Donna Williams, founder of Field Goods
I started the morning chatting with Adrian Ooms in the mechanic shop of his 2,000-acre dairy farm in Valatie, NY. We were discussing the massive and aged John Deere tractor resting next to us. Not much of a choice between fixing the thing or buying a new one for $500,000, “so long as you knew how to fix it.”
Donna Williams and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
The shop soon filled with a few dozen people. I took my place at a table with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand along with a couple of dairy farmers, a cattle farmer, a fruit farmer, head of the Young Farmers Coalition, and the Director of the Hudson Valley Agri-Development Corporation. We were called together to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what the future holds for agriculture in New York.
What struck me was that the Senator, who has been discussed as a 2020 presidential candidate, was sitting in a cold mechanic shop with just a couple dozen people. Sure there were a few journalists in the room, but the meeting was clearly about identifying problems about which the Senator could take direct action. This wasn’t a PR opportunity it was a get-things-done meeting.
What was discussed?
• Labor issues and immigration policy, particularly the H-2A Visa program
• Expanding USDA grants for Food Hubs
• Policies that help new farmers gain access to land
• Estate tax issues
• Trade
• Food Safety Modernization Act
• Education for the next generation of farmers in our SUNY and community colleges
The farmers agreed that they have tried repeatedly to hire local people for farm work with little success. “People just don’t want to do the work or don’t have the skills.”
There is a desperate need for comprehensive immigration reform. Regardless of which side of the political camp you are on, the hard fact is that 60% of US farm workers are illegal. The H-2A visa program, which is a temporary visa for foreign agriculture workers, is fraught with problems for farmers in the northeast.
Linda Fix from Fix Brothers Fruit Farm gave a heart-breaking example how the H-2A visa rules can be brutal. The program requires farmers to contract to hire migrant workers in the early winter for the coming harvest. Regardless of whether they have a crop, they have to employ the workers.
There are significant issues facing farmers but they can be overcome “so long as you knew how to fix it.” The Senator was listening to people that know how to fix agriculture in our region and she left with a plan.