmental study for the latest Calverton solar farm proposal.
Local growers and farmers say climate change is creating new challenges, with extreme weather conditions, sudden storms, rising temperatures and drought making it even more difficult to cope with a perennially unpredictable Mother Nature.
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul met with representatives from the Long Island Farm Bureau on Wednesday to discuss the challenges facing Long Island farmers such as the cost of maintaining a farm, a rising minimum wage and the lack of young farmers. READ
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed minimum wage increase would have a devastating effect on the agricultural community and possibly send consumers to neighboring states to purchase products, farmers and business owners said at a Monday press conference opposing the proposal ahead of the April 1 state budget deadline. READ
A proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to eventually increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour — a 66 percent increase from the current rate — has members of the agriculture industry on edge.
“That would put us at a huge disadvantage,” said Jeff Rottkamp, owner of Fox Hollow Farm on Sound Avenue. “A monstrous disadvantage.” READ
Jessica Anson, a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in natural resources, has joined the Long Island Farm Bureau as its new public policy director. (more…)
